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)”

  2. Governments risk falling short of FATCA demands

    http://www.international-adviser.com/news/1022762/governments-risk-falling-short-unprecedented-fatca-demands/page/1

    “The issue now is whether governments in these countries can handle all the information that has been given to them…While the US will allow a grace period to give governments time, they will ultimately have to create a protocol for processing this data.”

    “…another issue governments may face is litigation from its citizens who see the new reporting burdens placed on them as a result of FATCA as a breach of privacy.”

    The article states that the IRS won’t be waiting to pounce on governments as they try to implement FATCA requirements — because the IRS has other large issues to deal with, like use of tax returns for identity theft. Another comment is that while a lot of people were initially outraged by FATCA, “what we can see now is that the US’ approach to retrieving tax has spread to other countries.”

  3. What is a good statistic for the earnings of 8.7M expats living abroad?

    There is this Tweet below from Solomon Yue.

    I suggested to him that his number was high, as it referenced a figure for household earnings not individual earnings & also the possibility of nonUS household members, & as it was from a survey I suggested the number was not accurate as many not included in the survey.

    ???

    One factor that may raise the figure is US companies sending high paid execs overseas. Any good break down for US persons overseas?

    Solomon Yue
    ‏@SolomonYue
    @DemsAbroad when will #FATCA party stop treating 8.7M expats as “FAT CAT” tax cheats: 43% earn < $100K/yr per survey. http://v.gd/eBUhPb

  4. June 10, 2015, Heartlander – IRS Watchdog Proposes FATCA Reporting Reform

    from the article:

    ‘FATCA Does It All Wrong’

    Brian Garst, the director of policy for the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, says FATCA needs more reform than just merging two forms into one.

    “FATCA has many serious problems,” Garst said. “First and foremost, it’s completely unnecessary. The United States already has the highest tax compliance rate in the developed world, but even if there was a problem worth addressing, FATCA does it all wrong.”

    Garst says U.S. tax laws impose high regulatory costs on other countries, making foreign banks less willing to do business with American investors.

    “FATCA is also impractical and totally out of proportion,” Garst said. “It’s costing the world hundreds of billions of dollars to comply with but has been estimated to bring in around only one billion [dollars] per year in revenue. Plus, it exacts a high price on Americans overseas, in terms of added paperwork burdens, privacy erosion, and huge inconveniences from being denied services by local financial institutions.

    Cato Institute Senior Fellow and Institute for Global Economic Growth Chairman Richard Rahn

    …says FATCA is too vague to be properly enforced.

    “Not everyone seems to know what a financial institution is,” Rahn said. “People think of banks, but there’s all kinds of insurance companies, a whole variety of companies that hold money in one form or another. In fact, some of the domestic regulations are extended to auto dealers, and pawn shops, and on and on and on, so this definition could be so expansive as to include everything.”

    Rahn says FATCA was designed to pry into private citizens’ financial records.

    “The basic objective was to get full information about Americans who may have accounts in foreign countries that they perhaps are not paying taxes on,” said Rahn. “That was the motivation. My view on this from the very beginning was that this was going to be a disaster, and it’s turned out to be exactly as predicted.”

    Where’s the Authority?

    “First of all, there’s the question about the right of the United States to require foreign financial institutions to supply information to the IRS,” Rahn said. “If these financial institutions do not have U.S. branches, where is the authority to do this?”

    and

    ‘Used to Punish People’

    The government’s real-world use of FATCA differs from the stated goal of the law, Rahn says.

    “The argument originally was revenue, that these people should pay their fair share, etc.,” Rahn said. “The purpose of taxes, in theory, is to raise revenues to operate the government. It’s not supposed to be used to punish people.

  7. Trying to get some joint anti-FATCA action going on Twitter.

    I sent out a private Twitter message to about 30 to: compose a Tweet and copy the contents of the Tweet below and put it in there. I’ll retweet your Tweet.

    I am not sure what it is yet I know that certain Tweeters have more Tweeting strength and under #FATCA their Tweets get put under Top, where I tend to end up under Live, except to less Tweeted individuals.

    Aim here is lots of Tweets, and lets see what happens.

    JC Double Taxed ‏@JCDoubleTaxed 4h4 hours ago

    ” #FATCA Does It All Wrong..many serious problems…impractical and totally out of proportion” @SenateFinance
    http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2015/06/10/irs-watchdog-proposes-fatca-reporting-reform …

  10. @TaxConnections: The Internet Tax Summit sounds fabulous! Can one sign up for it using a moniker or must one use his/her real name?

  11. Charl: Thanks for posting the news of the Vatican’s capitulation to FATCA. I hope that the SWAT team will get over to that article and add to the comment section so laudably begun by “Laura Wilson”!

  12. @ Charl
    The Vatican Bank laundered drug money for the CIA to fund Operation Gladio in Italy and other parts of Europe (innocent people were killed in order to blame the Soviet communists — i.e. false flag terrorism to maintain a “strategy of tension”) and NOW all of a sudden Pope Francis wants to drop a banking “transparency” bomb, no matter how many ordinary overseas Americans suffer from FATCA fallout damage. Chances are they will find some Catholic American fatcat homelanders with money stashed in the Vatican Bank but these noxious weeds could have been unearthed and uprooted without mowing down the whole meadow.

  13. TaxConnections Internet Tax Summit – Free Ticket (This is a blog that was posted on TaxConnections about the upcoming Internet Tax Summit – @MuzzledNoMore – you can sign up however you wish) – see other blog posts here – http://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/

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  19. I see an article like this, and it makes me genuinely sad that the USA, my own country, has reduced me to cheering for its comeuppance, even its downfall. But if the Bahamas becomes Hong Kong West as an RMB clearing center, it will be more of a problem for the USA than Cuba ever was in Washington’s wildest dreams. I wish the Bahamas huge success in chipping away at the dollar’s hegemony.

    http://www.lowtax.net/news/Bahamas-Signs-Renminbi-Agreement-With-China_68330.html

  20. @Barbara

    I am probably wrong… but I think the countries that bent over for Fatca who had strong privacy laws… will try to stake a knife into the US in a polite & nice way…. US being blind to the fact they are not the universe… will not notice until they are standing there & wondering why no one wants to play with them anymore… then they will try with their might to force everyone to play with them again…. at that point… it will be too late… the boat has sailed away for them….

  21. @Barbara
    The financial wizards still expect the dollar to rise in value through 2016- I was just told. I wonder when the currency problems will actually arrive?

  22. Pssst, Americans living abroad or wanting to live abroad. Are you in need of or desire a non-US citizenship and do you like the idea of living in a country whose motto is “To live and let live”? Well there’s a brand new nation (born April 13, 2015) which is looking for citizen settlers. It’s called Liberland (tiny area between Croatia and Serbia) but you would have to be a happy camper type until the building begins. Are you ready for this adventure or are you simply curious? Check this out:
    https://liberland.org/en/about/
    https://www.lewrockwell.com/podcast/a-new-libertarian-country-in-europe/
    It looks rather pretty on the google satellite map:
    https://www.google.ca/maps/place/45%C2%B046%2700.0%22N+18%C2%B052%2700.0%22E/@45.7660032,18.874127,9361m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0
    BONUS: One of its two official languages is English!

  23. Polly: I’ve been wondering the same thing re: the demise of the US dollar. But it seems to keep going from strength to strength like the ruddy Energizer Bunny! I don’t understand it. Like Barbara, I am, sadly, looking for a comeuppance that never seems to materialize. My patience is wearing thin.

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