Warning! USA invading Canada and other countries. be aware if you are an US person living abroad.

[RAFREE]

139. Green card holder

I see your point as most countries do not tax on citizenship. However, I think the major issues with FATCA are not about "taxes" To talk about taxes confuses the issues people are having as most of them would owe no tax. I do think it would be easier to catch those hiding money if the U.S. had residency based taxation since the people living in the U.S. but, off shoring and hiding money secretly could be focused on in a more concentrated manner.

Yes, the U.S. taxes on citizenship rather than residency. What's at issue with FATCA is rather than saying "We're going after criminal tax cheats" they have passed this law which penalizes a lot of people who would owe no tax and who are not "tax cheats" Those parts of this law such as FBAR penalties on zero taxes owed are a major problem here. Especially for those with no U.S. connection or very tenuous such as border babies, the elderly who haven't been in the U.S. for decades, children of one U.S. parent who never considered nor availed themselves of U.S. citizenship, foreign spouses who never have lived nor worked in the U.S. etc..

There are better ways to address this issue. I should have known better than to think a law would be passed to punish the uber rich who are actually hiding or stealing tax monies while not harming the lowly and average U.S. persons living in high tax nations. What was I thinking? Those people have a lot of pull and the minnows do not. So everyone will be told this is about getting taxes when really it's penalties on a lot of accidental Americans who never knew they were supposed to file paperwork showing they didn't owe a dime in taxes. Those people shouldn't be subjected to high penalties.


Some of the people I'm talking to here are having a hellish time and everyone of them is well over fifty. Not one was rich...as I said the unintended consequences need to be addressed asap.

I was at a protest recently outside a big bankers meeting. They kept coming out and one banker said to me "We didn't want this either, we know a some innocent people are being hurt by it." My reply to him was "Yes, but an IGA protects YOU from being sued over it as it's against Canadian law and throws everyone other than YOU bankers under the bus. You pushed for the IGA for that reason." He just looked very sheepishly at me, then looked at the ground and couldn't even answer me. He just walked away.

Once again another law that protects the banks *and they're breaking Canadian law doing this* and sells out everyone else. This cannot be what FATCA was intended to do!

My hope is that it will go back to the drawing board after next year when the commission is going. Unfortunately, with the clock ticking many are losing their citizenship or being penalized when they shouldn't be. You know when you submit something in university you are supposed to have done your research from every angle possible. Congress did not do that with this law. How could they? They didn't have any data to do so. In the future they will have a better idea. In the meantime...as I said, this is a big mess.

As a green card holder if you ever move permanently back to Britain you will be subjected to this too and your foreign wife, child or anyone else you have a local bank account with. Be sure to keep up with the ever changing requirements or you could face large penalties on paperwork *not taxes* such as FBAR. Many green card holders here are just letting them expire and not renewing.