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.
@Jak Dac Happy Holidays! Rubio stated he was for territorial taxation for individuals and companies.
Some technical detail on what is reported by FATCA and what is not being reciprocated.
http://tandt.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/10/21/tandt.ttv178.full.pdf?keytype=ref&ijkey=gNrzOlmwXk1HHmw
Pakistan-US decide to share financial intelligence on dual nationals
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2015/12/24/national/pakistan-us-decide-to-share-financial-intelligence-on-dual-nationals/
@JC,
Very interesting. Thanks for that.
Canadians are still hoping that there will be citizens of other FATCA’d countries who, like our plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen, will actually go public and use their local courts to attack compliance with FATCA.
An update below from Republican Overseas re: Marc Zell’s attempt to prevent Israel from complying with the FATCA law:
“A political Christmas gift to all 8.7 million overseas Americans from Marc Zell, Republicans Overseas Vice President for Mideast, RO Israel Chairman, and RO FATCA lawsuit plaintiff:
I am pleased to report that the (FATCA) Petition to the Israel Supreme Court Sitting as a High Court of Justice was filed today. I will send you an updated English translation of the petition as soon as it is ready. The case number is HCJ 8886/15 and the case is styled as Republicans Overseas Israel, A.R. et al. v. Government of Israel et al.
Wish us luck….Marc Zell, one of two Counsel for the Petitioners
Note: Israeli laws allow Mr. Zell to petition the Israel Supreme Court directly on a Constitutional matter like FATCA.
Good luck to Mr. Zell and Merry Christmas to you all.”
https://www.facebook.com/republicansoverseas
Taxes the overseas income of American companies and CITIZENS. Rubio and Lee would join much of the civilized world by moving America to a territorial system that taxes only domestic income.
https://reason.com/archives/2015/03/17/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-the-rub
Financial information of dual nationals being shared with US
http://www.kashmirmonitor.in/news-financial-information-of-dual-nationals-being-shared-with-us-95736.aspx
6,000 Kuwaitis ‘face’ sanctions
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/6000-kuwaitis-face-sanctions/
May help BEFORE April 30, 2016
Tougher rules for Social Security claiming strategies
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-rules-for-social-security-claiming-strategies/
IRS creates international practice units for their IRS revenue agents in international tax matters:
…”These IRS materials give a good perspective from where the IRS views the world; including the introduction to this particular IRS International Practice Unit where it states: “This Practice Unit focuses on a U.S. Person’s proactive steps to “conceal” their ownership of foreign financial accounts, entities and other assets for the purposes of tax avoidance or evasion, even though, there may be some situations where there are legitimate personal or business purposes for establishing such arrangements. This unit falls under the outbound face of the matrix and thus, will focus on U.S Persons living in the United States . . . Most U.S. taxpayers using an offshore entity or structure of entities to hold foreign accounts are simply hiding the accounts from the Internal Revenue Service and other creditors . . .” [emphasis added]”…
http://tax-expatriation.com/2015/12/28/irs-creates-international-practice-units-for-their-irs-revenue-agents-in-international-tax-matters/
Because ”….This unit falls under the outbound face of the matrix and thus, will focus on U.S Persons living in the United States . . .”, I am more optimistic than ever that the IRS is NOT going to aggressively go after U.S. Persons i.e. Expats and accidentals living permanently abroad. At least not minnows….
However, the compliance industry will continue to use their fear tactics to get business. It’s a racket that benefits the cross-border accountants and tax attorneys. I also acknowledge that the local banks could still make life difficult for expats because of FATCA.
Monalisa: exactly. Furthermore it is well-established that coming forward to the IRS is asking for trouble.
Before, and while, coming into compliance one must retain control of one’s declarations to the IRS, and of the information one gives to the tax preparer and other professionals. Some things need not be said. Just a small example: if you live in country x and have a country x birthplace, no need to start listing everything… even if you are a US person.
There is really no option but fully informing oneself. It’s not that hard, thanks to this site.
@Fred, exactly. Unfortunately, I had an omigod moment several years ago (before Brock) and panicked during the OVDI FBAR crackdown. I suspect that I could have just filed going forward and filing in a simple way, so long as I honestly declared all my income..I fell for the scare tactics. I spent over two years’ wages just to the cross-border accountant to get compliant and wound up owing substantial taxes as well…had I just filed the simple way via turbotax, I wouldn’t have even owed any taxes.
I’ll always remember how the IRS agent inside the U.S. Embassy seemed to have a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ attitude which was in sharp contrast to the accountants… it’s all made me jaded and cynical. People who know me from the early days will remember how scared I used to be. I would post on here all the time about how desperately scared I was….
Less than one-fourth of MF investors are FATCA compliant
Investors have to update their details by Dec 31, failing which they will not be able to open a new folio or account
http://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/less-than-one-fourth-of-mf-investors-are-fatca-compliant-115122800838_1.html
A chance to comment and just maybe get Mr. Hedges attention:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/the_illusion_of_freedom_20151227
@Mona lisa…Mona Lisa….. “I am more optimistic than ever that the IRS is NOT going to aggressively go after U.S. Persons i.e. Expats and accidentals living permanently abroad. At least not minnows….”
We probably agree but let me expand on this being a creature of the system.
Treasury WILL enforce the laws and ANYONE that enters/touches the spider web WILL have the blood sucked out of their carcass. They have no choice in the matter.
FATCA “complicates things” however.
I believe that IF Treasury receives a “slip” from TD Bank in Canada that says Joe Maple Leaf with SSN ____________ has $75,000 in a time deposit account, Treasury has an OBLIGATION to make contact with Joe Maple Leaf.
BUT I do believe that things will be “go slow” to begin with. They will have a period of assessing the FATCA data and determining what to do with it. Homelanders will IMO rightly fall first.
