Media and Blog Articles – part 2 of 11 (Year 2015)
You can access all years at this link: Media and Blog Articles – Links for All Years
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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. You could mention such articles in the comment stream for this page, or if I see one on another thread, I can copy the link to here. I’ll keep adding to the list, but not deleting, so we’ll end up having sort of a “bibliography” too. [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.
Note also: JC suggests 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.
Be sure to read the comment stream for this thread — there are usually very recent articles mentioned there that are not yet on this list.
2015.01.01
Raising revenue off Caribbean backs, Bruce Zagaris, NationNews, Barbados.
On or about 2016.01.01
16 issues to make 2016 candy for the market, Westfield Times.
2015.12.31
Tax reporting norms: FinMin updates guidance note on compliance, K.R. Srivats, Hindu Business Line, India.
2015.12.30
Top Tax Blogs from 2015, Tax Connections. (Congratulations to John Richardson and Lynne Swanson who placed 2nd and 4th!)
Global dragnet puts pressure on tax evaders as year-end deadlines loom, Jeff Gray, Globe and Mail, Canada.
IRS Employee Whose Job Was Assisting Victims Of Identity Theft Charged in $1 Million Identity Theft Tax Fraud, Paul Caron, TaxProfBlog, US.
How America’s Wealthiest Are Saving Billions Through a Private Tax System, TruthDig.
RA Returns Home, TaxProTalk forum.
2015.12.29
For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions, Noam Scheiber and Patricia Cohen, New York Times, US.
IRS Stirs Up New Crisis With Non-Profits Over Social Security Numbers, Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times.
DNC Must Heed Warning Bells From 2000, Bennet Kelley, Huffington Post, US.
2015.12.28
IRS Creates “International Practice Units” for their IRS Revenue Agents in International Tax Matters, Patrick Martin, Tax-Expatriation, US.
MF investors: Les than a4th comply with US tax law, Jayshree P. Upadhyay & Ashley Coutinho, Business Standard, India.
IRS service should improve after some saw their ‘worst tax season,” advocate says, Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch, US.
Ms. Fournie Shows Fortitude in Fight Against the IRS.
French citizen with a U.S. residency permit., now living in France
“This is going to be the last recalcitrant account to come out of Switzerland.”
Sounds like a Trust account of which Ms. Fournie is a beneficiary. So even if she was going to go along with Streamlined, then she would have to find the funds from elsewhere (outside of the trust) to pay for all the compliance, penalties, and fines. Worse for her sounds like the stressed out bank is not paying any dividends/interest.
http://www.deblislaw.com/ms-fournie-shows-fortitude-in-fight-against-the-irs/
@JC
Good grief. The lady is 80 years old and the account will not be inherited to her son. She`ll be dead before any of this is sorted out.
Undocumented relinquishers get a pass in Ireland:
“Circumstances in which an account holder would not hold a Certificate of Loss of Nationality:
In some circumstances a Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the US would not be available to an individual. For example the issuing of Loss of Nationality Certificates did not become common practice until the late 1950’s, therefore the non holding of a certificate prior to this time would be considered a reasonable explanation as to why would you not hold a valid Certificate and you could be considered a non US person without producing the Certificate in these circumstances.”
http://www.fsitaxposts.com/2015/06/25/fatca-faqs-for-u-s-citizens-released-by-ireland/
In 2003, in a report to the Joint Committee on Taxation of the US Congress it was pointed out that
CLN- yeah- but the banks want it.
Monday.Court case announcement. We better be ready to Stand with Rand in the comment sections. Some of the homelander comments are not that complimentary. They think it is some political stunt.
Keith REDMOND @kred65 42m42 minutes ago
#FATCA W/lawsuit announcement, Americans overseas need 2 B prepared 2 push back on uniformed homeland US journalist!
Anybody looked into this BE-10 form that Phil Hodgen says all US persons have a legal requirement to fill in each year and of course there is a penalty if you don’t.
