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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)”

  1. Story about US passports mentions renunciation in passing – but gets the fee wrong – still citing the 450. USD figure previous to the current 2350. Article states in error:
    “….There’s even a new fee if you’d like formally to renounce your U.S. citizenship: Once free, it’s now $450.”….

    http://www.seattletimes.com/life/travel/beat-the-rush-renew-your-passport/
    Beat the rush — renew your passport
    Originally published November 27, 2015 at 12:00 am

    A flood of passports were issued nine years ago — now they’re all soon to expire. Here’s how to beat the rush.
    By Jill Schensul
    The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)

  3. http://www.ftfnews.com/fatca-system-upgraded-to-brighten-the-holidays/9865

    FATCA System Upgraded to Brighten the Holidays

    All seriousness aside [sic], the system is intended to help those impacted by the controversial reach of FATCA to meet their obligations. The two-year-old online system “allows the IRS to identify foreign financial institutions [FFIs] and certain other entities with FATCA obligations,” officials say. “These entities generally report on foreign financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers under the terms of FATCA or pursuant to the provisions of specific intergovernmental agreements.”

    The online registration “is the backbone of FATCA,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in a prepared statement. “Working with financial institutions and through intergovernmental agreements, our progress against undisclosed foreign accounts continues,” he adds, ominously.

    Doesn’t it just make you want to curl-up in front of a cozy fire with a warm eggnog while visions of IRS agents dressed like jack-booted Nutcrackers dance in your head?

  4. @Badger

    I gave that Seattle Times author the correct fee. Her response: “that’s nuts”.
    Yeah, tell me about it. Hoping to engage her further.

  6. http://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/good-to-know-part-3-from-larry-stolberg-cpa-ca/#.Vl79_PmrTIV

    ◊ Executor liability for U.S. income tax and penalties, interest, etc., may extend to you if you were aware that the decedent owed the U.S. treasury for say tax from unfiled tax returns.

    This is what I worry about in connection with my son (and all others like him / their families) who cannot renounce a deemed US citizenship for any amount of money to any frigging US tax lawyer, accountant, other US tax professional. I would think it does not JUST pertain to *covered expatriates* or does it? Who in their right mind will be the executor for any of us / who would we ask to be our executor and be liable for US income tax and PENALTIES?

    How is this not a huge and potential problem?

  7. @calgary411,

    Just when you think you have completely understood your level of toxicity they add something new.

  10. Calgary411 –

    ◊ Executor liability for U.S. income tax and penalties, interest, etc., may extend to you if you were aware that the decedent owed the U.S. treasury for say tax from unfiled tax returns.

    This is what I worry about …  Who in their right mind will be the executor for any of us / who would we ask to be our executor and be liable for US income tax and PENALTIES? How is this not a huge and potential problem?

    Watching to see if you also get doused with ad hominem vitriol for hyping nonexistent dangers that might possibly drive a poor witless fearful into the clutches of some compliance condor.

    FATCA? No problemo.    Passport? So the US studied it, so what?    Executor for estate filing? Errrrr …

    PS  Welcome to the chorus as the hakuna matata section wobbles into shrieks of dismay.

    Very truly yours,

    Realist Who Takes a Long View  (few companions)
    or
    Whatever It Takes to Sleep Well at Night  (a highly variable condition)
     

  11. @Calgary
    Caught in another double bind. You are responsible for your son`s finances but not responsible to renounce for him. Hands tied.
    Anything to get money…..what a world we live in. Corruption increases more and more. Laws like Civil Forfeiture make highway robbery legal. More and more laws are made to collect from the people, spy on everybody, and make it look normal and fine.

  15. Despite any *exceptions* the Canadian government gives to the banks to not have to report registered (and other) accounts to the CRA for transmittal of information to the US IRS, many such accounts are considered *foreign trusts* by the US, including *discretionary trusts* set up for those with disabilities to take effect when the family member (or someone else) who set it up dies.

    Tax Connections, December 2, 2015: “Foreign Trust Protection for Foreign Assets: A Myth Busted!”

  16. @usxcanada

    Many a protester has taken to the street or consulate fuelled by nothing more than ad hominem vitriol. You should be less discouraging.

  19. @ calgary411
    Regarding the Greek government’s plan to eventually require all its citizens to declare all their assets. One commenter wrote, “My most valuable assets are my thoughts and if they want me to declare them, they can have them.” Something tells me there would be a whole lot of vitriol in that commenter’s thoughts.

    ASSET DECLARATION begets ASSET SEIZURE. Actually Greece was specifically chosen to be a test case country for this diabolical plan because it has historically been regarded as the “birthplace of democracy”. Globalists hate the concept of democracy.

  25. Tax Foundation comes out on the side of expats re HR 22:

    Cook v Tait established that benefits all American’s enjoy are taxable, even though those benefits are in fact rights bestowed upon us through citizenship. Passport revocation is only possible by converting mobility rights into a commodity, as I’ve emphasized in my above comment when I compared it to Canada’s citizenship revocation for terrorist crimes.

    Just today, the Tax Foundation has come out against HR 22 for reasons including the following:

    “Taxes and spending associated with the Highway Trust Fund are based on the benefit principle of taxation. This principle states that the taxes one pays to the government should be connected to the benefits one receives. This principle is seen as an equitable way to finance government projects—in this case, roads and infrastructure. Those who drive on roads and cause wear are the ones who should pay for future repairs. This type of taxation also sets a price for driving on the road in order to prevent overconsumption in the form of congestion. As such, any increases in funding for the trust fund should come from these types of taxes, such as the gas tax.

    Instead, this plan uses transfers from the general fund and other completely irrelevant revenue raisers such as revoking the passports of U.S. citizens abroad who are currently tax delinquent to pay for U.S. roads.”

    http://taxfoundation.org/blog/congress-reaches-deal-five-year-highway-funding-bill?mc_cid=7735f6a09d&mc_eid=6f30773d2e

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