Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

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

If clicking on a comment link brings you to the wrong comment, click here  to get on the most recent page of comments.(alternatively, to reach the most recent comment page, go to  the url in the bar at the top of your browser and delete everything after http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments-part-2-of-2  )

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.

Articles from earlier in 2015 are at this link

 Articles from 2014 are at this link

Media and Blog Articles Open for Comment thread, Part 1 of 2, is at this link

Media and Blog Articles Open for Comment thread, Part 3 of 3, is at this link

1,837 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles – part 2 of 11 (Year 2015)”

  4. Another lawsuit!

    These people are specifically under investigation by the IRS. Nevertheless, they appear to be challenging the government’s use of FATCA to circumvent the Cayman Bill of Rights. This could be interpreted as a challenge to FATCA’s validity, I suppose.

    https://cnsbusiness.com/2015/09/09/cayman-us-couple-fight-tax-exchange-decision/

    Cayman-US couple fight tax exchange decision

    Cayman Islands Financial Services Minister Wayne Panton signed an updated agreement with the US for tax sharing in November 2013 under FATCA, which was incorporated into the local tax exchange legislation. But in documents filed in the Grand Court last month the Aronfelds have challenged how the local tax authority released documentation to the IRS as part of a US tax investigation into their affairs under this law.

    The couple argue that the requirement to produce information “was impossibly wide and amounts to fishing in that it seeks information which is not or could not reasonably be supposed to be foreseeably relevant”.

  5. Looks like foreign working chaps and chap’esses are the target of more data trawls to find out if your paying SS and medicare taxes.
    http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-practice/irs-has-trouble-verifying-social-security-tax-exemptions-75748-1.html

    Should should damn well pay your medicare tax since it’s so easy for you to get that benefit. Just hop on a plane and fight your way through TSA.

    You can imagine a few mistakes will be made here as they try to match up the records. SSA can’t seem to straighten out simple stuff were they declare people dead or aren’t.

  7. Eric has been critical here of the EB-5 program not generating much interest. I pointed prior to this that there were news reports talking about an uptick in these visas. The remains a popular destination for money.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-immigrants-cash-funds-luxury-towers-in-the-u-s-1441848965

    This is why is dangerous for you Canadians to side with liberals. They will damage your economy and leave you dependent on the US for investment opportunities. The US gets to bully because other countries often have low economic growth. The US is doing its best to reverse this by punishing individuals and companies of course.

  8. AML And Investment Advisers: Understanding FinCEN’s New Anti-Money Laundering Rules:

    “In 2003, a similar rule was proposed and later withdrawn, and this new proposal comes amid an increasing focus on criminal and regulatory enforcement actions for AML, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) violations.”…

    …”The impetus for the proposed rule is regulatory concern that money launderers or terrorist financers may access the U.S. financial system through the “back door” because investment advisers are not subject to the same regulatory requirements as other financial entities such as banks and broker-dealers.”…

    http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=425694&email_access=on

  10. @Neill
    The article about Social Security overseas recipients says: “You can either maintain your U.S. banking relationship and have your Social Security payments deposited ‘back home,’ just as you would if you were living there, drawing funds as needed from ATM’s in your new home overseas.”
    However, if you no longer live in the US, it is not always possible to maintain a US bank account from which to draw funds; without a US address, that account may soon be closed!
    And if you have only a foreign bank account, well we all know what that means……. And how soon will your foreign account be closed because you are getting regular payments from the US and, seemingly, are a “US Person”?

  14. The Compliance Industrial Complex continues to make profits off processing minnows abroad into fish food:

    “PwC has acquired software company Ellis Financial Systems in a bid to more rapidly meet new tax information reporting required under such regimes as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). …..”

    from;
    http://www.international-adviser.com/news/1024807/pwc-makes-acquisition-speed-fatca-crs-reports#sthash.dhUylHiH.dpuf

    PwC and their ilk can’t believe their luck. Thar’s FATCAgold in them thar hills – around the globe – everywhere in the world outside the US is wide open for exploitation.

    They and their brethren will of course be in favour of FATCA – the gift to the US tax law and accounting industrial complex that is designed to keep on giving – closest thing to a perpetual profit machine – a tailor made gift to the industry.

