I’ve never heard of Adam Bilzerian or The Bilzerian Report, but this guy understands FATCA: The Death of the American Economy.
Mr. Bilzerian predicts
On January 1, 2013, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will go into effect, thereby causing the greatest exodus of capital from the American economy in history.
He gives numbers from Washington Post to support his position:
Richard Rahn of the Washington Post writes that FATCA will risk causing the exodus of up to $14 trillion dollars of capital from the American market and could cost well over 10,000,000 jobs.
Mr. Bilzerian also understands problems faced by countries such as Canada where #FATCA violates laws:
This puts the banks in these jurisdictions in the precarious position of deciding whether to abandon the US jurisdiction altogether or break the law in their home country.
So, Mr. Bilzerian asks what is the benefit:
Surely the benefits of this legislation must be significant to warrant such tremendous risk, right? The answer of course is no, because as with most things coming out of Washington these days, logic and rationality have no bearing on the decision-making process. So while the government officials responsible for FATCA estimate that the legislation will bring in about $800 million in additional revenue per year, almost all relevant experts estimate that FATCA stands to cost American taxpayers billions. The implementation alone will require hundreds, if not thousands, of new IRS agents, with the administrative capacity to match. Then there is the private sector, which will have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars re-organizing their entire operations just to comply with the legislation.
Finally, Mr. Bilzerian concludes:
With lunacy like this becoming commonplace in Washington, is it any wonder why wealthy Americans are renouncing their citizenships in record-breaking numbers?
He doesn’t mention it is not only wealthy Americans. It is middle class Americans just trying to live a normal life outside of US.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bilzerian does not seem to write for the mainstream media and no one in Washington is interested in listening.
Thanks for finding this one, Blaze. Mr. Bilzerian’s bio is interesting…
Biography of Adam Bilzerian
Adam Bilzerian puts out the flames burning up the US Constitution
Adam Bilzerian graduated Magna Cum Laude from Vanderbilt University in 2006 and went on to receive an MBA from Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney, Australia. Bilzerian has worked as a professional poker player, private investor, consultant, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and writer.
Adam Bilzerian’s second book: America: Land of the Free?
In 2007, Adam became one of only a few hundred Americans to renounce their US citizenship that year. As an American expat, Bilzerian has lived on 3 different continents, in 7 countries, and in dozens of cities. This experience has afforded Adam a unique global perspective at an early age.
In 2010, Bilzerian published his first book America: Love it or Leave it–So I Left, an updated second edition will soon be available online. In 2011, Adam wrote the book America: Land of the Free?, which carefully outlines the dismantling of Americas’ Constitution and Bill of Rights by the federal government and Supreme Court.
Here is another look at the financial cost of FATCA from a different angle:
“FATCA is expected to bring in $8-$10bn in revenues for the IRS over the next ten years. However the estimated global implementation cost of FATCA is $500bn and annual running costs will be of the order of $10bn. Therefore in 10 years, $10bn of tax revenue will be collected by the US at an implementation cost of $600bn. Most of the implementation and running costs – $600bn – will be borne by non US financial institutions, while all the $10bn revenues will flow directly to the US tax authorities.”
http://www.investmentweek.co.uk/investment-week/news/2215771/tax-havens-jersey-guernsey-and-isle-of-man-sign-up-to-fatca
Profit at the expense of the global community?
@Calgary Fascinating person. America Love It or Leave It hearkens back to Vietnam era. That is just what many of us did. Four decades later, they are trying to reclaim us, but calling us “traitors” and “tax cheats” at the same time.
@Swisspinoy: Yes, global pain for US gain. What else is new from United States of Arrogance? Except, the arrogance is merged with the “lunacy” Mr. Bilzerian writes about. Dangerous combination.
South China Morning Post: “Tax bills prompt Chinese to ditch US passports”
From the article:
“For many wealthy mainland Chinese who immigrated to the US, an American passport is a genie that cannot be put back in the bottle. More and more of them are thinking about renouncing their US citizenship, something that would have been almost unimaginable a decade ago, when getting a US passport was the ultimate status symbol in China.”
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1060557/tax-bills-prompt-chinese-ditch-us-passports
Thanks Abused Expat. I think you may be new to Maple Sandbox. Welcome. I hope you’re not letting yourself be abused too badly by IRS bullies.
