HIRE FATCA Has Many Americans Concerned About Future Finances

I am not a financial advisor or consultant and this column is presented only to help explain to many senior citizens what appears to be a warning currently making the rounds on the Internet.

In my research of the notice the online truth digging site of “TruthorFiction.com” has provided their conclusion as an online “eRumor” and has heard not much more.

The postings of this “eRumor” have varying descriptions that offer the information that “Seniors to be hit hard by new currency law set to go into effect July 1 st 2014” followed by this bracketed word (Devastating).

As a senior citizen myself, I had naturally come to identical conclusions of the seniors and others who contacted me saying that they could not find any specific or firm statements concerning the exact meaning of the simple and short posting.  On checking,  I did find some rather confusing and mixed-up offerings that mostly led to commercials for financial investment entities.

One of these commercial ventures was a production of writing a short blurb of words and then moving on to a successive screen where a few more words were presented and then on and on.  It appeared that it would go on almost indefinitely before I would get the final answer of how I could be helped if I purchased their plan, so I withdrew from the site pronto.

The website of TruthorFiction.com, one of my favorites for checking “stories” that have no positive basis for exactness, provided the following information;

Truthorfiction.com

Online eRumor currently being spread:

U$ Dollar Collapse ‘cause: U.S. House of Representative Bill “H.R. 2847”

On July 1, 2014 the U.S. Dollar Will Officially Collapse; because, on this date, U.S. House of Representative Bill “H.R. 2847” goes into full effect, making it essentially impossible for Americans to protect their savings.

Since no one is talking about this right now, we will assume, you, the reader, does know now..

Let’s be redundant here. We know that this collapse will coincide with a new Federal law that goes into effect this year; So, how prepared are you? You now have only 6 months left to figure out about your money, what are you doing? –

You see, people who do have lots of money and know how to spend their money are busy calling the shots in our government

Summary of rumor now widely being spread on the Internet.  Truth or Fiction labels it as an eRumor and not officially designated as otherwise. What follows is a collecting of information on the subject that I have cobbled together in the hopes that it will ease some anxious senior citizens (and also others’ queries.)

H.R. 2847 Expected to Cause U.S. Dollar to Collapse-Unproven!

Summary of the eRumor:

This is a forwarded email that contains a warning that alleged that the U.S. Dollar is expected to collapse on July 1, 2014 because H.R. 2847 will be going into full effect.

The Truth:

This eRumor appears to be an unproven conspiracy theory that warned of the possible ramifications of the passage of the Hire Incentives to Restore Employment Act (H.R. 2837- HIRE) along with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. (FATCA)  TruthOrFiction.com has found no evidence at this time as to how the enforcement of this act will affect the U.S. Dollar.

We will post findings here if anything develops.

We found the possible source to this eRumor on the Victory Women In Development Association (VWIDA) website.  The page links this allegation with a story about gun control legislation and the lobbying efforts of National Rifle Association.  How the two topics are related remains a mystery.

H.R. 2847, the Hire Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act is real and was signed into law in 2010.  In this bill was tacked the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (PL 111-147). This law, known as FATCA, makes U.S. residents accountable for money invested in foreign banks by requiring the offshore financial institutions to provide a 1099 form to the Internal Revenue Service for their American customers.  This according to a July 28, 2013 article by The Hill, a new service that reports on the business of the U.S. Government in Washington, D.C.

The article said, “Under FATCA, banks will be forced to submit information on total assets, account balances, transactions, account numbers and other personal identifying information. This intrusion goes way beyond a 1099 and would not be accepted or tolerated by Americans living in United States. ” Noncompliance will result in huge financial penalties and sanctions to the foreign financial institutions.

The Hill added that neither Congress, the Internal Revenue Service nor the U.S. Department of Treasury are certain how much FACTA will generate in terms of revenue in taxes.  The article said that President Obama “suggested $210 billion over ten years,” and $800 billion over the course of ten years was projected by unnamed “others.”

It is not really known what ramifications this law will have on U.S. residents with funds in foreign banks or if foreign banks will cooperate with the law. The Hill also reported that the U.S. demands on foreign banks to provide client information may “violate their own country’s laws and constitutions.”—Posted 02/28/14

Once again, let me say that this is not an official explanation of the meaning or intent of any of the House Resolutions or Public Laws that are cited.  I have not been able to get any sort of even ‘close’ explanations from any official website, but felt something should be presented to let anxious senior citizens and others know that there appears to be no grave dangers or “devastating” information in the “eRumors”.

However, it would be advisable for people who have any sort of currency or dealings with overseas companies involving currency to check with the entities involved for a closer explanation of their association and how this new law affects them.