Hr 2847

[sanfanciscotreat]

What are your thoughts as to the effects of HR 2847 on the US economy? Do you think there will be less foreign investment?

[REWahoo]

Want to give us a link - or at least a hint - at what Hr 2847 is all about?

[travelover]

Maybe

[meierlde]

According to thomas the library of congress site HR 2847 ishttp://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:H.R.2847: is
H.R.2847 -- Wounded Warrior Service Dog Act of 2013 (Introduced in House - IH)
HR 2847 IH

[M Paquette]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meierlde According to thomas the library of congress site HR 2847 ishttp://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:H.R.2847: is H.R.2847 -- Wounded Warrior Service Dog Act of 2013 (Introduced in House - IH) HR 2847 IH

He's probably thinking of the scarelore version of HR 2847, passed along in chain e-mails by those wary of the ways of the Bavarian Illuminati, but also offering salvation if one will only shell out $149 for a subscription to Stansberry's Investment Advisory newsletter. That one calls for Certain Doom and the collapse of the dollar as a reserve currency on July 1.

Really.

The bill of concern actually is the 2010 version of H.R 2847, which only peripherally touches on service dogs. This is the bill that brought FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, into being. The Certain Doom comes from requiring foreign banks to report accounts of US citizens back to the IRS. See, according to one theory, this will cause all foreign investors to pull out of US markets, because somehow they're all at risk of penalties from the IRS.

The reporting by foreign banks to the IRS is just the flip side of individual taxpayers reporting their foreign accounts to the IRS, which they've been doing for many years, unless they are very naughty. It is a paperwork hassle for the foreign banks, and as we've discussed here a few times before, some banks just don't want to deal with the odd US citizen abroad because of this.

Swiss Bank Accounts
Hi from Mr. B - Need help on "expatriate" taxes
Taxes and the american citizen...
ExPats rejoice!
A misleading tax article for US citizens
Offshore Accounts

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover Maybe

I disagree.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB I disagree.

Sigh...

How can you when the truth is so obvious?!

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Sigh... How can you when the truth is so obvious?!

Eyes roll

"It is not worth while to strain one's self to tell the truth to people who habitually discount everything you tell them, whether it is true or isn't."

[growing_older]

I've seen similar concerns raised elsewhere. I think the bill they intend to reference is the requirement to report foreign bank accounts with increased penalty for failure to comply. The argument is that this somehow makes dollars less attractive to foreign investment and as a result crushes the value of the dollar and by extension crushes the US economy. It's a very fear-mongering argument.

I don't know why people are so susceptible to being swept up in these crazes. Whoever is circulating these emails must be very good at getting emotional responses that keep people from understanding and analyzing the actual arguments being made. Perhaps this is similar to why people follow investment guru advice, or political pundits. If the scare is big enough (end of the world as we know it) then even the very remote possibility that that could actually happen seems to get people all excited. I think there are a lot more ways that the US economy could be crushed than a wave of unexpected consequences from enforcing taxation on Americans who are hiding income in foreign accounts, but who knows. The email messages are vague enough and so short on actual details that maybe they mean an entirely different problem. There are plenty of scary problems.

[jetpack]

Snopes has a pretty good rundown on it. snopes.com: H.R. 2847 - July 1, 2014 the U.S. Dollar Will Officially Collapse

Bottom line, it's about US citizens having to report foreign accounts to minimize tax fraud. The fear mongering is mostly by investment firms trying to drum up business.

[M Paquette]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Sigh... How can you when the truth is so obvious?!

It should be intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer.

Power follows steam demand.

KVAR load increases.

5.

Good grief.

[ERsoonihope]

Honestly, i want to support wounded warrior service dogs. I don't know why you guys are so mean.

[Gumby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M Paquette Power follows steam demand.

Of course. The world would cease to exist if it didn't.