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I have a google alert for FATCA. FATCA stands for the Foreign Account Taxation and Compliance Act. It is something that the US is forcing in order to collect taxes on its citizens no matter where they live. And yes, we are, essentially, the only country that does this. For example, Tennis Player Tommy Hass is German, but lived in the United States to train. He paid US taxes not German taxes. Novak Djokocvic is from Serbia, but "lives" in Monaco - since Monaco doesn't have income tax. He pays no Monaco OR Serbian taxes.
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The US has decided that too many people were hiding income overseas and taxes weren't being paid, so we make people pay taxes where-ever their money is earned. This has lead to a lot of compliance issues with other countries and complicated laws (and more than a few consulting dollars for me). It has also lead to more people renouncing their citizen than ever and some foreign banks not giving accounts to Americans - but again. This are relatively minor things.
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Many people hate it. Some people come unhinged. Look at this article / web site below:
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Wow! What a headline. "FATC goes full-retard as Mr. Obama extorts The Vatican." That Obama is a douche, right? Well, actually the law was passed by (you guess it) Congress and signed by George W. Bush. That Obama had noting to do with it. Classic example of Obama Derangement Syndrome.
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You get the picture.
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But I do want to call out that headline as the perfect anti-Obama headline.
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"FATCA goes full-retard.." That is perfect. It grabs your attention. If people are offended, they will be offended by the "full-retard" comment and he doesn't have to address the (lies that are the) substance of the headline and article. And by casting "FATCA" as a current problem, it puts the blame on the current government. Well done.
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"...Mr. Obama ..." Not "President Obama". This reinforces that a man in doing this out of spite, not the fact that our government is working as proscribed. It is an IRS thing and President Obama has nothing to do with implementation unless it breaks.
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"...Obama extorts The Vatican." This plays on the narrative that President Obama doesn't like religion and there is a War on Christians. Great line. It is untrue. The Vatican operates as a governmental entity and the FATCA agreement is between governments. In fact, our IRS (not Mr. Obama) is treating the Holy See as a government per their request.
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All in all, Goebbels couldn't have written a better headline for this.
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How would it be written if you didn't HATE Obama? Like this:
