10 thoughts on “Breaking News: RNC Passes Repeal FATCA Resolution/DNC Criticizes”

1. In case there are any other US-politics dummies like me, RNC stands for republican national committee. I just looked it up.

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2. Thanks for explaining that Outraged. In my haste to get it posted, I neglected to say what FATCA is.
   James Jatras has a post about why Republicans Are Right To Support Repeal of FATCA.
   However, twitter continues in large number to to slam the Republicans for this. Expect more venom on this over the next few days.

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3. I forgive my mother for voting Republican. My previous criticism was unjustified. If I was still a US citizen, then I’d vote Republican too.

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4. @SwissPinoy: I’m sure your mother would be very proud and is probably gloating at your apology.
   The New American has an article Republican Party Votes to Repeal Punitive Tax Law which supports the Republican efforts.
   They have an interesting take on why Reuters is so intent on FATCA becoming law:

   “Thomson Reuters offer a full service solution for FATCA compliance that can be tailored to fit any size of organization, wherever it is located and whatever the compliance challenges are,” the firm says on its website. The conflict of interest was not disclosed to readers in accordance with standard journalism ethics.

   The Centre for Freedom and Prosperity Applauds Resolution Calling for FATCA Repeal.

   CF&P President Andrew Quinlan commented, “The costs of FATCA’s misguided fiscal imperialism are mounting. It is past time for elected officials to wake up to the unmitigated disaster that they have unleashed upon the world.” He concluded, “There is legislation right now in the Senate, S. 887 introduced by Sen. Rand Paul, to repeal FATCA and restore basic privacy rights. With today’s resolution the people have spoken and said it’s time to get behind repeal.”

   We need to recognize these are both right-leaning publications. We need to be prepared for backlash from the mainstream and left leaning media.

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5. In a short article by William Douglas, McClathchy DC reports RNC approves FATCA repeal resolution.
   The article briefly includes some of the problems of FATCA. I believe Mr. Douglas is the reporter who interviewed Ruth Freeborn.
   French News On Line picked up Victoria’s excellent assessment of the polarization of US politics and republished it as FATCA Making Americans Non-Americans.
   
   But. here comes the venom: GOP Aims to Expand Base With Key Wealthy Tax Cheats
   
   It’s billed as satire, but the anger directed towards anyone who dares to live, work, earn an income and pay taxes outside the US is very real.

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6. Wall Street Journal has presented both sides in Republican Party Backs FATCA Repeal Resolution
   
   This article says:

   In its resolution, the RNC slammed FATCA as “overzealous,” saying the law “forces Americans living abroad to make a horribly unfair choice” between renouncing their citizenship and abandoning overseas business.

   But, we`re still labelled as tax cheats:

   Watchdog groups slammed the vote. “Long before FATCA, Americans who worked abroad and had assets abroad had to pay U.S. taxes. Prior to FATCA, it was a crime to evade those taxes,” said Heather Lowe, director of government affairs at the nonprofit Global Financial Integrity. “FATCA makes it easier to crack down on those tax evaders,”

   No mention of the fact that many of us have no connection to the US and have been citizens of other countries for years, decades or entire lives.

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7. grrrrrrrrrr! I am not a tax cheat. I am not a tax cheat I am not a tax cheat. I am not a tax cheat. I am not a tax cheat. I am not a tax cheat.
   I am Canadian. I pay taxes to my Canadian government.

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8. @Outraged: Here is a real Grrrrrrrr for you. Listen to this rant about rich, tax evading Americans Abroad and how the Republicans are helping them.
   If that’s not enough to make your blood boil, here’s more from AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. They claim Rand Paul and the Republicans “love tax evasion and offshore tax havens.”
   
   Yep, Canada sure is a huge tax haven. So is France, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, UK and all those other “socialist” countries with far higher tax rates than the US.

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9. CPI Financial applauds Republican common sense FATCA fightback.
   The move by Republicans to champion the repeal of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has been hailed as “a step in the direction of common sense” by Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of financial advisory firm the deVere Group.

   “I hope that this heralds the start of the critical review that FATCA should have already been subject to, which has not taken place to date; plus the start of a national and international conversation on this immensely important issue – again something, that has to date not yet taken place.
   “The Republicans’ bold stance is part of a groundswell of anti-FATCA feeling in Washington and beyond and, to my mind, it represents real progress in the fightback against a law that has a host of serious unintended adverse consequences.
   “FATCA is hugely expensive to implement – costs that will surely be passed on to the public – and highly ineffective. It will do little, if anything at all, to tackle the serious challenge of offshore tax evasion as it does not actively target tax cheats. Instead it relies upon a ‘dragnet approach’ to haul in the personal financial information of millions of ordinary Americans – the vast majority of whom are not suspected of owing taxes – on the off chance they happen across some illegally hidden assets.
   “All Americans should be concerned about FATCA because it will reduce foreign investment in the U.S. thereby threatening American jobs, fuel the likelihood of tax hikes, increase consumer costs for dealings with banks and other financial institutions, potentially damage important international trade relations, and it will – and already is – turning American citizens who live and/or work outside the US, and American firms operating globally, into financial pariahs.”

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10. The Washington Times has come out slamming FATCA.
    In Obama Wants to Tax the World, Richard Rahn writes Congress is:

    in the process of further destroying what was at one time a very functional global financial system…
    The legislation has greatly angered foreign companies and friendly foreign governments such as Canada, because it demands that they report to the Internal Revenue Service, despite being sovereign entities.

    Mr. Rahn also writes about the RNC resolution:

    Last week, the Republican National Committee adopted a resolution calling for repeal of the law. Predictably, the Democrats and their big-government allies immediately claimed repeal would facilitate tax evasion — even though they are unable to design an implementation scheme that would work. This is another example of mindless left-wing ideology over rationality.

    You know what? I don’t care if anyone is right wing, left wing or a turkey wing. I just want them to leave us alone to live our ordinary tax-paying lives in our countries of choice.

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