Writing, codifying, a law --NEW TO THE WORLD-- which anticipates every event and condition of necessity, interpretation, and contingency its beneficial intent will said to be applicable and "fair" is difficult, you may have noticed.

Unintended Consequences

So there are none in fact. People revise the language of law to address their experience in detecting violation of such rule as was codified and perforce their dissatisfaction with the "letter" that expresses socially acceptable and unacceptable behavior of the day.

Some people revise law more frequently than others. Some revision of statute appears in whole or in part, perfecting or corrupting, the intentions of reformers and of course adversaries.

This process is what I mean in saying the law is retrospective as it should be.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Sixth Circuit Rejects Challenge to Taxes on Foreign Accounts

The taxes, established by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act in 2010, were called "draconian" by the attorney representing several citizens that sued the federal government in July 2015.

FATCA requires foreign banks to report all accounts held by U.S. citizens to the IRS or risk being assessed a 30 percent withholding tax. Willful failure to file a foreign bank account report invites a penalty of 50 percent of the value of the account or $100,000, whichever is greater.

[my editorial annotation,"Asssessed on foreign bank", removed without prejudice to facilitate reading of following citation.]

FINAL TEXT OF THE BILL, topic of the article, signed into law Mar 2010.

Title III, Sec. 301, subchap. B, sec. 6116

(b)Penalty for nondisclosure
Any person who is required to file a return under subsection (a) with respect to any foreign entity transaction and fails to file such return on or before the date prescribed therefor (or files false or incomplete information with respect to such transaction) shall pay a penalty equal to the greater of--

(1)$10,000, or
(2)50 percent of the gross income derived by such person with respect to aid, assistance or advice which is provided with respect to such transaction before the date the return is filed under subsection (a).

The courtnews.com exposition conflates penalty amounts specified for each class of ... offender. "Any person" engrosses foreign financial institutions (FFIs) as well as US account holders of same. Read further. USC provisions also provide other, specific penalties for a US account holder's failure to disclose his or her assets held by a foreign FFI. Application of the law is discriminatory such that US "persons" enjoy a "tax benefit" by comparison to FFIs. Search "penalty."

The IRS of the USA notes public law in effect, 2016 expiration of HIRE, enrolled 2010, notwithstanding: "The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which was passed as part of the HIRE Act, generally requires that foreign financial Institutions and certain other non-financial foreign entities report on the foreign assets held by their U.S. account holders or be subject to withholding on withholdable payments. The HIRE Act also contained legislation requiring U.S. persons to report, depending on the value, their foreign financial accounts and foreign assets."

US Treasury | FACTA Jurisdiction ​Status ​Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) & Related Agreements, Arrangements, or Correction

50%, 35%, or 30% penalty proportion of US account holder  estimated value assets applies to which class of conspirator to hide taxable income? Bills restoring HIRE (with FACTA provisions) in this session, 2017, have been introduced in US House and Senate.

So. No. I do not rely on old ET diaries for legal advice. Nor do I assume newsfile interprets legislation and its application accurately. But, yes, I had expected ET readers to be most interested in juridical reach of USC in regulating business of foreign "persons" beyond the USA border, IF NOT the test of "standing" by plaintiffs contesting an event which has not occured. My bad.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.