Comments on: NY Times notices that FATCA is “vexing” and “major headache”

By: RC

RC — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 11:13:15 +0000

This law has created a lot of problem for American or PR who want to invest and partner with foreign companies. The additional paper works and tax regulations just made everyone think twice about any investments. In the short term, the only people happy are tax lawyers/accountants and software companies. In the long term, this law will cut off American from many new deals and projects in Asia and Europe. This law should be changed if we want America to be strong and robust. This law makes American like a bean counter and a big brother spying on its own citizens

By: rxc

rxc — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 13:06:40 +0000

It is a very “european-style” law, because it is all about wealth, and tracking it as it moves to avoid taxation. The French have similar laws because they don’t want people to park their money in places where the govt can’t see it and tax it. The Greeks haven’t figured out how to do it, or maybe thousands of years of experience with government has taught their people how to avoid it, which is why so much of their wealth is parked outside Greece, and the Greek tax system works so poorly.

In any case, all of these laws are a pain for ex-pats (of any nationality), because of the paperwork and the reluctance of local banks to take on non-local customers. In the case of the US, the forms are also incomprehensible, probably because they were written by lawyers who wrote in the language of the statute, without bothering to explain their terms.

By: MattS

MattS — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:22:53 +0000

Don,

You assume without evidence that that wasn’t the point of the law in the first place.

By: Don

Don — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:26:32 +0000

The Yanks will only realise that FATCA is a bad law only once investment money starts to dry up.

By: SwissTechie

SwissTechie — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 10:54:18 +0000

Is is never too late to reverse bad law, and the sooner that such law is revoked, the less damage it may cause in the future. In my view, the problems of FATCA are just beginning to surface.