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Why I’m Leaving

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This post began life as a response to a comment on the previous post from my good blogging friend, WiseWebWoman. It grew too long, so instead I decided to post it here.

I’ve lived in the US for thirteen years – came here exactly one year after 9/11 – and for a time believed I’d make it my home. But the longer I stay here the more I’ve come to realize I have to get out. This nation hasn’t yet learned to handle its immense power with any degree of dignity and maturity. Frankly, I doubt it ever will.

The opportunity was there in the aftermath of the atrocities of September 11th, 2001. The world stood solidly behind this country in its grief and suffering. America could have won the admiration of every nation on earth at that moment had it responded with any degree of wisdom and maturity. Instead it tossed them to the dogs (remember, “You’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists!”) by its actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. It never recovered respect after those monumental blunders, and I don’t believe it will ever have that opportunity again.

While the western states burn, water disappears, and Americans suffer and die due to weather extremes never before experienced in such severity and abundance, the frenetic drilling and mining for MORE oil and MORE coal continues unabated.

The crazy national obsession with firearms grows ever stronger, appearing to those beyond US borders as akin to the behavior of a mentally retarded child. Even in the aftermath of a series of appalling gun crimes, recent polls indicate that nearly 60% of Americans are against any form of gun control. Media brainwashing over ‘terrorists’ and ‘terrorism’ ratchets up daily, provoking further insane gun attacks on innocent civilians in cinemas, schools, shopping malls, or wherever there are suitable numbers of people to slaughter.

As for this nation’s politicians, I consider every Republican candidate standing for President could serve his country best if locked away for life in a secure mental institution, rather than allowed within a hundred miles of the White House. The present political ascendancy of Donald Trump must surely prove that the louder the drivel from the political mouth, the more fervent the applause of the sad, demented, folks taken in by it.

I believe there are only two politicians in this country worthy to be President of the United States, and one isn’t even running – Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Even if Warren were running, they’d stand about as much chance of winning as Donald Trump has of ever getting into Heaven. And that says a lot about America and its voting public.

So, I’ve decided to move to pastures new. I’m sure there are many who are happy to say, “Good riddance!” When Americans I meet ask why I’m leaving America to live in France, they look at me like I’ve decided to give up Heaven, in favor of Hell. They don’t realize they’re the ones in Hell, but like Plato’s prisoners in the cave, their view of the ‘outside’ is distorted by a lifetime of false impressions fed by a politco/corporate controlled media that has been selective in its version of the truth for decades.

None of this in any way decries the many fine, caring, people I’ve come to know in this country; they who are fully aware of the way this nation is failing itself and the world, good people with intellect and vision, though sadly, in the minority.

I may be leaving America, but Sparrow Chat will continue. Perhaps from back in Europe, my perspective on America will change somewhat.

I doubt it will be for the better.

On FATCA, FatCats, And Eritrea – Er, Where?

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After all the bad things I’ve written about America you’d think they’d be only too glad to see me go.

“Have you heard, Adams is leaving?”

“No! Well, good riddance. He’s hardly been an asset to our fine Capitalist society, now has he?”

I mean, I don’t expect the red carpet, or a marching band at the airport playing, “Will Ye No Come Back Again?” But I never thought they’d make it hard for me to leave. But they have.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m going anyway. September 2nd will see me and mine winging our way out of Detroit Airport for the last time bound for Paris, France, and then on to a new life in Brittany.

So, you’re asking, why don’t they want me to leave?

Ah, there’s the rub, as the Bard once proffered. You see, it’s not so much me as my money. It’s easy to bring money into the US, but try and take it out again and all sorts of petty regulations rise up to thwart one. For example, to move the financial proceeds of our house sale out of the US I’ve had to nominate my daughter, who lives in Britain, to handle it for me. The US government doesn’t allow the exchange company to ‘do deals’ on US soil.

