
International exchange of tax information [video] - based2
https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-7880-international_exchange_of_tax_information
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efitz
It's amazing that this doesn't run afoul of EU privacy laws. Or rather, it's
hypocritical.

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alkonaut
Each individual state presumably already has an authority with all this
information. That they have it is a necessary evil I have already agreed to.
Sharing it internationally makes their use of my information more effective,
so I'm completely for it.

It's not that I don't mind when my information is used/shared/gathered but for
some causes it's the lesser evil.

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pc86
It's sharing of your information with a government over which you have zero
power. A government which could in the future conceivably be an enemy.

~~~
alkonaut
I think the feeling towards this might be cultural too - my tax authority is
also the census bureau. They know where I live and how much money I make and
have, and that's reported directly from my bank and my employer so I don't
have to report this (annual tax declaration is normally just signing that the
numbers are correct). All this basically means I never considered any of this
to be secret or sensitive - it's even public. There used to be a catalog
published with people's income and worth! It's like my phone number!

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dasmoth
My phone number certainly isn't public information!

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cm2187
I am not sure I agree with the speaker that the data is safe and the tax
administration follow best practices:

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7103911.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7103911.stm)

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eb0la
tl;dr This applies to individuals, not corporations.

Tax Identification might not be available, and some banks are using telephone
numbers for this purposes.

There are also problems with character sets and how names are transcribed...

And the US taxman had trouble working with that data the only two times it has
received the info...

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sboselli
USA did not sign this agreement right?

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notimetorelax
Well FATCA _is_ US law:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance_Act)

As for CRS, US doesn't appear in the list of signatories:
[http://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/MCAA-
Sig...](http://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/MCAA-
Signatories.pdf)

~~~
pzh
FATCA only guarantees the transfer of tax information to the US, and not the
other way around. Since the US is the biggest tax haven in the world (for non-
US citizens/residents), it's higly doubtful they would ever sign any agreement
like that that would geopardize their tax haven status. The banking lobby
would never permit (especially under someone like Trump).

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Daishiman
These agreements are already being signed. The US signed a tax information
exchange to the benefit of Argentina this week.

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sboselli
Do you hace a link/source on this? Was it on the papers? I did not catch it.

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matiasb
Who's the guy?

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philfrasty
I can't stop looking at the cat....

