White House candidates must explain to voters their intentions regarding FATCA
03
Jun
As I have today been quoted in the media as saying, I’m of the belief that presidential candidates must justify their stance on the highly contentious Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) ahead of the 2016 election – and much more must be done to eradicate this toxic law.
As I have often stressed, FATCA negatively affects millions of hardworking American expatriates worldwide, as well as U.S. businesses operating globally, and is most certainly a blue print for worse to come.
As such, presidential candidates in support of this law must come clean to America as to why they are in favour; and at the same time, those who oppose FATCA need to stress to voters why it is fundamentally flawed and what action they will take to see it banished to the history books.
In short, in my view the subject of FATCA must play a vital role ahead of next year’s election in the U.S.
And here’s why.
It is claimed that FATCA’s primary goal is to catch tax evaders. Most noble I’m sure anyone would agree. However the misguided, off-target, dragnet approach of FATCA means this is in no way being achieved.
But what it does do is provoke a whole host of unintended consequences.
For instance, as a direct result of FATCA, the 7.6 million Americans abroad, Green Card holders and so-called ‘accidental Americans’ are being rejected from foreign financial institutions in their chosen country of residence due to the expensive and arduous regulations associated with this tax law. American expatriates are now seen as more trouble than they are worth.
No wonder that 73 per cent of Americans living overseas are considering relinquishing their U.S. passports, according to a survey we carried out at deVere Group in early 2015.
Added to this is the treatment of U.S. companies operating in global markets, and in the U.S. itself, with businesses being rebuffed as a result of FATCA. This will inevitably be harmful to America’s competitiveness on an international scale, thereby affecting jobs and economic growth in the long-term.
To my mind, questions must also be asked as to the imperialist features of FATCA. When all said and done, governments and foreign financial institutions have been pressed into conforming to the costly, burdensome, privacy-invading regulations by the U.S., or be slapped with hefty penalties, and in effect, frozen out of U.S. markets.
Consequently, candidates running for presidency in 2016 must, crucially reveal their perspective on FATCA, because, as I mentioned earlier, FATCA is most definitely a blue print for worse to come in the future.
And by that I mean the introduction of GATCA, the Global Account Tax Compliance Act. FATCA’s far more sinister big brother. It would be FATCA on steroids.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the defacto global tax authority, is putting forward proposals for all accounts opened by foreign nationals to be regularly reported to the individual’s homeland tax authority. Some 65 countries could ultimately become involved.
GATCA, violating the Fourth Amendment for Americans, would inevitably lead to higher tax burdens for everyone, pose a risk to human rights and seriously threaten data protection, not to mention stamp all over sovereignty rights.
For this reason it is absolutely paramount that in order to stop the destructive overreach of GATCA, we must first see FATCA repealed.
Therefore presidential candidates owe it to Americans to strongly and decisively outline their position on this vital issue ahead of the 2016 vote.