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NZ Govt May Gut Privacy Laws For US Citizens and Ex-Pats
Master Moose writes with an excerpt from stuff.co.nz indicating that New Zealand's government "wants to override privacy laws to supply the U.S. Government with private details about Americans living in New Zealand. As part of a global tax-dodging crackdown, the U.S. is forcing banks and other financial institutions to hand over the private financial details of U.S. 'persons' and companies based overseas. From July this year, Kiwi banks and insurers will be required to provide U.S. tax authorities with American customers' contact details, bank account numbers and transaction history. The move comes amid continuing criticism of New Zealand's participation in Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement talks, aimed at securing a wider-reaching free trade deal with the U.S. and other countries. Critics say the secretive talks could restrict New Zealand's ability to make its own laws on everything from the environment to employment."
they should know http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nz%20privacy%20laws&sm=12
And I make shitty third world wage, do I still get all the benefits of being part of U.S. Tax system... like food stamps, earned income credits and the like? Anything less sounds like a fuckin` scam. (OK OK I understands some feel it is all a scam)
Captcha: Idealism....
On 23 May 2012, United States Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced S. 3225, proposed legislation that would require the Office of the United States Trade Representative to disclose its TPP documents to all members of Congress.[77] Wyden said the bill clarifies the intent of the 2002 legislation which was supposed to increase Congressional access to information about USTR activity, but which, according to Wyden, is being incorrectly interpreted by the USTR as justification to excessively limit such access.[78] Wyden asserted:
“ The majority of Congress is being kept in the dark as to the substance of the TPP negotiations, while representatives of U.S. corporations—like Halliburton, Chevron, PHRMA, Comcast, and the Motion Picture Association of America—are being consulted and made privy to details of the agreement. [...] More than two months after receiving the proper security credentials, my staff is still barred from viewing the details of the proposals that USTR is advancing. We hear that the process by which TPP is being negotiated has been a model of transparency. I disagree with that statement.[78]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Back when the Roman Empire was THE power, you could cross the Danube into "barbarian lands" or exercise other options for getting away from punishing taxes and oppressive laws of the late Empire. In the American-dominated world, you are rapidly running out of those kinds of options.
There's no tax dodger like a USA tax dodger.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/1...
Old news.
..don't panic
"From July this year, Kiwi banks and insurers will be required to provide U.S. tax authorities with American customers' contact details, bank account numbers and transaction history. "
Bullshit. The US can pass as many laws it wants, and no matter how much it whines and cries about it, Banks in New Zealand cannot be compelled to comply, because US Law is not the Supreme Law of the Universe. It only applies within the borders of the United States.
Any attempt to impose laws on another sovereign nation is an overt Act of War.
As an American that has traveled and lived abroad, I can state with some authority that it is often quite nice to be an American when traveling. (This was pre-2K, so there are, ahem, some differences now.) When living abroad I paid my local and home country taxes. It wasn't that difficult. It was very nice, to be honest. As an American, you get a big fat deductible for your tax returns. And the local taxes weren't that bad either.
That said, the intrusiveness and 'do as I say, not as I do' attitude of the US of A is pretty disgusting. The New Zealand government should tell the US to shear sheep, or whatever is Kiwi for 'go fuck yourself'.
They do it with nukes. Use that as a precedent. Seriously.
One of the reasons companies move overseas is to avoid US taxes on anything they don't bring back to the US, why should actual citizens be any different?
I decide to move to NZ in my retirement. After a lifetime of working sitting on the porch and watching life go by isn't for me so I start or buy a local business. I hire local employees and pay all the required taxes in NZ for the income made there. I pay US taxes on my retirement income derived from US accounts. Why if I'm not sending money back to the US for deposit (which would have to be reported) does the US need to know anything about income derived from the NZ business?
New Zealand is playing the role of US puppy, as proved the Kim Dotcom house raid, breaking their own laws in the process as anyway the priority was coming from outside.
You won't fix US attitude from outside, and if you really want to run, don't do it to one of its own colonies.
Once all "Western" nations are bound together under the same all-encompassing treaties that override local law, guess what you'll end up with?
The New World Order, aka one world government. And votes will have no effect on these treaties, as such there will no longer be citizens only the Masters.
It is a scam I have never had food stamps and they should cut cut it all let them have cake...!
Progressives in the US want to "tax the rich" and don't want to let them get off the hook by moving abroad. This kind of worldwide tracking and enforcement is the inevitable consequence.
European nations just let their wealthy move abroad and don't tax them when they're living outside the country. They also don't count them in inequality statistics, which is one reason why European Gini indexes are so low. Maybe a good dose of this kind of European-style progressivism would do the US some good?
I am an American living and working overseas for over half my life. My ties to the U.S. are almost none-existent. My use of U.S. goods and services is possibly even less than many foreigners around the World. Occasionally I might buy a U.S. made product, but that is even rare given the poor quality.
Here are the real effects, and this is just a short list I have time to type.
1. Assumption that all Americans overseas are criminals by definition, even if we did not owe any taxes. The IRS, by their own calculations, says the basic forms will take over 72 hours a year for an American Expat to prepare to properly report their taxes. Most expat tax experts, can not figure them out.
