So reports a new article in The Jerusalem Post. Compared to some of his fellow journalists, Nadav Shemer (Twitter: @NadavShemer82) could easily win an Olympic gold medal in translation for this article; instead of parroting Treasury’s Orcish-language press releases about “US taxpayers” and claiming that’s just a mirror image of “Israeli taxpayers”, Shemer gets to the crux of the matter right in the subhead, in plain English:
A committee to establish how Israeli institutions can conform to the US foreign tax act will be headed; will force US citizens abroad to pay tax … FATCA, passed in 2010, requires all foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to become compliant by June 30, 2013. It will give the United States more power than ever to force American citizens and green-card holders residing abroad, including an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 in Israel, to become tax-compliant … At least one bank has confirmed to [CPA Philip L.] Stein that it will begin asking new customers about where they hold citizenship.
Of course, he misses out on the exact scope of that tax: not just an ordinary Form 1040 like everyone else in the country, but Form 1116 and 2555 at minimum, plus a six-page Form 3520 for your “foreign” retirement account, another six-page Form 8621 for your “foreign” ETFs, a seven-page Form 8865 for your “foreign” business, etc.
Incidentally, in a new blog post over at the WSJ, Laura Saunders notes that one of the names in this quarter’s freedom list was that of Israeli Supreme Court justice Daphne Barak-Erez.
“This quarter’s freedom list.” lol
So, I wonder if Chuck Schumer is going to call Israeli Supreme Court justice Daphne Barak-Erez. a tax dodger? 🙂
I see that Julian Hudson, is in there commenting on Laura Saunder’s WSJ post. I had to put up one to support him. He is a regular SME.
JustMe, you’re such a fantastic advocate and writer. Loved your answer on Laura’s post.
And thanks to Steve Mopsick for his fantastic article about justice for immigrants!
@Immigrant…
Thanks for your comment, and you are right about Steve’s blog post. I should post it here for others to read. It is one of the very few, maybe the only one, where someone of influence has spoken out for the Immigrants in America. Share it around.
Tax Justice II: No FBAR Penalties For Otherwise Compliant Recent Immigrants To The United States
Julian and Just Me won the tag team match in the WSJ comment ring and they could have done it with only their right hands on their keyboards. They had a few other commenters in their corner too. It is always good to see well informed take down shoot from the lip, particularly on websites like the WSJ where those infamous movers and shakers might just drop by and get an education. I think the word is gradually getting out there.
@ Just Me — What does SME mean?
SME…. Subject Matter Expert!
@ Just Me
Shortest comment ever from you and possibly your quickest reply too. Thanks! 🙂 My guess was Super Magnificent Expounder.
that will do! 🙂
Saunders’ post also showed up on Yahoo Finance, where it has something like a thousand comments:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-renouncers–who-gave-up-u-s–citizenship–and-why-.html
Probably not worth adding to their cesspool at this point …
Hmmm, from Steven Mopsick’s post, I think we should assume he will no longer be taking any part on this site. That’s too bad, I found his input very, very valuable.
@Outraged Canadian
He may have tired of some of the rhetoric, but I too found his input valuable. I prefer moderate speech even when our passions are running high, as it keeps us listening to each other.
@ Eric..
I see the yahoo comments up to 1600 now. You are probably right, but maybe I will try anyway. Not that it will matter.
@Just Me: this is what I find to be moderate: the IRS says to those who have foreign accounts that they better enter the OVDI because if they don’t, FATCA provisions will make it possible for the United States to find out about their accounts, and they could be subject to 383% FBAR fines. Now, suppose I take 35 years of my working life to save 1 million dollars in an account, and now the IRS says it will fine me 383% of my principle. That is proper and moderate. So now, in order to pay 383% I have to work another 70 years to make the 2 million plus dollars that I don’t have, that I never had, to pay off my fine to the IRS.
Then the IRS says that FFI around the world must seek out and hunt their American clients so that the IRS may apply these 383% to the residents in these foreign countries who had the audacity to have Foreign bank accounts and who failed to report them because they are tax cheats. That’s moderate.
@Outraged, Mr. Mopsick doesn’t comment everyday on this blog. Remember, he has a busy law practice. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is this: If the United States uses zero moderation in its tax jihad against alleged US citizens abroad, then I see nothing wrong with comparing them to the worst sort of despots the world has seen. Threatening people with fines of 383% is disgusting. It is beyond belief, and yet that is exactly what the IRS has done. Mopsick told us that we were disgusting because we had a video of Hitler. But we are disgusted with IRS, because they are acting in the most arbitrary and capricious fashion, threatening citizens with extortionate fines, making victims out of us all. How utterly wrong. I can’t scream or curse or shout loud enough to explain how angry and frustrated I am about this.
