Unintended Consequences

Presentations at the Ambassador’s meeting continued. People reluctantly came to the conclusion that the IRS representatives were simply drones charged with enforcing the law and, therefore, any attacks on fairness were misplaced. But:

“Do not forget to report your foreign bank account information to the treasury department.”

“I don’t have a foreign bank account,” I thought. “I live in Switzerland. I have a Swiss account.”

“Any bank account that had $10,000 in it at any time during the year must be reported.”

“Which line of the 1040 (tax file) should you use?” Someone asked.

“It’s not a tax requirement, it is a treasury requirement. It’s a different form and a different deadline.”

“Why do they want to know about my bank accounts?” I asked.

There was a lot of hemming and hawing and then the Ambassador explained that the rule was a consequence of a law attacking gun runners, terrorists and money laundering operations.
“So,” I thought. “Do I understand this properly: Gun running is my profession – i.e. I’m willing to smuggle guns and risk attack by an actual army. The American solution to the problem is to require that I register my bank account number? If I’m willing to run guns, then I’m probably willing to forgo bank account registration.”

When I explained this to Darius, he immediately concluded that the government is lying.

“Lying, Darius?” I replied. “The government? Surely you jest!”

“They want to collect all your financial information, Dad.”

“It could be that the law is just an unintended consequence of some rider that a misguided senator attached to a bridge building bill.”

“Dad..”

“Remember, misguided senators are not in short supply.”

The photo show Nazy negotiating with the IRS.