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.
@Bubblebustin There is now someone Harper hates even more than Pierre Trudeau. “Nice Hair” Heir Justin Trudeau.
The Accidental American “Virtual Hunger Strike” letters to President Obama are now available on a community facebook page. You should not need a facebook account to access these but you will not be able to comment (unless you have an account), only read:
https://www.facebook.com/Accidental-American-Virtual-Hunger-Strike-1498181113811660/
heartsick,
Thanks very much for the link to the Accidental American “Virtual Hunger Strike’ letters to President Obama. I will be reading it all. The lack of response, again and again, is troubling and telling.
Gordon Pape, the well-known finance guru writes:
Quote:
“Imagine opening your mail and finding a bill from the [IRS] for $48,730.57.
That’s exactly what happened to me during the summer [of 2015], and I’m not a U.S. citizen….
I suddenly understood first-hand what the estimated one million Canadian residents with U.S. ties are experiencing….”
Everythingzoomer magazine, November, 2015, p.37 (print copy, not posted on the web yet)
Pape recounts that he was born in the U.S. and got a SSN, but moved to Canada at age 13. With the birth of his first child in 1967, he decided to naturalize and was promptly issued a CLN (which he still has). As a snowbird, he recently filed a 1040NR and a closer connection form to the IRS explaining why he should not be treated as a U.S. resident for tax purposes. He speculates that the IRS reviewed his form, saw his SSN, and deemed him by definition to be a U.S. citizen subject to full taxation.
The closing lines of his zoomer article (p.40) are:
“Whatever happened to national sovereignty and tax privacy? They no longer seem to exist.”
It’s pretty clear he doesn’t know about the ADCS Charter challenge.
Pape is an influential financial writer, broadcaster, and blogger. His website is
http://www.buildingwealth.ca
If Brockers fill him in, as well as being a source of publicity, Pape might even make a hefty donation to ADCS. As he says:
“I was shocked. Then I was angry.”
Pick and choose in the USA. *The law is the law is the law* except when it is not the law.
http://minutemanproject.com/federal-judge-bars-birth-certificates-for-illegals/
Our friend Orrin Hatch, who earlier this year ignored the submissions of many hundred expat Americans, just had this to say about judicial reform:
“Without adequate mens rea protections — that is, without the requirement that a person know his conduct was wrong or unlawful — everyday citizens can be held criminally liable for conduct that no reasonable person would know was wrong. This is not only unfair; it is immoral. No government that purports to safeguard the liberty and the rights of its people should have power to lock individuals up for conduct they didn’t know was wrong. Only when a person has acted with a guilty mind is it just, is it ethical, to brand that person a criminal and deprive him of liberty.”
Right. So, Orrin, what about those people who did nothing wrong, acting without guilty mind, by daring to open “foreign” bank accounts, or committed the crime of being born in the USA but never living there? That’s different, right? They need to pay their “fair share” (unless they’re corporations).
http://dailysignal.com/2015/09/21/senator-hatch-pushes-for-criminal-justice-reform-that-includes-mens-rea/
@Shovel
That’s a fantastic development! I recall that others here (Calgary411?) made efforts to get Zoomer’s attention, with no luck. I tweeted him with a link to ADCS and here.
We are a growing demographic of PO’d people.
So, Barbara, will you and lots of other Brockers be sending that very apt question to Oren Hatch?
I count 1429 names in the latest expatriation list.
Is that good?
Seems it’s a record high:
http://intltax.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54fb13f51883401b8d16cefd0970c-pi
@Charl and Innocente
That Laura Saunders WSJ article makes the DOJ look like some kind of hero for busting banks for doing what? holding customer mail? selling clients gold? using code words in emails?
Big crimes or just bullshit that the Swiss banks were willing to fess up to just to get the DOJ off their backs?
What if a customer doesn’t want to receive junk mail or doesn’t want family members snooping through their account statements? What if a customer is afraid of email security? Didn’t the Director of CIA just have his email hacked? What if a customer wants to buy gold? Is owning gold illegal like it was back when Roosevelt ordered the confiscation of it? What if a customer buys an insurance annuity? Don’t they have those things in the US?
The Laura Saunders WSJ article amounts to nothing more than a propaganda piece for the DOJ.
None of those so-called “big crimes” have been challenged in court.
1,429 expatriations for Q3? Imagine how many there would be if people weren’t so afraid of getting caught up in compliance problems or if the fee wasn’t $2,350.
Imagine how many there would be if the State Department wasn’t squeezing the appointment schedules.
Imagine how many have already renounced or relinquished and are not yet or never will appear on the lists.
@Walt
Imagine how many there would be if the list was all comprehensive. I am still not on the list and I renounced years ago.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2015/10/26/reverse-immigration-americans-renounce-citizenship-in-record-numbers/?utm_source=followingimmediate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20151026
Interesting read…
http://conservativeangle.com/schadenfreude-how-the-us-is-helping-china-create-a-new-financial-order/
Whoa, Nelly!
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/10/27/pro-family-pro-growth-tax-reform-for-21st-century.html
Marco Rubio:
@Polly
You’re German as well, correct? I wonder if there is a systemic reporting problem with those who renounced in Germany. I renounced 2012 in Frankfurt and have never appeared on the list.
The Guardian notes that Johnson, in his capacity as mayor of London, has criticized the U.S. Embassy for not paying the city’s congestion charge. The U.K. government says U.S. Embassy owes the city about $12 million, but the Embassy says the charge is a tax from which its diplomats are immune.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/11/21/365690481/london-mayor-boris-johnson-owes-irs-money-wont-pay
@notamused
I lived in Germany since childhood, went to University there, and then moved. I did not renounce there. But an acquaintance of mine renounced in Frankfurt and was on the list immediately. Go figure. I think they are basically just not organised, intentionally or unintentionally. I have had my CLN for years and am still not on the list.
FATCA Scam Targets Foreign Investors in US Securities
http://www.nestmann.com/watch-out-for-these-3-offshore-scams?inf_contact_key=6c254feb59c1ebc385fb3a9a5acfc197bc65239d189e99bb7b0e07205e829be2#.Vi_tqX-qqko
Need some Facebook commentary here on this ‘law is the law’ & long arm of the US law out to get Canadians article. Need commentary redirection to IBS.
Content warning: sounds direct from compliancer industry, not for the faint hearted!
IRS urges Americans living in Canada to come clean after courts allow CRA to share account information with U.S.
Julius Melnitzer | October 27, 2015
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/irs-urges-americans-living-in-canada-to-come-clean-after-courts-allow-cra-to-share-account-information-with-u-s
Taxman clamps down on snowbirds heading south, hopes to save millions
Even with tracking, mistakes are made. One should always keep a log of their cross border trips.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-border-security-benefits-seniors-1.3290299?__vfz=tc%3DcrJNVzx6Rbg
@Polly
OK, thanks. You’re right, there appears to be no rhyme or reason to it.
Jeez, one could have wished for a gradual loosening of borders between countries like the US and Canada, along the lines of the European Schengen Agreement (itself perhaps in danger). People from Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg, and others just drive back and forth with no controls or formalities.
I was sure this article was going to be rubbish. I found my first bit of rubbish when it claims that the renunciations being up is caused by wealth managers:
>Remember when the Facebook founder Eduardo Saverin renounced his American citizenship for a
>Singaporean passport? Classic wealth-management strategy. And thanks to the expanding number of
>practitioners, U.S. citizenship renunciations are at an all-time high, and growing.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/elite-wealth-management/410842/
This whole idea that the rich don’t pay their fair share is crazy just like the notion that only rich people are renouncing.