Here, this should get your blood boiling. Hat tip to @Tim who just drew my attention to this article at Politico.
Kerrey: IRS advocate to blame for scandal
I am just stunned by the chutz·pah of this Democrat to try and deflect political fallout on the Dems.
We need some Brockers to weigh in.
I am beginning to think this IRS scandal which broke Friday has some legs. It was above the fold on the front pages of two local Bellingham papers today. I think we can use this attention to tell a broader story of IRS misdirected energies and persecution of American’s abroad with their OVDPs and FATCA administration!
Here is my comment. Add yours.
That is just such Nonsense!!!
Nina Olson as been a GREAT advocate for Taxpayers, and her reports to Congress constantly point out what the IRS is doing wrong, and they just ignore her.
As a by product of Congressional inaction on her reports, the IRS management ignores her too.
Let me give you an example. She has filed a TAD, (TAX Advocate Directive) on the IRS 2009 OVDP “Bait and Switch” in the IRS voluntary disclosure programs for offshore accounts, only to be stonewalled by Commissioner Shulman and ignored.
The Commissioner refused to respond publicly as required and refused to rescind their secret suspension of the famous FAQ 35. That had serious impacts on many non-willful offenders of the FBAR rules that the IRS hadn’t even bothered to put in their own publication 54 prior to that time.
She even reported on this in her Report to Congress and THEY, meaning KERRY, did absolutely NOTHING!!! ZERO, NADA
See MPS 12, from 2011 report to Congress
http://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/userfiles/file/2011_ARC_MSP%2012.pdf
This is just Kerrey, covering his and fellow Democrat asses, while trying to deflect attention from their own failure to read her reports and act on her recommendations.
He also doesn’t want you to know of his own complicity in voting for FATCA and allowing the IRS to continue its offshore jihad against Americans living abroad by applying Draconian penalties and generalized punishment for ALL Americans Abroad, for the sins of Homeland offshore tax evaders!
If you are in a country who has no tax and SS treaty with the USA you will be double taxed. And do not forget Americans abroad must pay two CPAs, one in the USA and another where they are residing and working.Frequently their accounting systems differ and it becomes an ordeal the share information. Not mentioning how the fluctuation on the value of the dollar can make a big difference.
@Thatsme, so clarify slightly if you live and work in a country that has no tax treaty with the US you can still claim a foreign tax credit for foreign taxes on like kinds of foreign income. But depending on the tax laws of the other country you may or may not be able to claim a credit in that country for taxes paid to the IRS on income in that country. There are quite a few countries that do not recognize any foreign taxes for credit purposes to offset their own taxes.
If you live in a country that does not have an income tax (like Bermuda and the Bahamas), but which raises its revenues through other means such as consumption and other kinds of non-income taxes,. then you are truly double taxed by the IRS. None of these other kinds of taxes can be used for foreign tax credits and most of them are not even accepted by the IRS as deductions from income like some similar taxes are accepted if paid in the US. The foreign earned income exclusion will reduce your US tax liability, but remember it is not set in concrete. There are bills regularly being introduced in Congress to abolish the FEIE. Who knows from one day to the next when one of these bills might be tacked on some other totally unrelated legislation and suddenly you might wake up one morning and discover that the FEIE could be gone. It was briefly eliminated during the Carter years in the early 1980s, but restored in subsequent legislation. Don’t ever count on it being permanent.
Senators like Charles Grassley (R,IA) who was the chairman of the Senate Finance committee for many years when the Republicans controlled the senate, was and remains a bitter foe of any foreign earned income exclusion. Tigers do not change their spots with age.
@bubblebustin
You say…”I thought Nina would have to be out of her position as NTA for a few years before she could take the Commissioner’s position.”
I have seen that too, somewhere. Do you recall the reference?