The following article (pdf) appeared in the July 9 (2012) edition of Tax Notes. It is reproduced here with the express permission of the author.
The following article (pdf) appeared in the July 9 (2012) edition of Tax Notes. It is reproduced here with the express permission of the author.
@Mark: Have you considered telling your story to the Wall Street Journal reporter who is looking for people affected by this?
*Michael Miller: you said, “as most of you probably already know, taxpayers who reside outside the US and have been fully compliant in their home countries, can have the 27.5% penalty reduced to 5%, provided that they didn’t have too much US-source income.”
You may have missed the point of my article. The Adams family in my article, don’t want to have to spend $50,000 to $100,000 in legal and accounting fees doing a net worth analysis of their businesses, gathering eight years of financial records, filing dozens of “delinquent” returns, and living a nightmare of uncertainty and angst for three or more years just to find out if his lawyer can “get him 5%.”
The point of the article was about TAX JUSTICE, fairness and common sense. The article did not attempt to propose a solution to myriad of factual scenarios which are out there and appear on these pages and elsewhere.
The point of the article was this: For those Americans abroad with little or no economic connection to the United States, and who think about the USA
@Markpinetree…
Just a twitter tip or two for you. In future tweets, and you do some good ones… add the hashtag #offshore. More normal people are following that one, with all the Romney attention, and this maybe hashtag is one to get better attention of those that know nothing about FATCA, FBARs, etc. I am trying to use it more and more… I also am including @MittRomney now as well as @BarrackObama as much as I can.
One other tip.
Try to engage some twitter’s by replying to their tweets on offshore or Romney issues. I have recently had some success getting a dialog going even with a PBS reporter. That rarely happens, but I keep trying. Sometimes I reply on other subjects that interest me and not related to FATCA, FBARs, OVDI, just to establish contact that I can follow up on later with FATCA info. Just another thought on how to use it better.
I keep saying, if we had a million Expats tweeting, I think we could have impact on the discussion and get the topic trending. I don’t understand the reluctance, as tweeting is the friggin’ easiest thing to do as compared to Face Book say! I can only do one social media, so tweets are it for me, at least for now. 🙂
Hang in there Mate!
*Thank you all. I will come back when and if I have news. I don´t know how long I will be in this ordeal.
*Michael Miller: you said, “as most of you probably already know, taxpayers who reside outside the US and have been fully compliant in their home countries, can have the 27.5% penalty reduced to 5%, provided that they didn’t have too much US-source income.”
You may have missed the point of my article. The Adams family in my article, don’t want to have to spend $50,000 to $100,000 in legal and accounting fees doing a net worth analysis of their businesses, gathering eight years of financial records, filing dozens of “delinquent” returns, and living a nightmare of uncertainty and angst for three or more years just to find out if his lawyer can “get him 5%.”
The point of the article was about TAX JUSTICE, fairness and common sense. The article did not attempt to propose a solution to myriad of factual scenarios which are out there and appear on these pages and elsewhere.
The point of the article was this: For those Americans abroad with little or no economic connection to the United States, and who think about the USA about as often as they consider what it would like to live north of the Arctic Circle, all they want is for the IRS to say “don’t worry about it.”
“*Michael Miller: you said, “as most of you probably already know, taxpayers who reside outside the US and have been fully compliant in their home countries, can have the 27.5% penalty reduced to 5%, provided that they didn’t have too much US-source income.”
You may have missed the point of my article. The Adams family in my article, don’t want to have to spend $50,000 to $100,000 in legal and accounting fees doing a net worth analysis of their businesses, gathering eight years of financial records, filing dozens of “delinquent” returns, and living a nightmare of uncertainty and angst for three or more years just to find out if his lawyer can “get him 5%.”
The point of the article was about TAX JUSTICE, fairness and common sense. The article did not attempt to propose a solution to myriad of factual scenarios which are out there and appear on these pages and elsewhere.
The point of the article was this: For those Americans abroad with little or no economic connection to the United States, and who think about the USA about as often as they consider what it would like to live north of the Arctic Circle, all they want is for the IRS to say “don’t worry about it.””
Steven J. Mopsick — Your article (which eloquently describes the plight of Americans abroad and the patent injustice of the current enforcement efforts as applied to them) also purports to describe the options available to such persons generally, and to the “Adams Family” (cute name) in particular. One of the key options available to such persons is to participate in the 2012 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program and pay (among other things) the “offshore” penalty prescribed thereunder. If I read your article, and did not know better, I would think the penalty for an American living outside the US is 27.5%, whereas it’s actually likely to be 5%. Forgive me, but I found the omission a bit of a surprise.
*The Adams family are NOT American citizens. Please…
*A small correction. I have a nice CPA in NYC. I do not a Tax Lawyer yet, but I know who I will contact just in case. I am trying to save my limited savings. Thanks to you all.
@30 Years IRS Vet, very good article, Thanks. Like @renounceuscitizenship, I was a little disapointed that there was no mention of immigrant green card holders, who might represent just as many if not more of the population concerned by OVDI, than American expats, and is a segment of the population that has no representation.
I hope the reason is the one you stated in your response from July 13 at 4:55pm “I wanted to do in this article was to present as much of a “no brainer” as possible.”
I also hope that the IRS won’t consider the new procedure they issued for American expats with “low compliance risk” as already addressing the more complex issue you’re describing in your article, and that no further action is needed on their part.
A useful and readable summary of the points that you have been making. But why do you privilege birthplace abroad (p. 193) as a determining factor in identifying the acceptable set US persons who have had no economic (and perhaps not much other) connection to the United States for many years – perhaps even for an entire working life? Are you thoughtlessly following in the footsteps of the IRS, who also does this in defining an exception to the class of expatriates who will be “covered”?
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