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.
@Polly, What government provides for us is so great that we must be forced to pay for it. It’s so great that a few should pay more for it. It’s so great that there needs to be tricks to get penalties to pay for it. It’s so great there needs to be collections of people we don’t like to pay for it. It’s so great that we need special exit fines if you try and run away from it.
@Neill
I haven’t lived in America for over 50 years. It doesn’t provide me with anything. Citizenship-based taxation is a fallacy in itself.
However….
If America wants to police the world and resents what it costs them, then all free nations should pay for the US army to do the work for the rest of the western nations. That would be every frenchman, dutch, italian, every german etc etc etc.
@Polly,
Not been away long enough to start recognizing sarcasm?
@Neill
I thought you lived in America?
@Polly,
I do. I am from the UK though.
@Neill
Here’s an example of what the US provides– foreign military aid. This, in part, is why I immediately stopped filing tax returns to the US after crossing the border to Canada in 1993. I don’t want any of my taxes paying for shit like this.
https://www.rt.com/news/323306-video-russia-helicopter-syria/
My comment about how great everything is was sarcastic. I don’t want my tax dollars paying for the military either. We could cut that budget in half or more and be just fine.
In view of ISIS, I think something needs to be done. But America finally is not pushing itself to the forefront. People ask why- I`d say it is because they are broke.
@Neill–
I didn’t take your comment for anything but sarcasm.
Cheers!
BC Doc
@ Barbara RE: your proposed $750 passport fee
Okay … so no breaks in the passport fees for the kiddies? But … how will ordinary American families (those for whom $3000 plus is a very big sum) ever broaden their horizons if they can’t afford to pay a much increased US passport fee? Americans are insulated enough from the reality of life beyond their borders so I’d hate for them to become completely isolated because even a car trip to Canada or Mexico is cost prohibited. It would seem the only ordinary American families who would be able to travel a bit would be those who are already living outside Prison USA and have acquired second, less expensive, passports. And, of course, they would have to resign themselves to never tasting Vermont maple syrup or seeing family members who hadn’t likewise made their escapes because there would be no passage through those prison gates for anyone who is US born and non-renounced. (Renouncing is even more expensive than buying US passports.)
I follow the blog of an American family of 5 who live on a sailboat in the Carribean. What a wonderful adventure and education for their children and what an expanded awareness of others those children will possess as adults. I’d hate to see this all end because the costs override their means to maintain their necessarily thrifty existence on their sailboat.
Only once did my family venture into the USA when I was growing up — many, many years ago. (We really wanted to see the ocean for the first time and to visit my Aunt and her family who had all become naturalized Americans.) It was hard enough for my parents to scrape together the money for gas, food and a few nights in motels. Passports back then were not required but If they had been, the extra cost would have certainly put the kibosh on that trip. Just saying …
@ Polly
I think all countries would be better off to pay the USA to STOP policing the world since this inevitably brings chaos and plunder to the countries it “polices” (e.g. priceless antiquities out of Iraq, gold out of Libya, opium out of Afghanistan, oil out of Syria, etc.) The thought also crossed my mind that countries and their FIs should have just paid the USA an annual fee to STOP the FATCA too. It would have been cheaper and far, less complex to do so.
@Embee
I dont want to have to wear a burka one day- or worse decapitated. But man- all that money thrown out the window trying to catch “tax cheats” could have been put to far better use.
@Neill
Happy Thanksgiving
@EmBee
Good point. My father had lots of relatives up in Canada and, if we had had to have expensive passports, we never would have gotten up there. It was a cheap family holiday and we even got to see the back of Pierre Trudeau’s hand once.
@EmBee: Hey, I was just proposing an off-the-cuff idea for a supposed “revenue offset” for eliminating CBT. We need something! Though I think the chances of anyone actually taking up the idea in Congress are zilch. But frankly I believe $750 per passport would be a “fair” levy, to take money directly from those using a service (passport issuance and the, yes, minimal consular services US tourists receive), as opposed the unfair levy of CBT on those of us who do not use US government services.
I’m old enough to remember Lady Bird Johnson’s campaign to “see America first”, and I still think that’s an excellent idea for the majority of Homelanders. Not only do Homelanders have no exposure to the outer world, other than maybe a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe, but most also don’t know their own country. Too costly to get passports? Then do a road trip around the wonderful US National parks and National Forests instead, take back highways instead of Interstates. That is not hardship. The USA is still a magnificent country to travel within.
