Bitcoin Forum

Economy => Economics => Topic started by: Baltar on January 09, 2012, 08:59:24 PM



Title: FATCA & BITCOIN (The Financial Berlin Wall)
Post by: Baltar on January 09, 2012, 08:59:24 PM
Over the next few years the United States FATCA ( Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ) will take full affect and declared and undeclared wealth will be looking for a place to hide, one of those places is going to be Bitcoin.

This law not only governs U.S. persons with foreign bank accounts but non-us residents with cash in U.S. banks.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fitch-new-us-tax-rules-could-prompt-foreign-deposit-outflow-2012-01-06

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The estimated undeclared with in India alone is somewhere between $500 billion - $1.4 trillion USD.

http://www.lowtax.net/asp/story/front/Indian_Government_Assesses_Undeclared_Wealth____49636.html

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Many U.S. persons are already starting to lose their banks accounts in foreign countries as foreign banks do not want to deal with the compliance issues of reporting these accounts to the U.S. IRS.

http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20110702/COLUMN07/707029970/-1/business04

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/05/zkb-us-idUSL6E8C506O20120105

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IRS FATCA Documentation - http://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/article/0,,id=236667,00.html

FATCA REPORT (Lots of FATCA related stories) - http://www.fatcareport.com

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As the financial Berlin Wall goes up, the first people to be affected will be the high net worth individuals as they have a lot of cash to move around and will have the least sympathy because of their wealth, then over time it will affect everyone.

How this plays out I do not know, but it's something people here should be thinking about if they are not already.



Title: Re: FATCA & BITCOIN (The Financial Berlin Wall)
Post by: Dansker on January 09, 2012, 09:21:30 PM
FATCAT


Title: Re: FATCA & BITCOIN (The Financial Berlin Wall)
Post by: Stephen Gornick on January 10, 2012, 01:06:52 AM
Added a reference to this in:
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Tax_compliance


Title: Re: FATCA & BITCOIN (The Financial Berlin Wall)
Post by: kloinko1n on January 10, 2012, 08:14:38 AM
Over the next few years the United States FATCA ( Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ) will take full affect and declared and undeclared wealth will be looking for a place to hide, one of those places is going to be Bitcoin.

This law not only governs U.S. persons with foreign bank accounts but non-us residents with cash in U.S. banks.
.
.
.
How this plays out I do not know, but it's something people here should be thinking about if they are not already.

Don't you think this is just a case where the U.S. shows its 'leadership in the democratic world' and beyond, with other countries following suit?
If the bankers get the US government to push this through, which they apparently did, why wouldn't this also apply soon to wealth in other countries?

EDIT:
Following quote from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/business/law-to-find-tax-evaders-denounced.html?pagewanted=all expands a bit on this:
Quote
Jeffrey Owens, a tax expert at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said catching tax evaders was “a concern that many member countries share.” If countries could agree to new global reporting standards for exchanging information, he said, then “maybe there’s a way forward.
Which in my opinion means that other countries will see the benefit of such legislation in terms of increased tax collection, and will pass comparable legislation. Resulting in a world wide system of wealth tracking, reporting and taxing.


Title: Re: FATCA & BITCOIN (The Financial Berlin Wall)
Post by: matonis on January 12, 2012, 06:37:53 PM
Thank you all above for the many informative links.

Bitcoin holdings on USB sticks or off-line hard drives will be treated just like paper cash in the mattress or paper cash buried in the floorboards. It will be based on the individual "honor system" of reporting to fiscal authorities.


Title: Re: FATCA & BITCOIN (The Financial Berlin Wall)
Post by: MPOE-PR on February 29, 2012, 10:43:41 AM
Outrageous, this.


Title: Re: FATCA & BITCOIN (The Financial Berlin Wall)
Post by: lakeluke on March 05, 2012, 06:13:57 AM
The harder they push, the better will BTC become; the amount of innovation in this community is inspiring; I recently finished reading a book called the Electric Church http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Somers and members of this futuristic community are trading in a digital currency called the Yen, but transacted automatically peer-to-peer and "off the system".