    And then, as we know from all the trolling by US tax law and accounting firms for clients – now using free expatriation seminars as bait, there are the other spinoff business opportunities: the US Chamber of Commerce said; “….Here’s a hot tip for accountants and tax attorneys: now is a good time to develop specialized expertise in advising clients who may be seeking to expatriate from the United States. That demographic looks more and more like a real growth opportunity….”…
    https://www.uschamber.com/above-the-fold/exit-strategy-fatca-tax-law-keeps-pushing-americans-give-citizenship

    Get them coming to the US (immigrants with pre-existing accounts and assets), staying (those seeking the holy state of US tax, FBAR and FATCA compliance), and going (those that expatriate and seek to do so in the prescribed holy rites of the 8854, exit tax, certification of 5 yrs. US tax compliance, etc.).

  15. I’m going nuts looking for a document I found online a couple weeks ago, stating Bernie Sanders’ proposal to eliminate the FEIE. It was a multi-page PDF of a detailed tax reform proposal by Sanders, possibly from several years ago, with a short section on taxing individual overseas income. It didn’t use the words FEIE (or what the acronym stands for), but the proposal was: to limit tax deduction to the actual amount of foreign tax paid. Which is another way of saying, chuck the FEIE. I’ve been arguing with some expat Sanders moonies on this issue, and was stupid enough not to bookmark the link. It is certainly worth keeping, both as proof that Sanders stands by CBT, and that he wants to make it worse. Can anyone here lead me to it?

  16. @ Barbara,
    Sorry I can’t help. I scanned the comments made in 2015 for those containing the word “Sanders” to see if someone posted a link to it, but no luck. The only comments with links were two linking to articles about his brother running for UK Parliament and one about the TransPacific Partinership Agremeent. (I also looked through the the uploads list for the past 3 months to see if the PDF had been uploaded to this site, but didn’t see it there.) Hope someone else can help.

  17. @Barbara,
    The tax foundation has a breakdown of all the candidates tax proposals. The thing that stands out to me is that he wants to raise the net investment income tax from 3.8% to 10%. No mention of a change for tax credits.
    Without the FEIE you could still use the credits directly. More complicated but you will get much of the value. Your rights to this are granted to you in the tax treaties so going back on this would be hard for him to do. The direct credit has some advantages because of a stacking rule I am told but I don’t know the detail.

  18. @Neill & Pacifica: My fading memory recalls that Sanders’ tax manifesto was from 2013 or earlier, and was actually from the berniesanders.com website, but searches there do no good. Checked my browser cache and it isn’t there either. It very definitely called for “simplifying” the tax code by limiting deductions on “foreign income” to the actual foreign tax paid. I kick myself for not bookmarking it.

    For me, the FEIE is crucial. My country has no tax treaty with the USA, and has lower individual tax rates than the USA. With the FEIE we end up paying little or no US tax in the past 30 years. Using only foreign tax credits, every year we would have to make up the difference between my country’s rates and the higher US rates. Not to mention the complication of reconciling between the different tax years, most places I’ve lived accounting for April-March rather than calendar year. And finally, with the FEIE hubster and I never had to waste time scouring for all the other little deductions such as student loan interest and so on. With FEIE we have been able to avoid paying condors for the past 30 years. Without it, our cost of compliance shoots up to pay an accountant. This is why I am eager to confirm for myself and others Sanders’ stance on this matter.

  19. If Sanders gets his way, then one will REALLY see an vast amount of people leaving America and expatriating. It will be a stampede!

  24. KMPG is a big company that has a “global network” of FATCA experts that other big companies and countries can use for a big price in order to comply with the US law — and thereby turn over all of the the little fishes to the mercies of the U.S. IRS.

    You would think that KMPG would do its best to comply with all laws to catch those FATCAT tax cheats and would not likely be a defender of FATCAT privacy rights.

    Why then did KMPG, to its shame, file a motion to overturn a February 2013 (Canadian) federal court order for the accounting firm to turn over a list of (as yet) unidentified multimillionaire clients who placed their fortunes in an Isle of Man tax shelter scheme that the CRA is arguing is a “sham”?

    “The CRA hoped to learn the scope of KPMG’s “Offshore Company Structure” in order to identify potential tax cheats, as well as recoup millions in unpaid taxes and penalties.
    But KPMG filed a court motion to quash the judge’s order. For 30 months, the case known as Minister of National Revenue (MNR) vs KPMG has sat dormant before the court with no signs the top-tier accounting firm has handed over any list of wealthy clients. Neither the government nor KPMG has requested a court date to resolve the outstanding order of Justice Noel. ”

    “…CBC News consulted a variety of tax experts who say KPMG Canada could face civil “culpable conduct” penalties if the CRA determines the firm helped wealthy taxpayers concoct an illegitimate offshore scheme to avoid paying Canadian taxes…”

    From: http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.ca/2015/09/kpmg-under-scrutiny-in-canada-over-sham.html

  25. @ Alby,
    I’ve posted the following comment on the CNBC site (still in moderation). I’m afraid it’s almost as long as their article but everything I wrote had to be said. Hopefully SOMEONE will think about these things. Thanks for letting us know about this web-page.