These morons create a form for people to fill in if they are not required to fill in any of the other forms,
It would seem so crazy that you expect it’s an April 1st joke. One of their videos came out Apr 1st.
http://www.bea.gov/surveys/respondent_be10.htm
Well they want to capture more int he PFIC net. Of course PFIC is really capital controls. Obama economy is so bad we can’t have foreign investment:
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-practice/senate-introduces-bill-to-end-offshore-reinsurance-tax-break-75009-1.html
Govt likely to accept US law on tax evasion by expatriates
BS Reporter | New Delhi June 27, 2015 Last Updated at 00:42 IST
http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/govt-likely-to-accept-us-law-on-tax-evasion-by-expatriates-115062700043_1.html
@Neill
It’s been determined that it doesn’t apply to non-residents.
@Bubblebustin, You talking about BE-10? some of us are residents and were residents when we couldn’t vote.
Yes, the BE-10 , Neill. Good point.
A $25K fine for not filling out a survey? Insane.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/06/22/mohamed-fahmy-im-a-pawn-in-a-geopolitical-game.html
Not directly about US CBT and FATCA, but an example of how governments use citizenship against individuals, or induce/force them to renounce in order to be free. And I guess just as Cons stated in Parliament that those CANADIAN citizens of US nationality are merely second class Canadians – deemed to be AMERICANS RESIDING in Canada and thus in the Harper Con universe, unworthy of CANADIAN government assistance, the Cons lack of assistance to Fahmy are because they want to cast him as second tier Canadian.
YIKES!
Bank Of Canada Calls For Closer Financial Integration With U.S.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/06/25/bank-of-canada-calls-for-_n_7663832.html
Excerpt from an Economist article on diasporas:
“In the early 1980s barely a dozen countries had a ministry, a government department or some other official institution dedicated to their diasporas. And a few countries, including America, still ignore those who have left—except perhaps to send them tax demands. But these are a shrinking minority ”
Just when will America show some maturity towards its diaspora?
http://www.economist.com/news/international/21656176-governments-believe-their-diasporas-can-solve-all-sorts-problems-they-are-picky
Hope Rocco Galati is taking note. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rocco-galati-challenges-bank-of-canada-to-offer-interest-free-loans-1.3065650
Has anybody posted this link here before?
http://www.irsmedic.com/2015/06/19/taxpayer-bill-of-rights-act-of-2015/
The problem seems to be that the IRS is run like a business similar to the way healthcare was. It is run to make a profit, and not really a “service” for the people. How does one trust such an organisation? And how does one understand where taxpayers monies are going? It should be going to things like healthcare within America and to the IRS. But instead, it is being used for what? Wars?
All I know is that the tax agencies of countries in western Europe are trustworthy. They don`t try to make money off of people, they just collect the correct amount taxes. They would never consider asking for 20% per month late interest fees. I think such a thing would be boycotted and voted down by a whole nation. I dont know why that doesn’t happen in America. I just don`t. Taxes for kids? I don`t understand any of it anymore.
Comparison to equal financial/tax rights for gays.
In the US I saw a poll that said 60% support equal rights for gays. Up until now it may be said that gays are discriminated against in the tax code compared to non gay couples. For instance the marital deduction, in case one of a gay couple dies, was not available to them as they would have been treated as two single persons. I am thinking it may be said that there are many other areas of financial discrimination in the tax code against gays (yet perhaps I have not thought of this angle too much).
May we tap into this comparison for US persons overseas? May we tap into the recent Supreme Court ruling for gay equal rights and offer analogies? Of the 60% one may imagine most of these Democrats with Conservatives tending to be against. It is the Democrats who need convincing in terms of ending discrimination of US persons overseas. Of course we would not want to alienate conservatives.
I am thinking that US persons overseas don’t want equality so much but to be left alone. One may say that the tax code discriminates against nonUS spouses in various ways including reduced marital deduction (where gay couples did not even have this). So to be gay and US person overseas was even worse.
The discrimination that we may wish to highlight is discrimination compared to countrymen and countrywomen in the various countries in which we live – who are not disadvantaged by the US tax laws. Yet this is getting a bit abstract, I feel, for Homelanders if we try to advance an analogy of discrimination against gays.
