Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 5 of 11 (Year 2018)

You can access all years at this link: Media and Blog Articles – Links for All Years

If clicking on a link brings you to the wrong page in the comment stream, click here to get to the most recent comments.

Media and Blog Articles

EmBee suggested that it would be good if there was a thread for new articles, so that people would be aware of where to comment.   So, I created this permanent page.   I’ll make a permanent list of links posted here and keep adding to it,  but not deleting, so we’ll end up having sort of a  “bibliography” of FATCA/CBT articles.  [Note:  Some articles are not open for comments]

For more articles on FATCA, enter FATCA into Google then click on the link “more news for fatca” just below the most recent featured article.

Notes:

From JC:   To see #FATCA on Twitter for latest breaking news.  JC finds that is quite a good source and there even are some international articles that one may read using Google Translate.   Others may help certain tweets and articles remain in elevated position by retweeting them.

From Badger:   On an important archival note, please use the Internet Archive Wayback machine https://archive.org/web/ (see bottom right ‘Save Page Now’ box to enter URLs of webpages you want saved for posterity, and try to save backup copies of articles and other items of interest in some other form – such as a datastick or external drive. Some important and very significant webpages and the fulltexts of articles are no longer available (although some can be retrieved if someone using the Wayback machine saved them).

Be sure to read the comment stream for this thread — there are usually very recent articles mentioned

2018.12.23
New bill could lessen tax woes for Canadian residents with US citizenship: but the outlook is bleak for thousands grappling with Trump’s repatriation tax, Elizabeth Thompson, CBC News, Canada.
2018.12.21
Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad Act of 2018!  Let’s Get This Passed! Anthony Parent, John Richardson, Keith Redmond, IRS Medic. US.
TTFI bill introduced today, great news for Americans living in Canada, Reddit Forum.
FATCA: Significant Relief in New Proposed Regulations, Jeremy Naylor, Amanda H. Nussbaum and Martin T. Hamilton, Mondaq.
2018.12.20
Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad Act, Democrats Abroad.
2018.12.19
TCJA and US Expats, Karen Alpert, Fix the Tax Treaty, Australia.
2018.12.18
Why Banks Have Become Judge, Jury & Prosecutor and will Shut you Down Judged Guilty for Nothing That is Actually Illegal, Patriot Rising.
20`18.12.17
IRS Issues Proposed FATCA Regulations, Adrienne M. Baker, Joseph A. Riley and Jeff J. Kang, Lexology.
2018.12.13
IRS Issues Proposed Regulations on FATCA, Other Reporting Conditions, ABA Banking Journal, US.
2018.12.11
How the IRS as Gutted, Paul Kiel and Jesse Eisenger, ProPublica, US.
2018.12.08
December 2018 International Tax Reform Updates- FATCA -GILTI – TTFI, Anthony Parent interviews Keith Redmond and John Richardson, IRS Medic. (video)
2018.12.05
Explaining GILTI – Individual Impact, Karen Alpert, Fix the Tax Treaty, Australia.
2018.12.03
Luxembourg: Exchange Of Information Vs Data Protection: A Brave New World Of Transparency, Antoine Dupuis and Guilles Sturbois, Mondaq.
2018.12.00 (December 2018 edition)
EU parliament versus FATCA, Financier Worldwide.
Newsletter, Purple Expat.

 Articles from earlier in 2018 are in the Media and Blog Articles 2018 Archive.  Links to previous years’ archives are also at that link.

1,714 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 5 of 11 (Year 2018)”

  1. “the fact that one might in fact be entitled to citizenship is usually beside the point. ”

    Usually, yes, I agree. There are situations – some involving nothing worse than hassle, some much more serious – where the question of possible entitlement to US citizenship turns out unfortunately to matter.

  2. @Karen

    “Japan T – true. But the US will NOT be telling Australia about US accounts of US citizens/green card holders living in Australia. Only NRAs resident in Australia will be reported to Australia.”

    With the IRS’s record of keeping data safe (NOT), the mere fact that they have it means the whole world will know. If US banks follow the lead of non US banks and send everything they have on the targeted group/s, doesn’t matter if the IRS send the data or not. The date will be left out for the taking.

  3. When your bank tells you to provide proof of compliance and gives a very short time to deliver before closing or freezing your account, why would one spend precious time trying to provide proof of non citizenship, especially if what little research they are able to do seems to indicate that under US law they are a USC.

    People caught off guard by this generally do not have the luxury of time to properly inform themselves before having to do something to keep their accounts. Wonder how many knew how long the OVDI/P would take before they latched on to one of those. Wonder how many accountants had any idea of how long it would take.

    And even know, after how many years has it been and sites such as this, many are just learning of this. Wrong for those who now know to say what people suddenly facing this threat themselves should have done or not done in their OMG moment when they could not possibly know enough to make an informed decision.

    Additionally, “Affordable lawfirms” are two words that do not belong in the same sentance.

  4. @ andy05
    You probably won’t read this but just for the Brock record I would like to say your comments have always been greatly appreciated by me and I’m certain many others here too. Thank you for giving us your 5 point summary, based on solid research and years of experience. Just to highlight that I’m putting it in block quotes here:

    Most posters here and elsewhere have an agenda. I really don’t. The points I make are few: (1) don’t assume you are an Amcit just because you think you are; (2) don’t go into any voluntary disclosure without the greatest care and preparation, and for good reason besides; (3) in renunciation cases think about the consequences of “covered expatriate” status and how (and if) that can be avoided; (4) don’t forget that bankruptcy (foreign or American) can help in certain cases — the IRS will almost certainly not appear or claim in a foreign bankruptcy and even if your discharge is only valid abroad that may be enough (some penalties cannot be discharged in a domestic bankruptcy); (5) think of the children: I have known of a couple of strategic divorces during pregnancy; I know of numerous infants born abroad whose birth was never registered with a U.S. consular office (see above on that).

