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. Silly @WhiteKat not upticking your own comments. The herculean challenge is to get ‘the message’ out about the injustices.

    Just joking WhiteKat. You do great! Especially in battle with deniers and all challengers.

    You might also “share” a comment direct to Twitter or Facebook.

  3. My oh my, oh deary me, we are such a bunch of FBAR whiners. At least that seems to be the inference in this comment by Steve Brauning (http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gabrielle-cintorino/tax-laws-pushing-americans-living-abroad-renounce-their-us) …

    I’ve lived overseas for 25 yrs and have been filing the FBAR ever since I found out I was supposed to do so, almost 20 yrs. And it’s a breeze now that it’s on-line. Takes me like 30 minutes for both my filing and my wife’s. I don’t have a very complicated filing, but I do have signatory on 3 bank accounts and have my own personal joint account w/ my wife. What’s so hard about that?

    So suck it up everyone who hasn’t slid down the CLN escape hatch. Get your FBAR e-filed before the deadline and keep repeating over and over to yourself “FBAR is my friend” … unless you don’t come up with the same numbers that are on that FATCA report the bank is set to send speeding on its way to the IRS. I wonder if Steve thinks FBAR foot-fault penalties are simply irrelevant because it’s ever so easy to FBAR e-file and nothing can go wrong … go wrong … go wrong.

  4. @JC
    That’s an old post from Rachel Heller’s blog last year. Unfortunately the repost on the Americans Overseas blog still contains the embarassing claim that the FBAR is something “new”.

  9. EmBee: Do you think Steve Brauning has even *thought* about what he’s doing when he files an FBAR? Does he not realize he is sending into the electronic ether (to end up God knows where) information about *all* his money and where it is?! That’s like leaving a sign on your front door saying, “The key is under the mat!” Does he really think it’s OK that Americans like him are the only people on the planet that are required by law to expose themselves in this way? Does he not understand that his government is perpetrating a heinous human rights abuse against him? Does he think all of us don’t want to file FBARs just because we think it’s hard? Oh, Steve, it’s way past hard! Good God!

  10. @Muzzled…..

    People like that would be able to justify in their mind if expats were chipped just like dogs.

    Why not…..we are no better than dogs to homelanders.

  11. @ MuzzledNoMore
    I think Easy-Peasy-FBAR Steve really doesn’t think much or empathize much. He’s one of those types who figure that as long as he’s okay then who cares about others who might not be okay. He reminds me of Barbara Bush and her Iraq War philosophy: “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? It’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”

  12. AA is pushing a new survey by University of Nevada Reno. This one is focused on FATCA. It appears balanced. It has lots of space for extra comments.

    I have read some comment that the best way to go after CBT is via first repeal of FATCA as that would be an easier task. Here is a FATCA survey. I made comment to them that FATCA is only part of intolerable laws of CBT, FBAR, FATCA, and trend of increasing regulation of US persons overseas.

    Anyway, I believe the survey may benefit via participation of accidentals and people who do not associate themselves as Americans – as lets not have survey results dominated by Homelanders Abroad!

    https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ACA_FATCA

  16. I had not known of André Vltchek (born in 1963 in Leningrad) until today from Paul Craig Roberts blog where this was referenced: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/06/19/in-the-usa-i-cannot-write/ and in which the author (also a *US Person / Citizen* subject, as we are, to US CBT) stated (of course not in mainstream media / a view from outside / to be read at our own risk):

    I was shocked by the state in which I found the United States.

    I left many years ago. I left New York, which was, for more than a decade, my home. I never returned, except to launch my books and films, and to see my friends. I never stayed for long time. Two weeks, this time, was the longest in years.

    This visit broke me. It exhausted me. It thoroughly depressed me.

    I saw clearly how grotesque pseudo-morality, disgusting religious concepts and hypocrisy influenced and ruined entire nations, client states, worldwide, especially in Asia and Africa.

    Yes, I believe in collective guilt. Holding US citizenship, I share the guilt. And therefore, I work non-stop, not to wash my hands, but to stop the madness.

