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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.

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)”

  1. They Will Not Win For Want Of Standing
    “Although there is more to it, most of the decision is devoted to the concept of standing. Standing is a pretty lawyerly concept. Essentially it means that in order to succeed in a lawsuit you have to show that something is happening to you in particular.”

    Hard to believe the Bopp case lost on lack of “standing” when so many are actually having something happen to them in particular.
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2015/10/02/rand-paul-suffers-setback-in-foreign-reporting-lawsuit/

  2. I still don’t understand who sent the information!! The banks..because of a foreign address? Did they gve the information to the irs who then sent it to these countries Or is it the irs taking it off of our tax forms where we have to declare the 8 dollars of interest?? So off of the 1040 tax forms??

  3. That’s what some are speculating, but the information in that case wouldn’t contain bank balances.

    http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/02/04/will-canada-turn-a-blind-eye-to-the-igas-faux-reciprocity/comment-page-2/#comment-6646511

    Not exactly reciprocal though, but maybe enough for both countries to give a wink and a nod? Our next campaign should be to hold our newly elected and reelected MPs feet to the fire on this issue. When can Canada revisit the deal it got under the IGA?

  4. ‘Conservatives move to revoke citizenship from home-grown Canadian: Walkom’

    ……….”it turns out that Stephen Harper’s government takes a remarkably broad view of dual citizenship.

    Gaya was born in Montreal in 1987. That made him a Canadian. His parents, originally from Pakistan, were also Canadian at the time of his birth. They were not Pakistani.

    That’s because both parents had been required under Pakistani law to give up the citizenship of their birth country on becoming Canadian. Both had willingly done so well before Saad was born.

    So why does the government view Saad Gaya as a dual national? Apparently, Pakistan eased its ban on dual citizenship in 2004, when he was 16.

    According to Ottawa’s strange logic, that means Saad’s parents could be considered to have been Pakistani at the time of his birth (even though they weren’t) and that therefore their son is a citizen of Pakistan.

    In documents filed with federal court, Gaya says he is not a Pakistani citizen and has never applied for citizenship from that country.

    But that doesn’t matter. Under its new law, the Conservative government does not have to prove Gaya is the citizen of another country. He has to prove to Immigration Minister Chris Alexander that he is not.

    That’s one of the many reasons why the British Columbia Civil Liberties Union and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers is challenging the law as unconstitutional, says Gaya’s solicitor, Lorne Waldman.
    ….”………”Critics accuse them of creating a two-tier citizenship system, where those who are dual nationals have fewer rights.

    But in a strange way, the Conservatives are equal-opportunity revokers. The Gaya case demonstrates that when the government is determined to banish those it considers miscreants, it will simply call them dual nationals — whether they are or not.”
    http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/10/03/conservatives-move-to-revoke-citizenship-from-home-grown-canadian-walkom.html

    I see that the Harper view of citizenship and who is Canadian has consequences for us re FATCA and the US. Harper and the Cons will tell us who are Canadians with full rights, and who are not.

    In the story above, Canadian citizens are not Canadian citizens with full rights even if they were natural born in Canada citizens with no other nationality, and those whose parents were duals – or who renounced another citizenship when becoming naturalized as Canadians will have to prove that they are only Canadians according to the logic of Harper and the Cons? Will we be considered duals/US citizens even after we’ve renounced, and will have to prove that we are no longer US citizens? And children born in Canada of US parents who naturalized back when it meant automatic loss of US status? Will they have to prove to Harper and the banks that they are not US citizens by virtue of their parents – even if those parents renounced BEFORE they were born?

  8. See:
    http://blogs.angloinfo.com/us-tax/2015/10/03/is-fatca-really-baring-its-teeth-reciprocal-automatic-exchange-of-tax-information/
    Is FATCA Really Baring Its Teeth? Reciprocal Automatic Exchange of Tax Information
    October 3, 2015

    “…Despite yesterday’s chest-beating by the IRS, one is left to wonder just how many countries actually forwarded information to the IRS by the September 30 deadline. My guess is that not too many did. This is bolstered by IRS’s issuance in mid-September of Notice 2015-66 which relaxed the nail-biting deadline for certain jurisdictions having a Model 1 IGA. …”……

  12. Thanks for the info, test. We’ve found that US Ambassadors to Canada pretty much don’t care or even weigh in on *US citizens who happen to reside in Canada*. Hope someone could get some input from this one.

  13. @badger

    So how many generations do we have to go back…. even natural born… to be considered a canadian only? This is something I expected to happen… any excuse… no matter how light it is… take away their citizenship… so what will they do with the man who killed that military man in Ottawa… pretty much closed down the area…. take away his canadian citizenship & deport him to where ever his ethnic lineage came from?

  14. It isn’t clear what the ambassador is going to talk about, but could there be an IBS contingent that attends and raises questions or gains media attention? Is it worth the effort? NOBODY IS LISTENING!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrr

  20. @Neill

    Actress from the UK married to an american…. who has a child that was born in the US also…

  21. @Neill

    The US does not have a monopoly on poor journalism. Nor, for that matter and more sadly, on stupid and bigoted commenters. Ms Blunt would of course not change her UK tax position at all by taking US citizenship because the UK, like all other sane countries, practices RBT and she’s not resident in the UK.

    My guess — pure guess, mind — is that if it is tax-related then she is concerned about US estate taxes in some way, and by becoming a US citizen she defuses that concern. But since green card holders get pretty much the same treatment as citizens (domicile, and all that), I cannot put a finger on what the precise issue would be. Maybe the tax angle is either blown up from a small throw-away comment or just completely invented, and it’s simply all about having the convenience of having same citizenship as the rest of your family.

  22. Not directly FATCA related, but, it does indicate how the USA is now viewed in the EU: The European High Court has declared the so called “Safe Harbor” agreement with the USA to be invalid. Personal data of EU citizens may no longer be transferred to the USA, because their data protection standards are deemed insufficent. Internet corporations such as Google, Apple, Twitter, Microsoft, EBay, etc. etc. must now either store all data relating to EU citizens in the EU – or deactivate their services. Hurray!!!

  24. @Fred, @NotAmused, that news is EXCELLENT…….

    This is an important piece of the puzzle to challenge the EU IGA agreements!!!

    Along with the news on the relinquishing fee that I just posted on, this is a SUPERB morning!!!

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