Not that I’ve got a lot of money, you understand, and that’s really the problem. Or rather, the problem is FATCA.

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Now most Americans have never heard of FATCA, and why should they, it doesn’t affect them in the slightest. Until, that is, they decide to up sticks and live outside the US.

It may have escaped your notice but FATCA is only a ‘T’ away from being ‘FATCAT’, and FatCats are exactly the people the IRS say FATCA is designed to trap.

FatCat

Sadly, that’s far from being the case.

Anyone with even half an eye on the Republican skirmishings over who’s going to be the next President will have noticed that the richest of them all, Donald Trump, is hardly losing sleep over FATCA, or dealings with the IRS. People like him can always find ways to circumvent tax laws, or pay experts to do it for them.

What, then, is FATCA?

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was signed into law by President Obama in 2010, and is now having a serious impact on 7.6 million US expats. It basically allows the US government in general, and the IRS in particular, to blackmail all the world’s financial institutions into declaring the held assets of any American expat (citizen or PRA) with an account in a foreign country containing in excess of $50,000.

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The refusal to do so by any bank or financial institution anywhere in the world will mean the IRS will impose a 30% taxation demand on all that institution’s financial dealings within the United States. Given the global economy, that would result in a colossal loss of revenue to most financial institutions, and the US government knows it.

The original reason for FATCA was to prevent tax evasion, by the very wealthy, or high-powered corporates, stashing monies away in foreign bank accounts. And, why not, you might ask? It doesn’t seem unreasonable, given the wealthy in the US hardly pay their share anyway, even on declared income.

Unfortunately, FATCA isn’t just causing problems for the FatCats. Supplying all this information to the IRS is not just a major headache for foreign banks, it’s also a costly exercise. They’ve decided it’s much easier, and makes more economic sense, just to close the accounts of US expats, to save on all the extra time and paperwork.

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Thousands of ordinary working, or retired, American expats have suddenly found themselves unable to obtain a bank account in Europe, or almost anywhere outside America, entirely due to FATCA. It’s caused huge hardship and distress for many, but the US government couldn’t care less. After all, most expats don’t bother to vote in US elections.

All this has been possible because the United States is the ONLY NATION ON EARTH that legally requires its expatriate citizens (and PRAs) to submit annual tax returns to the IRS, wherever in the world they happen to be living.

Yes, that’s right. Not only do they make it financially difficult to leave America, but if you do manage to get out the IRS keeps a tight line on you, demanding their pound of flesh every year in the form of US tax returns.

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Sure, there’s tax agreements with many nations to avoid ‘double taxation’, but having to declare income to the United States AND the tax authority of the country you’ve chosen to live in, is complex and costly as it almost certainly requires the services of an international tax accountant.

Despite all this hassle, or perhaps because of it, I’d rather live somewhere where the words ‘fairness’ and ‘justice’ still mean something; where I can walk into a supermarket or shopping mall without wondering if the guy in front of me is toting a firearm; where the police don’t routinely kill people for the fun of it; where distorted religious ideals aren’t allowed to influence the politics of the land (and I’m NOT talking ISIS or al Qaeda!); where the media reports actual news, rather than national propaganda; where politics hasn’t yet become controlled by big corporations; where the highest judiciary in the land isn’t regularly swayed by political influence or corporate money, or where one nation, just because it’s sufficiently powerful, doesn’t blackmail the rest of humanity in order to grasp its pound of financial flesh from those of its citizens who dare to leave its shores.

But, oh dear, after all that it appears I owe America an apology. I stated that the US was the only country in the world demanding tax returns from its expats.

I was wrong. There is actually one other.

To quote Bloomberg…

…[it’s] a small and vicious African dictatorship..”

eritrea

Eritrea – you may, or may not – have heard of it.[2]

[1] “End the American Expat Tax” Bloomberg View, April 24th 2015

[2] “World Report 2014: Eritrea” Human Rights Watch, 2014.

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