And that family sailing the Caribbean surely paid a lot for their boat, and (I know this as an ex-sailor) pay outrageous harbor fees and mooring fees in each of those Caribbean ports, so that $3750 for 5 passports would not be a deciding factor against such an adventure.
Wow, just think what kind of revenue offset they could fabricate with a $750 passport. I think we could sell this!
@Bubblebustin: See my post on the previous page. No exaggeration, a $750 passport fee would bring in $9.6 billion in additional annual revenue to the Treasury, far outdoing the annual $800 million that FATCA is supposed to reap, or the $8 billion in one-time, non-recurring revenues they’re claiming from the OVDI and Streamlined programs.
In other words, it would go a long way as a “revenue offset” for abolishing CBT.
The rich won’t run away from Canada they say:
http://www.thestar.com/business/2015/11/26/trudeaus-tax-the-rich-plan-may-work-where-provinces-failed.html
Seems like you have gone full Obama up there though the rates seem a little lower but maybe the brackets are lower to.
@Publius,
Happy thanksgiving to you to. Turkey was great.
@Barbara
What will that do to the revenue that they hope to earn from passport revocation?
@Bubblebustin: Well, let’s see: 15 million passports per year @$750 vs. let’s say 4000 renunciations per year @$2350. I still think it’s no contest.
Then there’s the Green Card “immigrant fee”, currently at $165. Raise it also to $750 for permanent residence in the greatest damn country on God’s green earth. The USA gets roughly a million legal immigrants per year. So, that’s another additional $585 million in revenue per year. Add that to the $9.6 billion additional from passport issuance, and now you’re at over $10 billion annual increased revenue, just for charging a “fair” price (yeah, let’s fling the word “fair” back at them) for the God-like privilege of owning a US passport or green card.
And zero enforcement cost. You don’t pay the fee, you don’t get the document.
I like the passport idea too- but it would affect homelanders!!!! They would nix it right away. They think it is better to get the “offshore” money that “rightfully” belongs to them.
Polly, most Homelanders don’t have a passport and don’t want one. And this would be a “fee”, absolutely not a “tax”, a distinction lawmakers adore. Besides, who travels abroad in the minds of Average Joe American? Rich people, business people, terrorists, drug smugglers, and the traitorous scum who actually live abroad. Kidding aside, I think the majority of Homelanders wouldn’t blink an eye at a rise in passport fees. Just don’t touch that gasoline tax!
@Barbara
True. I think I heard somewhere that only 3% of homelanders have a passport. But still- it would make it harder for some to travel. Those who scrape together all lose change to finally make a trip somewhere outside of US boarders.
@Barbara
What about making people who actually have benefited from the U.S. government pay? There may be a massive FEIE loophole surrounding U.S. student loans and residence abroad that needs to be closed:
https://www.reddit.com/r/IWantOut/comments/2qiiqm/americans_living_overseas_ibricr_no_student_loan/
If this is true, someone could live for decades on a good salary abroad, never pay a penny on their student loans, and even safely retire to Florida if they wished to. It creates a perverse incentive for emigration. Also, I don’t think that anyone here could argue that U.S. student loans are not U.S. money. This would need to be combined with some easier method of transferring the money for people with student loans to remake their payments.
@Barbara
The passport renewal revenue offset still makes US citizenship about money – passport fees in lieu of taxes. When you make it about money, the point in which the US prices it’s citizenship out of the reach of the individual varies depending upon the individual’s level of tolerance (how much they can or are willing to spend). This is wrong.
Revenue offsets are a hoax because there’s the assumption that the revenue flow will remain static and people and entities won’t alter their behaviour as a result of the offset’s imposition.
I bet FATCA’s creators had no idea that thousands of Americans would renounce their citizenships because of it, therefore reducing the overall number of US taxpayers.
You’re talking about a core group of people who need their US passports to offset the potential revenue that 8 million people would bring in. Most so-called US persons abroad couldn’t care less about having a US passport or paying US taxes, and would happily continue neither under this change. There is simply no incentive for these people to start paying $750 every five years, unless of course it would be to get one in order to officially check out of the system for another $2350. There might be plenty of people like you and me who’d benefit from such an offset when you compare it to the annual compliance costs we’re currently subject to, but I think we’re in the minority – others would simply say “meh”.
Besides this, I don’t see the US government even considering such a thing unless the citizen was fully tax compliant before making such a conversion. There’s the rub. There’s simply too much money on the table (or so they think) to allow them to grant a full amnesty on tax ‘owed’ by Americans abroad – otherwise they’d have done it already.
At least that’s my opinion, for what it’s worth.