In response to those articles touting FATCA as "Tax Justice", the incomparable Lynne Swanson of Maple Sandbox and I wrote an op-ed that has just been published in The Hill's Congress Blog.
Tormented Americans Abroad Need Tax Justice Too
If you have been following the fight against FATCA and CBT at the Isaac Brock Society, on Facebook or here at the Flophouse, the arguments in our article will not be new to you. But we need to keep making them in as many places as we can - especially in Washington, D.C. - so that our side of the matter is heard loud and clear.
Please add your thoughts by commenting on the article. And please pass the link along to other Americans abroad who might be interested in reading and commenting as well.
We may live abroad but we are just as much the "American People" as any homelander. 7 million strong, we are larger than many US states. Time to assert and use what is rightfully ours: a voice.
5 comments:
Excellent timing!
Sen Enzi's legislative assistant for tax informed me that there were a LOT of CBT/FATCA/FBAR submissions.
Multiple media messages at a time of letter writing campaigns is a way to get traction.
Mark
A very succinct and well-written article.
Really good work.
This law is torturing average Americans who work oversea.
This law also created a lot of problem for American who wants to start business or partner with business people outside USA.
There are so many potential small business opportunities in Asia, but this law is like a dead weight drowning ideas and enthusiasm.
This law also created problem for people with small business ties or family inheritance. Who can afford to hire accountants and lawyers to file taxes every year ?
Victoria, I commend you on your willingness to fight City Hall on this one but I must respectfully tell you that is the wrong strategy. There is only one strategy to someone who is abusing you and that is to check out, just say no, and remove yourself to safety.
The very richest "Americans," that is legal persons with many hundreds of millions in assets do exactly that: I'm talking about US corporations which deliberately organize their international operations in the form of dozens of foreign subsidiaries so that the money which they earn abroad is protected abroad.
Trillions of dollars earned by the foreign subsidiaries of US corporations are kept safely outside the US. The way to join those US corporations and also enjoy a safe, sane life outside the US is to renounce your US citizenship.
Don't enable the jerks in US government by pretending you can talk sense to them or that they will care about Americans abroad. They don't care at all. Leave them to their own misery.
@Mark, Let's hope that they read and ACT this time around. Seems to me that we already sent them quite a few comments and the like last year.
@Nezumi-san, Thank you. It is always a pleasure to work with Lynne. We have ideas for others and isn't it something that two ladies, one in Canada an done in Japan can work together?
@Repeal FATCA, Still trying to get a good picture of the impact on US persons in Japan and the rest of Asia. If you have any insights I'd love to hear them.
@anonymous, Oh I'm not doing this for City Hall, I'm doing it for me. :-) I resolved to do as much as I could to fight this thing until I am satisfied that I have done what I can. Then if I must relinquish, it will be with the knowledge that I did as much as I could. Think of it as the "I will not go quietly" strategy. :-)
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