2. Foreign banks are closing or will refuse to open accounts for Americans. I know dozens of real cases already among friends. It is not just American citizens. It is anyone with a U.S. mail address, green card, or any payments transiting the United States to foreign banks. So, yes, many, many none Americans are caught up in this sweep of private information, the majority of which has nothing to do with tax money.
3. The country I live in also has banking secrecy and privacy laws, and as a full resident, it even goes further because in the country where I live it is a constitutional right extended to both residents and foreigners.
4. It also includes any company where an American might be a 10% owner or more, or might have signature authority over the company accounts or other assets. Just think what most international companies are going to do when making a choice between an American employee or CEO vs. a foreigner, as far as disclosing private company information to the U.S. government simply because they have an American working there.
5. It includes disclosing foreign none-citizen none-resident private information to the U.S. government that are family members of an American citizen abroad. For example, a wife or kids account, investments, or pretty much anywhere the American might (you have to prove the negative) have authority over the money . Partnerships of all forms, of all sorts of complexity, are also subject to it. Imagine as a foreigner entering in to a contract with an American citizen, and having to report to the U.S. IRS your private information and dealings. Guess what most foreigners will do from now on to avoid such problems.
6. This includes not only bank accounts, but investments, pensions, insurance policies, various types of contracts. I am not even sure how many insurance policies I have, let alone what would need to be reported. If you are a foreign insurance company, just think how happy they will be to issue a policy to an American client living overseas.
In short, I am forced to obtain citizenship in my country of residency, and give up my citizenship in the United States. It is either that, or say good-bye to my entire life work and return to the United States to starve at some bullshit minimum wage job (I own my own company outside the United States).
Forget the Berlin Wall, what they are building in the United States is far, far more dangerous.
Let the bears pay the bear tax. I pay the Homer tax!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
This is affecting Canada as well, and according to one article, this may affect Canadian citizens as well even if they have never been US residents or citizens.
Could you imagine the uproar if (say) Iran threatened to trawl through US bank records for details on Iranian Americans? Totally disgusting. And yet the US can get away with it.
The critical issue here is that we don't know exactly what "US Person" means. Canada is in the throes of the same issue, with the US demanding access to banking records for any US Persons, and the scope of this is troubling.
US Persons includes US citizens, of course. But it includes folks who might be entitled to citizenship through birth or parentage, whether or not they are actual citizens. It would include anyone who has ever resided in the US. And the definition can be manipulated to mean whatever the US decides it to mean, down the road. It could eventually mean anyone who has visited the US or anyone who has a dollar-denominated bank account or basically anyone who they are interested in.
There is no burden of proof on the IRS to show that they are entitled to specific records. They can ask for anyone's records and claim "US Person" interest. Do you suppose they will not simply vacuum up everything?
And if there is any avenue for information to come to the US government, you know that the NSA will have it. And the DEA and all the rest.
... To simply ban US citizens to travel or live there? Send any US citizen living in NZ home, unless they give up their citizenship? Put a sign reading "No Dogs or Americans allowed"? After all, the US is the guuhhhreaaaaatest nushon on earth! Why should anyone want to leave its borders?
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
Tax dodgers?
Wealthy enough to emigrate to New Zealand?
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I'm okay with this!
Have a mortgage aboard for you foreign home? That's currency speculation. If the exchange rate drops, that's taxed by the US at capital gains rates. Exchange rate rises? No, you can't deduct that from your taxes.
Go home you say? We'll if you've worked a day in America for each of the last 8 calendar years, that's a 30% exit tax please (on everything, including capital gains on foreign property). Any money in a 401k? Then pay the early withdrawal penalty as well (even if you are not withdrawing)
This may have already been said - but I get the impression that people think this means that you're going to be taxed twice as an expat now.
Many countries already have double tax agreements so this doesn't happen, the US recognizes the tax you pay in a foreign country which offsets what you would've owed when you file in the USA. Lots of countries (NZ) have much higher income tax than that of the USA, so you end up paying no tax in the USA at all.
For example. You work and live in NZ. You earn $100k NZ (about $80k USD) per annum. In NZ you're going to pay 20-25% tax on that. You now file your taxes in America, the tax paid in NZ more than accounts for any tax you would have paid in America. You owe the IRS nothing.
This FATCA (as I understand it) is more about people holding money offshore and not declaring it, as opposed to trying to tax non-residents twice.
Make sure you google "Heart Taxation Act" first before you consider giving up your USA citizenship..... lol the fact that this law was written by Charlie "tax cheating" Rangel and this never gets mentions still continues to crack me up.
Seriously.
From what I skimmed over the article, they are trying to spin it as something other than it really is.
They aren't trying to tax people over there who live there, they are trying to get access to people who live in the US but have their money stashed overseas to avoid paying taxes on what they earned locally.
A while back they had a data leak given to a reporter that turned up between 18 to 32 TRILLION dollars in tax evasion, literally double the national debt stored offshore in tax havens to avoid paying taxes owed or launder money. THIS is what they are going after, not some mom and pop living overseas but something closer to the Walton's, General Electric, or Apple having a few billion stored in a safe haven to avoid taxes.
As much as I hate to say it, I honestly hope this goes through. I know it opens the possibility for abuse, the it closes far more abuses that are literally happening as we speak that are bleeding this nation drier than our leaders spending sprees by some of the most powerful people in it.
Then you move to round ups, guessing living in another country will not save you.