    I’m still trying to digest his chilling observations. Living in the *western world*, wondering the how and why of having been born there *accidentally* only by good fortune, I must contemplate. (Will Bill C-51 / Bill C-24 / Bill C-31 restrict my contemplation?)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Vltchek

    http://www.amazon.com/Exposing-Lies-Empire-Andre-Vltchek/dp/6027005866

  17. @ calgary411
    Thanks for finding that André Vltchek article. I’ve read many of his essays and I’ve heard him on radio interviews (Kevin Barrett has André on his podcast as often as he can catch up to this free-ranging world traveller) but now I finally have an up to date image of him. He has endured so much in order to paint in true colours the political and cultural portraits of the many places he explores. One such place was Eritrea and his perspective gave me a whole new perspective of this little nation which is often described unfairly in rather derogatory terms.
    http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/12/eritreas-struggle-for-independence/

  18. EmBee,

    Thanks for the André Vltchek article on Eritrea — for balance on what we believe about the country, Eritrea, a must read for readers here.

    Another point of view from abroad. A fed-up and angry but brave Assyrian woman says, as should we all, “We decide; you don’t decide”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JL7-T0tYnQ
    … speaking to *the Whitehouse* regarding US control and damages to the people in divided and invaded Iraq (to those who brought ISIS to Iraq). She demands international passports for her people denied their identity.

  20. Between the IRS and ISIS

    https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentary/565357-between-the-irs-and-isis

    Since the introduction of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, which the IRS began implementing last summer, the amount of personal information available on Americans living abroad has risen exponentially. What is worse, it is often held by foreign institutions that have poor security protocols ensuring the information is not misused.

    The American government never sought to seriously ensure that the information gathered by the FFIs was well protected

  21. Wow. Robert Stacks says:

    But US treasury official Robert Stacks has revealed deep frustration with the reality of Britain’s negotiating tactics, accusing the UK of behaving as if it was entitled “to more than the income from the assets, functions and risks actually in their jurisdiction”.

    Kind of funny when the US is quite happy to tax stuff that hasn’t got anything to do with their country beyond a green card or a password of the person earning the money.

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/21/us-official-british-government-undermined-progress-tax-avoidance

  22. June 20, 2015, Press for Truth: “Rocco Galati Is Preparing A Court Challenge Against Bill C-24 “

    C-24 has now effectively created second-class citizenship within Canada. Those who are Canadian, whether or not they were born here, who have eligibility to seek citizenship elsewhere; they are now at risk of facing potential exile. Amnesty International has said that the law discriminates against dual citizens by suggesting that they are somehow “less Canadian,” because they have dual citizenship or are able to seek it elsewhere. The new bill gives immigration officials the discretion over whether or not to revoke citizenship for an individual, and there will be little in the way of appeals for the individual to seek some clarity or remedy of some sort.

    Not only has Galati professed his intent to challenge Bill C-24, but he has also indicated previously that he will be interested in heading a court challenge against Bill C-51.

    We here know that Bill C-31 (2014) was the first to define second-class Canadian citizenship and Bill C-24 makes the citizenship for many of us conditional and taking away protections.

  25. @JC You beat me to the Value Walk article, but here are some more:

    FATCA Is A Real Threat To US Expats In Philippines
    http://www.iexpats.com/fatca-is-a-real-threat-to-us-expats-in-philippines/

    UAE signs Fatca deal with US to provide tax details of citizens
    http://www.thenational.ae/business/banking/uae-signs-fatca-deal-with-us-to-provide-tax-details-of-citizens

    Govt does not intend to legislate retrospectively: FM Jaitley
    http://zeenews.india.com/business/news/economy/govt-does-not-intend-to-legislate-retrospectively-fm-jaitley_129501.html

    Govt does not intend to legislate retrospectively, says FM Arun Jaitley
    http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/fm-arun-jaitley–says-government-does-not-intend-to-legislate-retrospectively/1/220804.html

    UAE signs intergovernmental agreement with the U.S. on the FATCA
    http://www.cpifinancial.net/news/post/31760/uae-signs-intergovernmental-agreement-with-the-u-s-on-the-fatca

    US, UAE in new tax compliance agreement
    http://www.albawaba.com/business/us-uae-new-tax-compliance-agreement-710212

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