As an aside my friend Patrick noticed that the fact the Ontario legislature has gone into prorogation means no changes to Ontario law to help CDN banks comply with FATCA can be made anytime soon. Now what gets interesting is as if rumored Harper pulls ANOTHER prorogation what does that means for the legislative calendar in Ottawa. Will Harper try to trim sitting days or keep his proragation within Parliaments winter recess(I happen to think Harper won’t able resist not trying to trim some days out of the parliamentary session which again means less time to change CDN law to comply with FATCA). One upside unrelated to FATCA if Harper prorogues Bill C38 which I don’t happen to particularily like dies.
On the subject of the McGuinty prorogation. I feel really wierd about it. I view FATCA as such an infringment of CDN soveriegnty that some days I don’t think anything else in Canadian politics matters. As Canadians we need to fight FATCA first and everything else can be dealt with afterwards. Maybe this is the “wrong” view to have but it is just how I feel right now.
@Tim: Don’t the banks fall under federal jurisdiction–i.e. federal Bank Act, federal Human Rights Code and federal privacy law? So, how would prorogation in Ontario have any affect (as despicable as it is!) on the banks.
However, don’t the credit unions fall under provincial jurisdiction?
There are rumours Harper is planning to prorogue again? What is going on? These prorogues are an absolute hijacking of democracy. Who even knew the word a few years ago? Now, it’s seems to be becoming the norm, even when it’s called something else. http://bit.ly/SZB5VT
Why worry about FATCA or sovereignty when government can just shut down whenever they feel like it?
Along these lines until I got distracted with this prorogation business I found a map that using StatsCan data show where the greatest number of dual citizens reside. Overall BC, Yukon, and New Brunswick have some of the highest concentration. In particular some of the people who have spoken out on FATCA such as Denise Savoie, Jean Crowder, and John Williamson have very high numbers in their ridings. My guess taking my personal view that many people don’t even self indentify as US citizens or dual citizens at 25 to 30 percent of John Williamson’s constituents(plus spouses/family members) in New Brunswick South are effected(in certain communities such as Campobello or even St Stephen my guess it could be 50%+). Who wants to be the branch manager for TD Bank in St Stephen NB? The other NB MP of note who has a big issue is Bernard Valcourt(who is additionally a cabinet minister) up in Northwest New Brunswick around Edmundston. His numbers might even be higher than Williamson’s. I will also note that Valcourt’s riding is heavily Francophone.
BC is a similar story except just about everyone has a relatively high number of USP’s although Denise Savoie, Jean Crowder, and Elizabeth May are exceptionally high. Williamson has been a key person in blocking Vic Toews E-snooping bill C38 within the Conservative Party and according to John Ivision bill C38 will be killed quietly through prorogation in the new year(This is how I got distracted about prorogation). Ontario unfortionately does not have the same concentrations although Windsor and Niagara Falls have more USP’s than I expected(both are seperated by water from the US of course).
I would also pay attention to another seemingly off topic matter of what just happened with someone named Gary McKinnon was a young man with Asperger’s syndrome wanted for extradition to the United States. The UK Home secretary yesterday refused over heavy objection of the US governmnet to approve his extradition. One of the key behind the scenes things was the local Conservative MP who represents with Mr. McKinnon lives threatened to resign if the extradition went ahead and force a byelection to be called(which polls indicated the current Conservative government would lose). Perhaps a similar pledge could be obtained from MP’s Williamson and Valcourt regarding FATCA.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218786/Gary-McKinnon-Theresa-May-courageously-decides-Aspergers-sufferer-NOT-extradited.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2012/oct/16/gary-mckinnon-extradition-decision-live
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9612729/Gary-McKinnon-Weve-won-for-the-little-person-mother-says.html
Just wanted to be sure that the readers of Maple Sandbox saw and are aware of this opportunity to comment on an upcoming story on American Public Media’s program Marketplace, “The Cost of moving to Canada”. I put it up at Issac Brock this morning, and will not be near the computer or radio this afternoon when the story is supposed to run.
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/10/17/news-alert-for-canadians-up-coming-program-on-costs-of-moving-to-canada/
Will try to catch it later tonight on the internet, and hope to see lots of comments from Canadians, or anyone else who could care to comment. I trust I heard the promo right early this morning, or I will be embarrassed.
Found an interesting little story. If it’s already been posted, my apologies…
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ba35e280-186f-11e2-80af-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2A2q7bwG“B
…. states that China and Japan sovereign and investment funds continue to be the biggest holder of US Treasuries.
Currently, these funds have not signed up to be participating foreign financial institutions under FATCA and may well be precluded under local law from doing so. ”
“If this were a game of chess, this would be checkmate, and the US will have to make FATCA less intrusive.”