Our new friend, 30-year IRS veteran, Steven Mopsick, has been a really good sport. He’s defended the orcs of Mordor, his former colleagues at the IRS fearlessly, and he’s taken our abuse like a trooper. He’s asked me if I wanted to put up his new post on FATCA, and I said to myself, why the heck not? Meanwhile, go have a look at his blog, especially this little piece, called FATCA Red Herring, which starts with this whopper, “For all the groaning about FATCA, there is one ‘red herring’ which should be given the lie right away, and that is the silly notion that FATCA is an attempt to force the application of U.S. law on foreign financial institutions.” Well, if nearly 400 pages of orcish regulation isn’t an attempt to force U.S. law on FFIs then I don’t know –but wait, these regs still hadn’t come out when Steven wrote that post–so you’re off the hook, Steve–I am being unfair.
Again, caveat emptor! The Isaac Brock Society maintains a non-endorsement policy of tax-professionals (see here). Also, please read not just the post, but the full comment stream.
New Rules For Foreign (Non-American) Banks with American Clients
by 30-year IRS veteran