Perhaps the theme would be anti financial/tax discrimination: US persons overseas vs US persons in the US. They don’t have to file FBAR, 8938, PFIC etc
Any other ideas? I feel there may be a good analogy here, I am just looking for the right words.
@Polly I like Tax Payer Bill of Rights #10 Right to a Fair and Just tax system. This is talking about fairness and justice and not just about “the law is the law.”
F(u)BAR
http://alphaglider.com/blog/2015/06/23/fubar/
@Polly- In January I had a few extra items to add to the Tax Payer Bill of Rights. How could I forget. ADD: Right to reasonable compliance costs.
More evidence that the IRS cannot keep taxpayer data secure:
From the Guardian:
‘Why should anyone trust what the US government says on cybersecurity when they can’t secure the systems they have full control over?’
“..The public is finally starting to learn what security experts have been warning for years: the US government has no idea what it’s doing when it comes to cybersecurity. Worse, the government’s main “solutions” may leave all our data even more vulnerable to privacy violations and security catastrophe…”.
…..”The agency that has been singled out for some of the worst criticism in recent years is the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that is supposedly in charge of securing all other government systems. The New York Times reported this weekend that the IRS’s systems still allow users to set their passwords to “password,” along with other hilariously terrible mistakes. …”…..
…”..Instead of addressing their own problems and writing a bill that would force the government to upgrade all its legacy systems, implement stronger encryption across federal agencies and implement basic cybersecurity best practices immediately, members of both parties have been pushing dangerous “info-sharing” legislation that will end with much more of citizens’ private data in the hands of the government. And the FBI wants tech companies to install “backdoors” that would give the government access to all encrypted communications – thereby leaving everyone more vulnerable to hackers, not less. Two “solutions” that won’t fix any of the glaring problems staring them in the face, and which may make things a lot worse for ordinary people. …”…..
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/24/irs-employees-password-no-wonder-we-get-hacked
The NYTimes reports:
“…Computers at the I.R.S. allowed employees to use weak passwords like “password.” One report detailed 7,329 “potential vulnerabilities” because software patches had not been installed. Auditors at the Department of Education, which stores information from millions of student loan applicants, were able to connect “rogue” computers and hardware to the network without being noticed. And at the Securities and Exchange Commission, part of the network had no firewall or intrusion protection for months.
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Continue reading the main story
“We are not where we need to be in terms of federal cybersecurity,” said Lisa Monaco, President Obama’s homeland security adviser. At an Aspen Institute conference in Washington on Tuesday, she blamed out-of-date “legacy systems” that have not been updated for a modern, networked world where remote access is routine. The systems are not continuously monitored to know who is online, and what kind of data they are shipping out..”…
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/us/attack-gave-chinese-hackers-privileged-access-to-us-systems.html?_r=1
FATCA data represents an even juicier plum for hackers to pick.
@JC Re: analogy to gay rights and discrimination
This might be a wonky path to approach this with and I’m not certain it is what you are going after but one homelanders may grasp. (I obviously haven’t worked this argument out fully but trust you will see what I’m trying to get at. This is rather a flight of ideas.)
The US is forcing other nations to discriminate against US citizens. This is not allowed in the US and has certainly been demonstrated with the latest rulings. If it is not allowed in the US why is the US actually creating a discriminatory environment outside of the US borders? USC are no longer free to leave, cannot study abroad, work or enter businesses outside of the US if they cannot bank, cannot save for retirement, invest etc, are doubly taxed and have huge compliance burdens.
What if there was a group within the US that was not allowed these privileges, suffered these consequences? On a larger level, there actually is a group, the entire US citizenry! Why are US citizens being forced to stay in the US? Is this not discrimination of an entire nation not being allowed the privileges of most of the remainder of the world?
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/expat-media-research-requests/789690-research-perceptions-foreign-tax-rules-fatca-fbar-etc.html
Thanks, Tom!
I put a link to the survey mentioned in the article on the “Current Surveys – Let Them Know What You Think!” page in the “Take Action!” sidebar box. “FATCA Survey of American Taxpayers Abroad, University of Nevada at Reno, US, in conjunction with American Citizens Abroad Global Foundation.”