Media and Blog Articles – Part 7 of 11 (Year 2020)

213 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles – Part 7 of 11 (Year 2020)”

1. @Calgary,
   Good idea. I copied it there.

2. Thanks Calgary and Pacifica!

3. Here is a remarkable article written by Wade Davis, Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia and published in “Rolling Stone.” It is about the end of American hegemony as we have known it since the close of WWII. Possibly the most powerful statement I’ve read on this subject ever.

   https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/

4. Re: Rolling Stone article referenced immediately above by MNM….

   Youtube interview with Wade Davis about his article and the decline of the U.S.:
   

5. At 4:08 in the video Wade Davis outs himself:
   “I’ve often been described since this piece went viral as a Canadian commenting on America. I married an American, I became a nationalized American….”

6. The Republicans are recycling the 2016 party platform, word-for-word (including condemnation of “the current president,” which was Obama at the time, though he isn’t named). This means the following text is again officially on their agenda:

   The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Foreign Bank and Asset Reporting Requirements result in government’s warrantless seizure of personal financial information without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. Americans overseas should enjoy the same rights as Americans residing in the United States, whose private financial information is not subject to disclosure
   to the government except as to interest earned. The requirement for all banks around the world to provide detailed information to the IRS about American account holders outside the United States has resulted in banks refusing service to them. Thus, FATCA not only allows “unreasonable search and seizures” but also threatens the ability of overseas Americans to lead normal lives. We call for its repeal and for a change to residency-based taxation for U.S. citizens overseas.

   Do you believe them this time? Why is The Who song, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” playing in a loop inside my head?

7. Didn’t believe it the first time.

   It matters not one whit.

8. Why let a pandemic get in the way of multiple claims on the same income?

   Double state taxation situations in the US as states claim the right to tax the same income;

   https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/business/coronavirus-nonresident-state-taxes.html
   ‘Here’s How Moving to Work Remotely Could Affect Your Taxes’

   “The rules are complicated and vary by state, so accountants are advising taxpayers to keep track of how many days they spend working in each state.”

9. Your help is critical on the UK FATCA front:

   https://www.americanexpatfinance.com/tax/item/507-funding-concerns-loom-for-jenny-as-clock-ticks-on-possible-fatca-appeal

10. Not sure if this implies any changes for us….. From our friends at Tax Connections…

    https://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/irs-assures-congress-aggressive-enforcement-efforts-are-ahead/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=irs-assures-congress-aggressive-enforcement-efforts-are-ahead

11. @PierreD

    Doubtful. There has never in the past been enforcement against non-compliant non-residents – because it’s basically impossible – and unless there are dramatic changes that make it possible in the future, there won’t be.

12. I get the following message for the link…

    This site can’t be reached
    http://www.americanexpatfinance.com’s server IP address could not be found.

13. Thank you, Calgary411. I was sent the link. Let’s try this:
    https://americanexpatfinance.com/tax/item/507-funding-concerns-loom-for-jenny-as-clock-ticks-on-possible-fatca-appeal

    @RH
    I suggest you look up the word “impossible”.

14. @SH

    Yes, “impossible” is perhaps a slight exaggeration. However, after close to ten years following this issue, I have not yet learned of a single instance of the IRS enforcing anything at all against a US person outside the US, with no US assets or other financial connections, and who filed no US tax returns.

15. Former US ambassador to Canada helps Biden court the overseas vote:

    https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/biden-campaign-seeks-to-boost-overseas-american-voter-turnout-87740997771

16. I like his conclusion that most are not voting because they don’t know they can, nothing to do with most not being bothered because a vote in the USA won’t make any difference to their lives.

    Promise the end to criminalization, unfair and unreasonable taxation and penalisation of US citizens for living elsewhere and the votes will come.

17. Mike: “Promise the end to criminalization, unfair and unreasonable taxation and penalisation of US citizens for living elsewhere and the votes will come.”

    Amen!!

18. Regarding the (generally quite good) Bloomberg article from yesterday, something interesting came up in the comments, concerning potential out-of-the-blue contact of US persons in Canada by the IRS. I politely asked for a link or reference, but the poster couldn’t find the article he remembers seeing. Snippet of the comment below.

    best I can recall is the Globe and Mail a year or so ago. I tried to find it (tried a range of search terms, no success), but thought unless I could come up with the actual article there was no point. It featured several stories of people in Canada who were born in the USA, had spent only a tiny fraction of their life there, but were being contacted by the IRS. Some were the offspring of corporate transferees that had returned etc. One in particular was an elderly person in Saskatchewan who was born in the USA, but but had left as an infant, and was now being sent requests by the IRS.

    Normally someone here spots and flags any such reports in the Canadian media. I have no recollection of seeing anything like this. I would assume that there is always some reason for the IRS to have a person’s name – they aren’t pulling it from FATCA data. But it would be good to chase down the story, if this commentator – who seems to be extremely lucid – is remembering correctly.

19. Behind a paywall at The Economist so I couldn’t read the whole thing, but for those who subscribe;
    https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/08/15/should-personal-financial-data-be-sent-to-foreign-tax-authorities

    “….AMERICA’S ONGOING assault on firms from China, spurred by worries about its citizens’ personal data being passed to the Chinese government, will have put wry smiles on some faces—not least those of activists who for years have used similar arguments to try to stop their governments passing individuals’ financial data to America and other countries. Their legal challenges against transfers of tax-related data have had little success so far. But a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s top court, could change that…”….

20. An amusing article was published today on the official Upper-Austrian provincial news site.

    Apparently, a 73-year-old pensioner from the city of Linz received a $1200 “economic impact’ check – signed by Trump – in the mail. At first he thought it was a fraud, but a trip to his local bank confirmed it was real and he was able to cash the check and receive the funds on his account.

    In the interview, the man says he went to the US in the 60’s after graduating high school and worked as a waiter for two years. (Maybe he let a greencard lapse or had a work visa; the article doesn’t say). The weird thing is that his wife, who has never been to the US, also received a check.

    Furthermore, two Upper-Austrian bank branches report others have come to cash in their stimulus checks as well (45 at one bank and 63 at another).

    A bank manager interviewed for the article attributes the checks to a data ‘goof’, adding that 1.1 million deceased Americans were also erroneously notified, a fact which the US authorities have supposedly confirmed.

    Here’s a link to the original article (in German): https://ooe.orf.at/stories/3065683/

    My check must’ve gotten lost in the mail…..

21. That is awesome. Love the twinkle in his eye during the short interview. He is definitely keeping the money!

22. @ Ron

    He’s definitely keeping the dough!

    I didn’t include it in my synopsis above, but the article mentions it’s theoretically possible the US government could demand the money be returned, but the effort required for them to recover the funds would be so great as to make it highly unlikely.

23. What the hell! That guy got my cheque and his wife got yours, Petlover….

    But seriously, I wonder if he draws a small SS benefit based on his limited US employment and that’s the reason for the windfall. (A quick google shows that the US and Austria do have a totalization agreement.) And if his wife is collecting a spousal benefit she would probably qualify for a stimulus cheque as well. We’ll probably never know.

24. How on earth would the US government have had his address?

25. If he receives SS benefits they would have his current address even if the actual benefit arrives by direct deposit. They like to “keep in touch” and mail something several times a year. 100% speculation on my part, however.

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