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.
@Polly,
I am talking about the Brits coming after me. I got loads of hassles from the Americans over foreign stuff and I don’t live outside the US. So CBT/RBT doesn’t matter to me. They took my money anyway.
I can’t leave the US tax system. That’s nothing to do with CBT. I can’t spend more than a short amount of time in the UK without being punished. That’s not CBT. I can’t move to many other countries without them killing me because of my portfolio. That’s not CBT. That’s PFIC like taxes.
CBT isn’t the only piece of the problem. Just getting RBT isn’t a full solution.
How we laughed.
http://promotions.usa.gov/newyear.html
@Neill
Sorry. I don`t understand you. The brits are not after you. The Americans are and it is because of CBT which includes all the PFIC rules.
@Polly,
PFIC is the tax law. CBT is having the tax laws apply to people not resident in the US. The UK has been making a lot of noise about expats being unpatriotic. So far nothing to affect me.
@Polly,
You realize the UK has their own PFIC like rules right?
On the page you reach from my consumer protection bureau there is a link to send email to Marietta to ask financial questions. Might be worth a laugh to ask questions about your foreign accounts and how to save for retirement.
@Neill
No- why should I know that Britain has its own PFIC rules? So sell your PFICS if you are interested in moving back to England. I honestly do not get what you are complaining about where England is concerned. The only problem you would have is that the US would continue to tax you there due to CBT and you`d have to pay an exit tax possibly to get rid of the problem.
Man! I see all my friends of different nationalities and they have no problems whatsoever with their taxes due to RBT. They just have to follow the rules of the place they reside. I ENVY them their freedom. In the meantime America is passing new laws every day to rob and confiscate and make it legal. Amazing.
@Polly,
Do you know the enormous expense of selling stuff? The only way for me to move to the UK would be to sell almost all of my assets, drain my HSA, drain the 529. Then pay any penalties and taxes. I would have to then buy a bunch of stuff suitable for the UK. If I ever wanted to return I would have to do it all again.
We need to be able to move from place to place without all this crap.
@Neill
“We have to be able to move from place to place without all this crap”
I can agree with that!
But I could! I could move to any place in Europe and take my portfolio with me. But I think for the rest of MY life I`ll just stay put and live in the country I now belong to. I love voting and being a part of my culture here. I agree with the government most of the time. I don`t know enough about the british government and their rules and how they apply, but I think I could move there too without much hassle if I could get a permit. Basically I think it is the americans which make all the fuss.
@ Deckard 1138
Barack Obama is personally welcome to drive across the border to my house and bite me.
+++
Best comment ever! 😉
And he’d have to drive South to get to my house. I love telling Americans that.
And I’d love Donald Trump or any of them to revoke my US passport which I have never had and strip me of my US citizenship they claim I have while they are at it. That would represent my Freedom Day.
@Polly,
No you’re wrong. I agree that America is the worst by several orders of magnitude but that’s really because they can be. I doubt you can take your portfolio anyplace you like. I can’t take my UK mutual funds to the US and I can’t take my ETFs from the US to the UK. I can’t easily have an HSA or a 529 if I live in the UK. I can’t an a UK ISA if I live in the US. Same crap in both directions.
Most people don’t have much if any investments so they don’t see this.
Compare the passport removal with this proposed rule:
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/262836-senate-bill-would-keep-social-security-for-federal-debtors
I don’t see why the government can’t take SS to pay owed debts other than the fact that people getting SS vote and they are of course the salt of the earth.
Ginny,
You’d have a very difficult time now getting a US Passport without US Social Security Number (from Canada),
See: http://tax-expatriation.com/2015/12/08/president-obama-and-congress-pass-law-that-will-require-department-of-state-to-deny-a-u-s-passport-for-a-seriously-delinquent-taxpayer/
which would also be very difficult for you to obtain:
See: http://tax-expatriation.com/2015/05/17/uscs-without-a-social-security-number-and-a-passport-cannot-travel-to-the-u-s/
I tried to put it into context regarding my son and came up with:
The EXCEPTIONAL U.S. Absurdity of
1)*NOT BEING ABLE TO GET A U.S. PASSPORT IF ONE BORN ABROAD DOES NOT HAVE A SSN*,
2) *NOT BEING ABLE TO GET A U.S. SOCIAL SSN as USCs without a Social Security Number (and a Passport) Cannot Travel to the U.S.* and
3) *NOT BEING ABLE TO RENOUNCE A U.S. CITIZENSHIP(acquired by birth abroad to U.S. Parent(s) (Unmeaningful & Totally without Consent) U.S. CITIZENSHIP BECAUSE OF *LACK OF REQUISITE MENTAL CAPACITY and a Parent, a Guardian or a Trustee unable to act on such a person’s behalf even with a Court Order* –
with THE ONLY REASON ONE WOULD GET A U.S. PASSPORT OR U.S. SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, THE ABILITY TO BE ABLE TO RENOUNCE (which cannot be done because of *lack of requisite mental capacity*) REQUIREMENT
with further requirement to BACKFILE IRS TAX and REPORTING (FINCEN114) FORMS in order to certify compliance on IRS FORM 8854
to AVOID BEING DEEMED a U.S. *COVERED EXPATRIATE*
Carol,
I assure you I don’t want a US passport, or a US SSN. Never had them, never will. All I want is for the USA to butt out of my life and the biggest favour they could do would be to decided to strip me of my imposed US citizenship. Which I refuse to recognize. I am a Canadian,born to Canadian parents albeit less than one mile on the wrong side of the Detroit River.
