While I know personally and I suspect many others here would like some stronger language I think the California Bar Assocation Tax Section raises some very pointed comment in their letter that discusses the issues we are facing here. I should further point out that the fact they bring up these issues is not for naught as the California Tax Section is one of the most influential groups of US Tax Lawyers. In particular I think they raise a very pointed question of the IRS Commmisioner which is the entire recent crackdown intended only solely to go after people living in the US with offshore assets or people residing outside the US with basic banking arrangements in their home countries. I also wanted to post this letter because two of the more prominent friends of the site(Steven Mopsick and Phil Hodgen) are members of the State Bar of California- Tax Section
@Tim, That would be great!
@30 year IRS vet. I too look forward to your proposal. The reception by the IRS will smoke out their motives. Personally, I think the stealth attack upon unsuspecting Canadians is deliberate, and the objective is to seize savings and pensions. If it were not, they would have come up with something along your lines in the first place.
@All: my paper is going through some fine tuning and I hope to get it to you NLT the end of the week. It solely addresses the issue of American expats who have little or no connection to the US. although it does not mention @Schubert’s point directy it would make it a “no brainer.” it is also quite critical of the current OVDI program. I think that politically, it is sometimes best to pick off some low hanging fruit first before going further up the line. It should be obvious to any government person with a brain that an expat who is living his life abroad minding his own business with no more connection to the US than Antarctica shouldnt have to be worried about filing US tax returns or whether the IRS is going to give them a hard time.