CF&P is not backing down in the fight against FATCA. With so many insiders and special interests counseling for institutions and nations to just roll over and accept a raw deal, it would be easy to think the fight was already lost. But it’s no fait accompli that nations will give into US bullying, especially if others stand up to join the fight. That’s why I’m calling on everyone to do just that in an op-ed in today’s Forbes:
CF&P President Andrew Quinlan dissects FATCA in Forbes
The FATCA law is emblematic of Washington’s inability to face budget reality. Rather than do the hard work of getting America’s fiscal house in order, politicians convince themselves that if they can only catch a few more tax cheats, then they won’t have to reduce or even slow runaway spending…
…Today the Treasury Department is negotiating with more than 50 countries in an effort to implement FATCA. It’s entirely understandable that FFIs are encouraging their home governments to shoulder the burden of negotiating with Treasury. After all, the law in many cases arrogantly requires them to violate domestic human rights laws regarding privacy, placing FFIs between a legal rock and a fiscal hard place. But governments are doing themselves and their financial industries a disservice by contemplating entering into FATCA agreements with the U.S. Backlash against the law is growing, and Treasury is in a race against time to lock it into place before a repeal effort can gain steam.
…The worse thing industry can do is meekly accept FATCA’s dictates as so many consultants and compliance industry experts are advising. They are interested in feathering their nests, as one compliance company’s representative revealed when stating that, “Everyone’s trying to make money on FATCA.” FFI’s and their governments should ignore self-serving advice and instead resist this arrogant U.S. foray into fiscal imperialism by demanding respect for their sovereign rights. U.S. lawmakers in turn should immediately repeal FATCA and replace it with a pro-growth agenda to simplify the tax code and lower rates. In so doing they can achieve the original FATCA goals of increasing both tax compliance and revenues, but in this way will do so by growing the economy instead of smothering it.
Please read the entire piece here, and join us in the fight against a costly, job-killing law built on Washington fantasies.
