FATCA not about money laundering

Canada and the UK do not require certification from non-US citizens (whereas here in TT Scotiabank is requiring it).

Russia is cooperating, with conditionalities, while pressing the US to abandon its doctrine of extra-territoriality and complaining that there is no full reciprocity. Bangladeshi banks may report FATCA items but only with the consent of clients. China will not cooperate, on the grounds of banking confidentiality as that is commonly understood.

FATCA on its face is the enforcement of the US tax regime and it allows the sharing of information for that purpose. It does not mandate that the information must be used to any other purpose, for example in the fight against money laundering.

In other words, TT could end up finding out that we must use our own existing tax laws as they are at present, as we are already empowered to do, to get after drug money — without help from the US authorities; and “go it alone” to get that job done. Is that obvious already? More deeply, FATCA is a US financial information- gathering tool that would work to the advantage of the US.

Treasury planning will give the US Treasury a clear picture of liquidity pools available within the foreign banking system. It could then target investment attractions for those funds in order to help the US dollar during its terrible decline. These attractions could involve opportunity costs to foreign banks as well as the risks of even bankruptcy through derivatives and other financial packages (as happened to the state of California and the city of Detroit). So, there can be discriminatory treatments with or without FATCA; and there can develop a politicisation of banks with collusions.

Finally, the US tax system taxes US citizens as well as “US persons for tax purposes.”Any non-US business with a US director on the board or a US signatory on a financial account, or any joint or beneficial account with a US citizen, for example, could potentially get taxed by the US with the burden of proof on the taxpayer after the tax is levied.

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