Exclusive: Foreigners' accounts in U.S. banks eyed in tax crackdown

This was forced on the Swiss by the USA, so i think returning the favor is only natural.. until we show that morals, not money, guide us we will never have credability

This was forced on the Swiss by the USA, so i think returning the favor is only natural.. until we show that morals, not money, guide us we will never have credability

The IRS need not look at foreigner’s accounts when they can find plenty to look at with US taxpayers. I work with several “migrant” tech workers who openly brag about how they are screwing the IRS by filing fraudulent returns that abuse per diem writeoffs. They want the benefits of migrant workers without migrating. Of course, every dollar they don’t pay people like me do. Let’s go IRS; there is plenty of low-lying fruit right under your nose.

Excellent article. This is the first good news for working class Americans in a long time.

Evasion by the wealthy criminal class is happening not only in foreign bank accounts, but in foreign real estate, especially American real estate, on a very large scale.

There is great inequality of wealth in most of the world. There, outside America, the wealth is usually obtained by connections to corrupt goverment, often family connections.

Thus the richest man in the world is not American, but rather Mexican. Thus the wealthiest people are found in the most corrupt countries. Thus the highest number of billionaires occur in Russia. Those Russians who grabbed the public wealth through corruption as communism fell.

And the middle east oil countries have vast family networks of corruption, and some of the wealthiest in the world.

All those wealthy people have been buying up American real estate, through anonymous shell companies, as quickly as they can.

They are now landlords to many, many Americans.

In the United States wealthy Americans easily hide the trail of their black, ill-gotten money by using anonymous shell companies, managed by the most well known law firms on Wall Street or Main Street. Legal? Well, everybody does it.

The entire organized wealthy class, criminal and not criminal, hide their large-scale continuing operations with anonymous shell companies, usually LLCs (limited liability companies), or corporations. It’s amazingly easy.

The stakes are not millions of dollars, but rather trillions of dollars.

And it’s not just corrupt foreign families. It’s also large criminal organizations from Russia, China, Sicily, the Philippines, Brazil, Venezuela — you name it.

American law firms of even the largest size cater to anybody and everybody that has money, so you can be sure that any law requiring transparency of these anonymous companies will be fought tooth and nail by law firms. This is black money in America. The scale is huge. It is pervasive.

And, of course, it must be remembered that most members of congress are lawyers, and they can and do accept contributions from people acting through shell companies.

Excellent article. American real estate is truly the best investment for wealthy foreigners who want to hide their hot cash.

In the tax roll of every American city the evidence can be found. It is happening in all regions of America.

And hypocrisy would be unusual for the US?

FATCA, the TAX story of the Century, has been a stealth story in the US media since it’s inception in the 2010 Hire Act. It is still little understood or reported on, and IMO, even for all the good intentions, it is the “Worst Law every enacted that most Americans know nothing about.”

The final 544 pages of regulations that the US is cramming down the throat of Foreign Financial Institutions was bound to blow back on the homeland shores eventually. It has reverberated around the world, and is causing much collateral damage, and many many unintended consequences, and this fallout is now, 3 years later, coming home to roost.

The Government to Government agreements, called IGAs are the vehicle for this reciprocity rebound onto America’s financial shores.

The FATCA cost, which Congress cared not one whit about when they passed it (if they even knew the voted for it) is now going to be loaded onto the US financial system and all business. It is WAY more than just banks. It is EVERY financial institution, mutual funds, brokerages, insurances agencies, pension funds, etc.!

Those that comment here and think this is a good idea, should think again. I would guess they have NO IDEA of how extensive and onerous the Treasury rules are. Maybe you should read the 544 pages posted on the Federal register, or the model IGA agreements before you celebrate these rules. Remember these are being piled on top of FRANK DODD, TRACE, Basil III, etc.

At some point, it becomes regulatory over load, and let me state it again, this is inspite of good intentions. Bureaucratic regulations squeeze out the small to middle firms that can not afford the compliance cost any longer, and contributes to increasing the power and size of the Too Big to Fail Banks which with their implied government guarantees we seem to like to bail out. It is anti competitive, and for those reasons alone, you should oppose it, unless you liked the last financial melt down!

The consequences of this movement towards a global system of tax data exchanges (GATCA) for the world’s economy are significant, so stay tuned and follow this story. It is definitely Bigger and more significant than the 100 year celebration of the 16th Amendment and Income tax.

In fact, IMHO, nothing this BIG has been tried in the history of mankind, and is becoming part of the global system of surveillance we see everywhere with technological advances. Welcome to the FACEBOOK Banking world of total asset and financial transaction transparency. This is BIG DATA and BIG GOVERNMENT on steroids. That is the mission, and if you think that is a good idea, than I understand you celebrating it.