  5. @ plaxy
    “Shovel: I don’t see what point Robert Ross intended. Does it matter?”

    I see the point as injecting a bit of levity. And yes, that matters.

  8. Speaking of naturalization laws, years ago there were physical presence retention requirements for US citzenship ,even for those born in the US , that would have alleviated problems today for acccidentals and those permanently residing abroad but thanks to the efforts of homelanders living abroad ,the ACA et al ,and their lobbying efforts all restrictions to lose US citzenship were remove. The US Congress is not entirely to blame here.

    There seems to be a sales piitch here for renonciation and only that. Forget the fact that it costs you $3000 CAD per person. Forget that many can not afford it. Forget tnat you may not even be a US citzen . There must be more than one way to skin the renonciation cat.

    In Canada, the CRA allows supporting documentation in lieu of CLNs but do any other nations offer something that can be used in place of CLNs. Canada can’t be unique here. So many unknows.

  9. @Robert Ross

    I’m certainly not making a sales pitch for renunciation. If you are a Canadian citizen living in Canada with no US ties, you are completely protected from the IRS, therefore under current conditions there is no risk to non-compliance and no reason to spend money to renounce (unless for some reason doing so helps you sleep nights). Different story in those countries where a CLN would solve the problem of banking restrictions – renunciation may be money well spent.

  11. TTFI / Solomon Yue update
    Keith Redmond [on Facebook]
    Admin · 2 hrs
    I just spoke with Solomon Yue. He’s still in Asia garnering support with the American chambers of commerce and other entities for TTFI. It’s going quite well. He was able to even convince a Democrat who is in the US tax compliance industry in Hong Kong and who attended his presentation that TTFI will be good.

    Regarding the draft bill, Congress is in recess at present and we will work with Holding’d office after the recess.

    I am working on getting in front of Congressman Posey’s office with Suzanne Iclef Herman to lend assistance to Fabien Lehagre And the Accidental Americans in France. We must help each other as it will help the overall cost and the overall fight for our rights.

    Solomon Is not able to tweet or give updates while he is on travel because he is not always connected and does not have the time. He has asked everyone to be please be patient.

  12. Thanks for keeping us updated, JC. A huge thanks of course to Keith, Suzanne, Solomon and everyone else out there on our front lines.

  13. “US Expats Get Dear John Letters From Their Banks”
    https://www.iexpats.com/us-expats-get-dear-john-letters-from-their-banks/

    “Hundreds of expats have had letters from Fidelity, Wells-Fargo, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and other Us financial institutions to notify them that their accounts are closed….

    US financial institutions generally have a reciprocal duty to report the account details of foreign nationals to the IRS, which then transmits the data on to foreign tax authorities.

    They also must monitor their customers who live overseas to ensure they are keeping to the local regulator’s rules as well – and they may be different from those in the US, creating a dual compliance burden.

    The time and cost involved in compliance has led many financial institutions to ditch non-profitable customers by letter and email.”

  14. Don’t know if this already posted (not avail for comments unless people register);
    https://www.step.org/news/us-could-face-eu-blacklist-2019

    “US could face EU blacklist in 2019

    Wednesday, 30 May, 2018

    The US may be placed on the European Union’s blacklist of non-cooperative jurisdictions next June if it fails to amend its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act transparency rules to meet EU standards.

    The US has been warned that if it fails to apply the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard, and does not agree to exchange the bank account details of non-US citizens with governments around the world, it will be placed on the EU’s tax haven blacklist…..”………

  17. PierreD: wow, fascinating piece. Re civil forfeiture: “the annual value of police seizures now exceeds everything stolen by criminals.” This is amazing. It so vividly illustrates how toxic extreme law enforcement can be. I find it analogous to the extreme anti-tax evasion measures that prefer to paralyse, or even bankrupt, thousands of innocent people in the hope of preventing some wealthy people from partially eluding taxation, while tolerating, indeed encouraging, legal tax avoidance by a few ultrawealthy individuals and corporations.

  18. Plaxy: interesting. It seems that this takes aim at people with significant investments, not just lowly bank account holders hovering around the threshold below which you pay a monthly penalty for having a low balance (my case). I wonder if they are closing mainly investment accounts or also basic savings/checking accounts. Time to re-investigate the state department federal credit union?

  19. Fred (B): I don’t know, but my guess would be that limiting closures to HNW accounts or investment accounts would increase rather than reduce compliance costs. So if cost is the reason for the closures, any expat customer could get hit.

    If risk-avoidance is the real reason for the closures, maybe low-balance, low-risk accounts will survive.

    “Time to re-investigate the state department federal credit union?”

    Might be informative to get a credit union account but also keep any other US accounts – see whether a letter arrives.

  25. EY reckons GDPR added to FATCA/CRS paves the way for fresh abuse of customer data:

    An organized and strategic approach to collecting and maintaining customer data could better enable financial institutions to provide tailored products to their customers creating a greater value proposition. Indeed, customer experience can be affected by the insular culture of business units and silo processes. Moreover, as a result of FATCA and CRS reporting, taxpayers may contact financial institutions with information request for reconciliation purposes, for instance to match data being reported through FATCA and/or CRS with data being reported in the taxpayer’s tax return. Realizing the full potential of data analytics provides the opportunity to increase the customer experience and enhance a trusted relationship.

    There is no doubt that today’s digital world increases competition. Data analytics should be at the core of financial institutions’ business model. Thanks to advance in technologies – notably digitalization – the way is already being paved.

    https://eyfinancialservicesthoughtgallery.ie/turning-regulatory-and-tax-burden-into-a-sustainable-business-model/

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