On Friday the US and Germany signed an interesting agreement. The German government will supply the bank account information of Americans living there to the US government. The banking details of those Americans will be electronically transferred to the IRS so that they can determine if the individuals are cheating on their taxes. The probable cause for such a search is apparently the fact that these individuals live in Germany.
The following article from USA Today quotes the German government as referring to the outrageous agreement as another step in the ongoing "war" against tax cheats. Of course, like most not so well thought out laws, there are unintended consequences. One being that record numbers of Americans are forced into renouncing their citizenship in order to function financially. That's because the local banks don't want to deal with the reporting and accounting requirements of American held accounts. Meanwhile, back in the US, we're considering offering American citizenship to known lawbreakers. And in both situations the constitution is being ignored. And there's more.
