I (mostly)
avoid speaking or writing much of anything political in my blogs – saving it
rather for Facebook. However, as the French would say, “It lies heavy on my
heart” today. Yes, after over 40 years my main language of communication is
French and sometimes I have to look for an equivalent English word or phrase.
Anyway,
anyone not willing to read about FACTA or what is happening to Americans who
live overseas – for whatever reason (marriage; born in the USA to foreign
parents who returned to their home; those sent by their companies; those who
simply ended up living there) – don’t bother to continue.
I received
the following document today requesting my signature.
Take a good
look at it.
Now think
about it – would you sign a document for your bank giving away any and all
rights to protection under the law of the country in which you live? Realize, please, that Americans living in the
USA are not required to sign anything of the sort, nor are they even liable to
file the amounts they hold in their bank accounts: they simply file interest if
it is above $10.00 (which leads to another set of problems for me as mine never
have that much so I don’t get a bank statement and here I am required to
stipulate all income earned, regardless of amount as well as the balance at the
end of the year – again something no American bank will supply).
Simply
don’t sign it, you say: if one doesn’t, one receives a polite letter telling
one to let them know where to transfer your account as your relationship with
XXX bank has been terminated.
This is
what FACTA (The Wikepedia explanation is simple enough to understand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance_Act)
has accomplished.
We now live
not only in fear of forgetting something minor on our tax declarations to the
IRS, (I do pay an IRS authorized agent approx. $3’000/year to do my tax
declaration) but also that we will no longer be able to function in the country
in which we live, at least financially: I have yet to see the person in today’s
world who manages without a mortgage, a credit card or bank account at all – oh
yes, some of the third world countries.
Why should
I be penalized simply because I was taught to work hard, save hard, lay
something by for my retirement years? I can no longer make any provisions for
my latter years, I can no longer make investments improving my financial
situation, all these simply because I am stupid enough to have maintained my
USA citizenship?
Never mind
that my children, should I die suddenly, will lose a great deal of what their
father, a German citizen, earned and invested in Switzerland – the country
where he spent his entire adult life and where he passed away. Had I preceded
him in death, they would have inherited the entire amount without deductions –
only the USA holds its citizens hostage to taxes regardless of where they live
and work.
Information:
Democrats abroad did a survey: https://www.democratsabroad.org/sites/default/files/Executive%2520Summary%2520-%2520Democrats%2520Abroad%25202014%2520FATCA%2520Research%2520Report_1.pdf
Another
blogger has written extensively on the problems encountered and steps being
taken in some countries to repeal or counteract. http://thefranco-americanflophouse.blogspot.ch/2014/06/transnational-politics-fighting-on.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/mjljN+%2528The+Franco-American+Flophouse%2529
The ACA
(American Citizen Abroad) has been very active in bringing the problems that
overseas Americans are having due to FACTA to legislators and committees in the USA
as well as presenting and pleading for a
Residence based tax (RBT).
Many
articles are to be found on their “News and Events” page http://americansabroad.org/news-and-events/media-articles/
The more of
us make known our ongoing problems due to FACTA, the more strength we gain to
make our voices heard.
Tomorrow I will go back to being my usual amiable self - today I am enraged by the injustice of it all.
And I ask you again, would you sign this document?