Both at Treasury and on the spreadsheets of Junior Congressional Staffers, there will be number crunching on just how much gold can be exploited from expats. Someone will have a hypothesis on where the line can be drawn on aggressive compliance and generate funds.
IMO anyone who is FATCA’d with a disclosed SSN may be facing a standard $10k FBAR penalty just to start with.
This FATCA data can be used to fund all kinds of projects in the homeland!!!
Hmmm..this article says Nina Olsen will be meeting with Congress in February to talk about problems that tax payers have. I wonder if we write her about the expat problems if she would bring it up to Congress and ask for some help http://www.marketwatch.com/story/after-some-saw-their-worst-tax-season-advocate-expects-better-irs-service-2015-12-28
@George
The IRS is so badly funded that it probably won’t do much more than process the ones that enter the spider’s parlour willingly through one of the so-called amnesty programs, at least for the first while. Question is, will the IRS allow someone to enter Streamlined once they are on the IRS’s radar through FATCA?
@George, you may well be right. I wouldn’t be surprised if they might even make a few random examples of Expat minnows to further scare people into compliance. But I believe that they will still concentrate on U.S. Persons residing in the U.S. because it will be more cost-effective.
I often wonder if any IRS auditors read Brock…we might give them silly ideas, especially if they feel that we’re getting ‘Bolshie’ to make us feel insecure again.
I’d suggest avoiding being a low-hanging fruit by not having any assets located within the U.S. that could be easily liened. It seems to go in cycles…. back in 2009-12, the IRS was really rattling with its harsh OVDI programs, whereas they seemed to soften their approach by broadening the Streamlined programs.
They may toughen things up again, perhaps in another couple years, especially if they: take away passports, continue to raise expatriating fees, reduce available renunciation appointments, withdraw the Streamline amnesty, etc. But I have grown increasingly cynical.
I still feel relieved to have renounced though as life is so much simpler now. It seems a racket though…Congress is effectively a private club.
At least I have hopefully made a clean exit by doing everything pedantically. It’s almost been five years and am gradually looking forward rather than dwelling on my last financial ‘cancer.’….I will hopefully soon be in ‘remission and will be able to get on with life, albeit with deep scars.
I wish everyone here what will hopefully be a better year and that our case will continue to progress.
Perhaps they are expecting a large influx of information, as the IRS is now making greater effort to bring IRS agents up to speed on international tax matters. I don’t see that they’re making any distinction between resident and non-residents however.
In the IRS’s materials for the International Practice Units used in educating IRS revenue agents, it states, “Most U.S. taxpayers using an offshore entity or structure of entities to hold foreign accounts are simply hiding the accounts from the Internal Revenue Service and other creditors”…
Although the IRS states there are some instances where a taxpayer has legitimate reasons for having an offshore bank account, those reasons can’t possibly be because a taxpayer may reside outside the US, as “most” offshore bank accounts held by US persons actually belong to non-residents.
http://tax-expatriation.com/2015/12/28/irs-creates-international-practice-units-for-their-irs-revenue-agents-in-international-tax-matters/
@Bubblebustin
Well, so far they have only brought domestic cases. For FATCA to be credible, they are going to have to find and prosecute a U.S. citizen overseas who is a really bad egg. Otherwise, it will look like FATCA is all really about already heavily taxed “Americans abroad” like Boris Johnson. They are making lots of promises to foreign countries about the benefits of FATCA (that it will help curb corruption in China, black money in India, terrorism in Pakistan, narcotrafficking in Mexico). If it doesn’t deliver at all, the U.S. will move even further down in other countries’ estimation.
It’s an election year. If Trump’s nationalism or Sanders’ socialism continues to do well, it could be rocky. And, of course, Hillary has represented New York and gotten lots of donations from Wall Street, which has very strong reasons for wanting to punish those who have money outside the U.S.
@MonaLisa1776
I fear that it will be a very tough year for a lot of people with U.S. birthplaces who either didn’t know that they were U.S. citizens or never understood what that meant in terms of tax.
@Publius
Americans abroad are looking more and more like the homelander’s whipping boy.
@Bubblebustin
On the plus side, there is always the possibility that Trump won’t do well. Many of his supporters haven’t voted in the primaries before and may not turn out. Maybe it will be Rubio instead.
I do worry that the IRS still seems to have such little sense of foreign financial matters that it comes up with lines about most foreign structures that hold accounts being about hiding the money from the IRS (as opposed to being what is available to a person resident abroad). I think that was the point of the piece: the IRS still doesn’t understand the situation. It is good that the author of this article has pointed out this out.
@MonaLisa : I’m sorry you were among those stung. Congratulations for now being free. I am fascinated by the notion that the IRS agent you mention seemed to be along the lines of don’t ask don’t tell.
@Bubblebustin : “will the IRS allow someone to enter Streamlined once they are on the IRS’s radar through FATCA?” Excellent question. In fact my OMG moment (being thrown out of a bank in 2014) made me start filing again (quietly) because I figured it’s better that way than to be found by them. Also I figured other banks would find me (they have not, so far) and that I’d have to tell them that yes I am compliant.
That said, as others note here, I imagine that prosecuting a foreign citizen (even if he is a US person) abroad just for not declaring an account would be difficult. I would certainly make it difficult for them. Procedures can last years, and you can always change countries in the meantime, making them start anew.
@Fred, ” Procedures can last years, and you can always change countries in the meantime, making them start anew.”
Thats a fascinating comment from an EU perspective.
A British Citizen (or simply EU Citizen) living in lets say Belfast, could move a short distance south to the Republic of Ireland.
There are many scenarios you could ponder in the context of the right of free movement of EU Citizens. The USA would cry foul but that IS the heart of the European Union, freedom of movement.