    The idea that “More Americans renounced their citizenship…courtesy of the crackdown in foreign tax rules” is insufficient explanation. Even fully-compliant-for-decades US expats are deciding to give up their citizenship. Even if there is no tax to pay each and every year, such extensive and intrusive filing obligations typically requires weeks of form-work and potentially hundreds of pages of paper-documentation (if doing ones own filing) – – or an annual “hidden tax” of one or more thousands of dollars per year to pay for a competent cross-border accountant to complete and file these forms (even when, consistently, no tax payments are owed to the US).

    If one lives outside the US, everything one does in terms of day-to-day banking/investment/insurance is going to come under the heading of “FOREIGN ACCOUNT”. But then, after all, it is NOT LEGAL for someone with a “foreign” address to do their banking/investments using a US institution or broker. CATCH 22 !!!!!

    It is not just the crackdown but the recent gale-force increase in the RANGE and COMPLEXITY of such rules and policies and practices0, combined with the almost automatic assumption (by US lawmakers and the IRS) of being a “criminal tax cheat” (needing extensive interrogation and investigation). It is also how these (hostile homeland) laws impact the 7.6 million US citizens who have chosen to live/work/marry/conduct their lives outside the US (e.g. complete prohibition of, or extensive limitations of, access to banking/investment/insurance in their country of residence plus certain severe financial scrutiny above and beyond anyone else in that country, which has, until FATCA, been against the law in almost all countries).

    The anger is most felt by, and is most offensive to, those “US Persons” who have lived “abroad” for many years or decades. It is especially outrageous to the hundreds of thousands of “Accidental Americans” who happened to have be born in the US but were returned to their “native” land as infants or young children and never identified themselves, nor acted in any way, as “US Persons” Why should they be deemed and treated as US-taxable (with all the double taxation that this entails)? Yes there are tax treaties but also major “tax treaty gaps” such as the massive tax the Mayor of London (England) had to pay on the sale of his primary residence (born in the US, he returned with his British parents to England at age 5).

    Further, those who performed a relinquishing act many years ago (such as taking on citizenship and/or a government job in their “foreign country” of choice) are now being informed that because of a US Supreme Court decision (with no informing of these ex-citizens) these renunciations have been “effectively nullified”. Consequently, these folks now are having to go through a time-consuming and soon-to-be-very-expensive process to PROVE (to the State Dept’s satisfaction – – yes, this application CAN BE DENIED) that the US (and IRS) DOES NOT have any rights to their life savings (or the information on the bank accounts of their AND their joint-account-holding non-US spouses or aging parents or business partners).

    The US is way outside the 20th/21st century international norm in requiring extensive (or, indeed, any) tax-information-filing of their diaspora. The only other country to do so is the small African country of Eritrea which has been roundly demonized by western countries for doing this exact same thing. And now, because some Swiss banks have hidden accounts of US-resident citizens, the US is on a world-wide post-traumatic-stress-disordered witch-hunt for ANYONE with a US taint who MIGHT be a tax cheat. The US has forced all the other countries in the world to bear the IMMENSE cost (time and money) of finding these “US Persons”(and their joint account holders) who just MIGHT be tax cheats or money launderers. FATCA is NSA-style dragnet information grab and assumption of guilt with no judicial oversight. Would YOU want to be a citizen of such a country?????

    What hypocrisy given that the US is such a major safe-harbor banker for numerous wealthy past-dictators from around the world. While promised in most “Intergovernmental Agreements” (which are NOT equal to international treaties given that they were not vetted through the Senate), how likely do you think it is that the US will require all of the US banks/investment or insurance firms to start coughing up the same account data (as required by FATCA) and send it on to all these other countries. NOT LIKELY! The US feels free to impose change on the sovereign laws of every other country in the world (and threaten severe monetary sanctions for non-compliance) but will they honor these same principles in reverse? NOT LIKELY!

    It is with this resentment/horror/disgust that US Citizens are turning their back on their country of origin. And, frankly, the US has brought this upon themselves. I also pity the US-resident immigrants (and green-card holders) who also may continue to have monies stashed/invested in their home-countries because, who knows, they may actually decide to return there after a few years in the US or have relatives there they want to support. They, too, are being tortured over the rack of FATCA.

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