U.S. FATCA tax law catches unsuspecting Canadians in its crosshairs

I think if my bank asks me if I'm an American citizen, I'll freak out.

Most of the American expats I knew just had to declare their income, and I think it was somewhere between 50K and 75K of their out of country annual income that was tax free. Mind you, these were Murikun passport carriers who were born and raised in Murika

I can understand the US wanting to maintain it's tax base, and US Citizenship has a price. If they didn't want to remain Citizens, there are options.

But when the US government is costing me money to have my bank spy on me, it's starting to get a bit too much. If I answer the question, which seems innocuous, I enable their bullshit. If I don't answer the question, the government has said they will forward my information to the IRS and let them deal with it.

I'm not a US citizen, it's none of their business what I do in my own country, and I resent them for even asking about my affairs. I resent them even more for slurping all my data to find out I don't apply to their criteria - but keeping my data anyhow! Because, you know they will!

don`t you feel safe with Big Brother? No fly lists were only the tip of the problem...welcome to the new Police State of NA

Don't even get me started about the Broadway version of Security Theatre as seen in airports everywhere.

Might be a good time to switch to your local credit union? They probably won't get wrapped up in this like the big five or six banks will.

I'm going to do a major revamp of my finances in the spring, including my (US based) mutual fund manager that managed to money in this economy last year.

This is just another reason to do that.

TLDR

Glad I don't have any ties to the States. Still, this law has people renoucing their citizenship in record numbers;



http://world.time.com/2013/01/31/mister ... izenships/

Talking about that... I flew from Las Vegas to Spokane a while ago, and forgot to put my toothpaste in my luggage. It was in my carry on. As were a couple of phone chargers.
They wanted to open my bag. Okay, whatever. They didn't care about the chargers (that showed up as wires on the x-ray thingy.) They cared about the toothpaste because it was 5 ml bigger than was 'allowed'. I told them they could have it. They didn't take it. They apparently felt like they needed to show their 'authority' or something.

Idiots.

Anyone care to tell me again how the Tea Party's complaints about the US government being arrogant, too powerful, and bullying are just paranoid rants?