The Economist: America’s new law on tax compliance is heavy-handed, inequitable and hypocritical

Taxing America’s Diaspora: FATCA’s flaws

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21605907-americas-new-law-tax-compliance-heavy-handed-inequitable-and-hypocritical-fatcas-flaws
 This is also a fine article even mentioning the Dutch BinckBank anti-discrimination case.
“Using anti-discrimination laws, a Dutch-American sued a Dutch lender that had pre-emptively shut his account and 149 others; he won the case in April.”
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21605911-americas-fierce-campaign-against-tax-cheats-doing-more-harm-good-dropping
FATCA is turning into a story of persecution and discrimination. Hopefully this will start the debate of should a resident citizen’s private financial data be sent to a foreign power automatically, with no right of recourse, without any notice whatsoever be allowed ? It’s really very simple: citizenship-based taxation is America’s Apartheid system. It is repugnant, immoral and indefensible. Since CBT is so clearly irredeemable, there is really nothing to talk about, unless your intellectual curiosity exists in a profoundly amoral vacuum.
CBT discriminates against a particular group of people on the basis of their place of birth – a characteristic as immutable as the colour of their skin. It labels them, tracks them, intimidates them, criminalizes them and forces them into virtual prisons from which escape is nearly impossible. Worse, the architects of CBT are now co-opting the rest of the world to implement this discriminatory regime for them. It is astonishing and disheartening how quickly and easily this is unfolding.
Far too many countries, cowed by the 30% withholding stick that the U.S. threatens to beat them with, like the FBAR and OVDP sticks they already beat their CBT victims with, simply refuse to challenge America on fundamental moral grounds and it is wrong.



The U.S. does not deserve a free pass on CBT and FATCA any more than the old South African government deserved a free pass for its heinous apartheid policies. Yet several ostensibly modern and enlightened nations have rationalized their acquiescence to FATCA by publicly exclaiming that America has the inherent right to tax its citizens in whatever manner it chooses. Well, in a just world it does not, for CBT represents a clear denial of basic human rights and dignity.
Yes, the global hypocrisy is staggering, especially from countries like Canada. Last year, the Conservative government expelled the consul-general for Eritrea for that regime’s tax extortion efforts against its expats in Canada. Just last week, the same government enthusiastically ushered-in America’s FATCA laws to override our country’s own Charter of rights and freedoms, discriminating on the basis of national origin, gutting federal banking privacy laws and setting the stage for a massive legal challenge which will be fought in our Supreme Court.
Beneath all the technocratic language about forms, compliance, jurisdictions and enforcement, there is a fundamental truth: these American policies are morally unjust and the world must not condone them any longer. FATCA will be a global disaster unless it is stopped now.
It is indeed time for the world to say no to the U.S. practice of citizenship-based taxation and to force it to adopt residency-based taxation like the rest of the world. If not, then the world better find a more deserving reserve currency in a hurry – the United States has abused its position of trust for far too long and it needs to be reminded that it is just one nation in a community of nations. The breathtaking audacity of FATCA is simply a bridge too far.