What I am serious about is if Trump, Obama or any of them could come up with some ground to strip me of the taint of citizenship, I would be very happy. I am not an American and your son is clearly not an American. The cruelty of how they are trapping your son, is beyond my comprehension. That’s the monster we have to stand up against. As Deckard says they can come and get me. And I will stand with your son anytime. Little makes me angrier than the arrogance of the USA in this regard. Since my Prime Minister is interested in restoring good relations between our countries, I will watch very carefully just how he goes about that and hold him as responsible as I did the previous PM for any harm done to Canadians.
Canada is a sovereign nation and I and many other Canadians deserve nothing less than the protection afforded by our own Charter rights.I have zero interest in any of my so called US Constitutional rights which I neither recognize, claim nor want imposed on me.
Thanks for posting the link to this petition, JC.
This is yet another opportunity for ENOUGH OF US to voice our opposition to injustice. Those like like Gwen and Ginny and so many others are deemed by the US *Accidental Americans* and thereby subject to the consequences of US CBT.
Please, everyone, step up to the plate and join another important initiative that doesn’t ask for your dollars, only your support for those unjustly gifted a non-meaningful US citizenship without consent.
When of any initiative will there be ENOUGH of us to make a difference / to legitimize what we are saying here, just listening to ourselves? So far only
3347 (12/11) supporters for this opportunity. (Inch by inch, brave supporters.)With our silence, we are in effect saying that *Accidental Americans should value the consequences they have inherited without their consent*. Without ENOUGH taking part in any initiative, we become an embarrassment to ourselves.
*********************
Again, here is what Professor Allison Christians says about the plight of *Accidental Americans* —
Ginny,
And — I stand by you (and Gwen) as you stand by my son. I, too, want some real amnesty — or a stripping of any deemed US citizenship if that’s what the US needs to save face.
I have so many more important things to do in the country in which I and my family live, every one of us Canadian citizens, not *US citizens who happen to abide in Canada*.
” certify under penalty of perjury compliance with all US federal tax obligations that would have applied during the 5 years preceding the year of expatriation as if they had been a non-resident alien during that period, may exit the relationship with the US on a no fee, no penalty and no tax basis.
I find this paragraph to be less clear than it could be to be consistent with the others. Maybe someone can parse the meaning of non resident alien for me, in tax terms and US terminology. I only speak Canadian.
Here is what the IRS says about *Taxation of Nonresident Aliens* — though not a big help for gaining clarity. You’re right — that paragraph is a problem for those, like you and me, who only speak Canadian!
https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Taxation-of-Nonresident-Aliens
@ Ginny
And therein lay my downfall — not understanding the US concept of being considered a resident alien when I am not residing there anymore … not for a long time and never again. Also, it didn’t help that my belated attempt to I-407 myself out was either lost, stolen or shredded — by THEM.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-03/irs-loses-hundreds-of-criminal-agents-as-tax-cheats-take-heart
The IRS decries the loss of numbers of its CI Criminal Investigation agents and budget shortfalls, yet, ironically, CI was busy threatening and persecuting all the minnows in the OVDI/P programs – busy wasting IRS resources tormenting mostly minnows and krill while the big sharks swam free.
The article says:
“…………….Picking their spots to sow fear and set public examples, CI agents play a central role protecting the integrity of the tax system. Cases often take years of painstaking work to meet the legal threshold of proving beyond a reasonable doubt the intent to cheat on taxes. And with resources stretched, ambitious tax and money-laundering cases risk falling by the wayside.”……………….
And so they continue the idiocy pursuing FATCA, and advising children and others living in Canada and around the world to file online FBARs. Re FINCEN, the agency where your FBARs are to be filed:
“..more agents work today on cybercrimes, and they use analytical software to mine data from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
This allows them to “locate and make connections a lot faster” using bank account and other financial information, Weber said. “We’re still out there, and we’re still committed to going after tax fraud.”.”……
Yeah right, like making connections between the FBAR filings reporting the Canadian RESPs and RDSPs of minors, and what exactly that needs IRS Criminal Investigation agents for is …….?……
Ginny. I think I understand the paragraph . However afaik that particular idea is only a proposal that is unlikely to be enacted.
@Calgary
it is completely bonkers.
And with each passing month, congress votes for more and more enraged, punitive and vindictive confiscatory laws.
@Neill
My portfolio holds stocks and bonds. My country (w)couldn’t do anything if I wanted to move away. My only problem would be health insurance at my age. Sorry yours seems so complicated.
@Polly
If you are within the EU and receiving an EU pension from any EU state. then their is a reciprocal arrangement for healthcare. You should be able to move anywhere there in your retirement.
@Heidi
Neill seems to be the one with the problem.
@Heidi
Oh- you are taking healthcare! Not part of the EU.