Every power the state assumes to protect you, will be used against you. This is the way of the state.
Another post documenting the ever swifter trip down the road to our serfdom in the West. This week we find just as the GCSB has been illegally spying on New Zealand citizens, so has the Department of (In)Justice in the US been secretly, and illegally, wiretapping the free press:
The US government reportedly secretly seized telephone records of reporters and offices belonging to Associated Press news agency for a two-month period last year, the agency has said.
The Associated Press on Monday described the action, which targeted its correspondents, as a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering operations.
AP Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, in a letter posted on the agency's website, said the AP was informed last Friday that the Justice Department gathered records for more than 20 phone lines assigned to the agency and its reporters.
"There can be no possible justification for such an over-broad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters," Pruitt said in the letter, which was addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder.
An AP story on the records seizure said the government would not say why it sought the records.
And this on top of, as I covered in my previous post, underling staffers in the IRS inappropriately targeting conservative groups in the US, including the Tea Party movement, just as in New Zealand IRD have now moved into the political sphere of denying Family First tax exempt status due to its beliefs – no matter how bigoted those beliefs are.
All the while, our ministers have further concluded that some of the costs of New Zealand absurdly administering the US tax base, will now be shifted from the private banks, that is, you and me, customers of private banks, which and whom shouldn’t be responsible for the US tax base either, to the New Zealand taxpayer - that’s you and me again. This in reference to the US government enacted FATCA, which I’ve also written on before, that atrocity of criminal law-making whereby the US - one of only two countries to run a citizenship tax – has turned itself into an uber-surveillance state to hound its citizens no matter where they live in the world in order they cough up tax to operate a country some of them have never lived in, nor will do so, ever. My only comment necessary as I tweeted to the ministers (unanswered, of course).
@deloittenztax @craigfossmp #FATCA Where is principled argument that NZ business & taxpayer not front US IRS tax-base costs? @peterdunnemp
— Mark Hubbard (@MarkHubbard33) May 14, 2013
Regarding FATCA, my next post will be to highlight some sensible Canadians who are fighting this monstrosity of statism, via the Isaac Brock Society.
I see Peter Dunne has made a recent statement about this:
ReplyDeletehttp://beehive.govt.nz/release/govt-minimise-fatca-business-costs
His comments are nauseating.
"The agreement will be reciprocal, with the result that the US will also supply information about New Zealand investments in the US"
Even the IRS admit that reciprocity is only a token gesture. And in any case, what value would the information be to New Zealand, which taxes based on residency and is largely uninterested in New Zealanders living in the US.
"FATCA is part of New Zealand’s commitment as a good global citizen to doing its bit to clamp down on tax evasion"
Dunne is drinking the kool aid put forward by the US government. How many "US persons" are hiding assets in New Zealand for purposes of tax evasion? Hardly any, compared with the number of NZ Citizens classified as "US Persons" who will have their data turned over to the IRS for processing.
Questions for Mr Dunne:
How will you circumvent the Human Rights Act 1993 which prevents discrimination based on Nationality (Citizenship)?
How can you guarantee the privacy and use of the data on New Zealand citizens that you plan to hand over to the IRS? Names, addresses, bank account numbers and balances? Once it has left the country you will have no control over it.
Disgusting.
Very good questions; I will look further into them myself. Thanks for commenting.
DeleteMark,
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, New Zealand taxpayers should not be responsible for the US tax base. However it goes further than this. FATCA is an attack on the New Zealand tax base.
The attempted implementation of FATCA is simply an attempt to enforce the immorality of Citizenship based taxation and extort money from the Treasuries of other nations.
Consider the following scenario:
1. A Kiwi (born to a US Parent) buys a house in Auckland for NZ$500K in 2000. The cost basis in US$ at the exchange rate in that year (0.4) was US$200K.
2. They sell the house in 2013 for NZ$800K. Because the US$ has depreciated to 0.84, the sale is valued at US$672K.
3. They discover they are a "US person" and subject to US Capital gains tax on their gain in US$ terms. This could occur even with no gain, or even a loss in NZ$ terms.
4. Their gain is US$472K, which will need to be declared on their US tax return, should they decide to file one.
This person may have never set foot in the US. Is it right that a single dollar is sent from New Zealand to the US based on this scenario?
By signing up to a FATCA IGA the government here is complicit in this extortion. It is similar to leaving your house unlocked and your valuables on display while there is a known thief in the neighbourhood.
Thanks for posting on this atrocity.
Great comment. How far the land of the free has fallen.
Delete