@Petros
I hear you, but when our rhetoric becomes too inflamed and we call things evil (a loaded religious term) or say things that can be interpreted as being racist, whether we intend that or not, we just need to calibrate a bit to keep the conversation going if that turns other readers off. I am being self critical here, Petros and point the finger at myself at times, as does my wife, who cringes and reigns me in if she gets a chance before I hit enter. So, hopefully Steven will return here, and the silence only represents a busy practice. I am probably guilty of speculation. I guess you can’t keep them all, but I am for putting in the effort at moderation, which I do not confuse with being PC. 🙂
Moderate speech is fine for a philosophy seminar where inquirers torture reason inside a magician’s box that chops the head off the body (prerequisite for participation!). Moderate speech can also be met up with in expansive and interminable nitpicking at the ravels of bureaucratic turgidity, a mode that mostly apes the very screeds of oppression that hold it in thrall. If Mopsick picks up his ball and quits playing, he perforce concedes that the outside world is way too big for US-pseudothink. But I’m of the Petros charitable persuasion, and believe that Mopsick has a business and a life and many other things to do.
RE: “I can’t scream or curse or shout loud enough to explain how angry and frustrated I am about this.”
My friend. I think that is what you have your faith for, to help you deal with this real anger! I get the frustration.
I was raised in a very fundamentalist and religious family. Dad was a pastor. Mother, at 86 has had a life time of serious church involvement. Sisters are all VERY active church members. I was even a ministerial student for a while in my younger years.
I do not engage in that belief system any more, but understand those of you that do, and so, in the context of your faith, I would encourage you to reach out to your teachings and prayer to help with the screaming and cursing.. 🙂 I hope I don’t offend. Not intended. But I note your blog called the Religious Investor, so show me some Christian tolerance and forgiveness, I am just saying. 🙂
@Just me, I don’t think Jesus was saying nice words to the money changers when he cleared out the temple. He felt that the trafficking that took place in the name of his Father at the Temple was an affront to all that is good and right. And I believe that the IRS tax jihad of expats is offensive. Thus, I am more offended by what the IRS is doing than I could possibly be by those who compare the IRS to the Nazis, Stalin, or Ghengis Khan.
I had a theology professor who once said that if you never get angry, you are moral wimp. I have a sense of right and wrong, and because of that, the injustice of the IRS against my people offends me. The stench is unbearable.
By the way, I respect your moderation–it serves you and us well in other contexts. Thanks.
@Petros.
Take your point, and maybe I am a moral wimp, at least on-line. LOL I have always wondered, about that Money changer example, even when I was in Bible school as a kid. Did we read into it what we wanted to believe as to our own personal rages? Maybe I should relook up the text, as haven’t opened a bible in decades!
@usxcanada
You amuse me. You have a fine way with words! I hope you and Petros are right on Steven.
This is not the first time Mr Mopsick has poked at this hornet’s nest, in fact I think he rather enjoys it.
@Just Me, Obviously, there is room for your approach too. I’m just glad we are on the same team. Consider also King Solomon’s words:
So there is also a time for moderation, and a time scream your head off.
A few immoderate words from Jesus selected for Just Me –
[If there is no amusement or humor, we may as well stop breathing!]
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
Matthew 23:15, 27
Hello, could the site administrator please make Mr. Mopsick’s article about immigrants a blog post of its own? Too important to be hidden in the comments. Thanks.
http://mopsicktaxlaw.blogspot.com/2012/08/tax-justie-ii-no-fbar-penalties-for.html
*We lost an invaluable resource. Some people on here should be ashamed. I’ve learned a lot here but lately its been all politics, and anti-semitism. When I first started reading this blog it was about TAXES, and how it impacts everyone here. FBAR’s, FATCA, exit tax, etc. What has this turned into now? I understand everyone has it out for the United States, but to show a video on Hitler, that makes sense how? Oh, because 11 million innocent people lost their lives, and you feel you can somehow draw a similarity about how you are a victim of unfair taxes. Got it.
@usxcanada
Thanks for saving me the search. (appreciate the immoderate words, “humor” so to speak.) Other translations. http://biblebrowser.com/matthew/23-15.htm
I also tried looking up the words on Solomon, http://biblebrowser.com/ecclesiastes/3-1.htm
I see it is all in the translation and which version of the Bible you read.
Not my expertise, so will leave it to the believers to determine the proper translation and what is moderate or not! 🙂