FATCA Implentation Unimpeded by Republicans!

According to Reuters, A senior United States Treasury Department official said on January 22, 2014 that Republican Party opposition to a new law meant to fight offshore tax dodging by Americans will not impede the Obama administration’s efforts to implement it worldwide.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) on January 24, 2014 called for the repeal of a U.S. anti-tax-evasion law (FATCA), siding with BIG BANKS, libertarians and American expatriates that have criticized the Obama administration statute.

At its winter meeting in Washington, the RNC approved by voice vote a resolution in favor of abolishing the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), set to take effect in July, marking the party’s first explicit attack on the law.

FATCA will require most foreign banks and investment funds to report to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service information about U.S. customers’ accounts worth $50,000 or more. The law was enacted after a scandal involving Americans hiding assets in Swiss bank accounts to dodge U.S. taxes.

Critics have blasted the law as an unfair government overreach and invasion of financial privacy.

“The Republican National Committee … urges the U.S. Congress to repeal FATCA,” said the measure, staking out a campaign position ahead of 2014’s mid-term elections.

A senior Treasury Department official said the vote would not hurt the administration’s efforts to implement FATCA via a web of tax information-sharing agreements with other countries.

A Republican vote for abolishing FATCA, is not be “a big deal,” Treasury Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Mark Mazur told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

Tax watchdog groups that support FATCA slammed the Republican vote. “It is mind-boggling that a major political party would even consider endorsing a resolution to facilitate tax evasion,” said Heather Lowe, director of government affairs at anti-graft watchdog group Global Financial Integrity.

Repeal is unlikely and the issue was not expected to resonate with average U.S. voters, said lobbyists on both ends of the political spectrum. But they said Republican opposition to the law could help the party raise campaign funds.

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Tony Beecher

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8 comments on “FATCA Implentation Unimpeded by Republicans!

  • Maybe or maybe not…. but… the rush for the exits by Americans Abroad accelerates with over 3000 in 2013 throwing out that passport officially. Good work Obama and merry group of FATCAnatics busily creating a GATCAenstein monster. Tell me exactly how this is good for America again, as I keep forgetting?

    We are creating a Financial DATA collection program on steroids running in parrallel with our NSA spying. Total Global Information Awareness is almost complete in this CONTROL OF ALL the mission.

  • Although the spirit of this tax law does attempt to stop tax evasion,this FATCAt law will in effect also raise banking fees imposed in foreign banks (due to the increased cost of compliance brought on by FATCA).

    • @Serge…
      Yes, like many laws with good intentions, collateral damage occurs, and with the fATCAnatics creating a regulatory monster of 544 pages plus and then all the IGAs, it is bound to happen that friendly fire takes its toll on Americans Abroad….and of course, number of renouncers of U.S. citizenship now soaring to over 3000 a year. Hope Obama is proud of this legacy, and he has to take sole responsibility since he launched it back in 2009 with a BIG announcement in the White House with Geithner, the tax cheat, doing the introductions.

      Google youtube Obama Goes After Overseas Tax Cheats in case you need a reminder

  • bancdelasteroideb612

    Our bank will pass all of those costs onto the local customers. Our customer base is quite small, so it will indeed be significant.

    But we have been quite happy for our customers to be the revenue source to help make the compliance industry more profitable.

    FATCA will raise $870 million for USA by enforcing the taxing up of local retirement benefits, unemployment benefits, and parental leave which are all untaxed locally. Those US persons at our bank will also be paying the new Obamacare taxes, which are left uncovered in all of the dual non-taxation treaties.

    Happy to implement it here at Banc Centrale de l’asteroid B612!

  • Qbancdelasteroideb612

    I have decided to quit fighting FATCA, and join the FCC, or the FATCA Compliance Complex. The money to be made in compliance Consulting is just too great to be passed up. I just completed my 10,000 hours of knowledge training, so am qualified to put FCC behind my name.

    My first client will be my local NZ bank, where I will advise them on how to follow your check list. You have to hold their hands don’t you know, and you can charge extra for that. Thanks for making it easier for me.

  • FATCA is a bullying tactic, where the great USA is imposing it’s will on the rest of the planet without regard for it’s repercussion to other countries or it’s citizens.
    Everyone outside the US will pay more for banking, no question about that. Banks are not about absorbing extra costs, they will pass these down to their customers.
    Citizens in other countries will have their privacy right violated by this process (yes, I am referring to dual citizens, they have just as much of a right to privacy as other people on this planet).

Comments are closed.