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The Isaac Brock Society

Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 3 of 11 (Year 2016)

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-3-of-3  )

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” of FATCA/CBT articles.  [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 aren’t on this list yet.

2016.12.29
Switzerland moves further to end bank secrecy, Financial Times, UK.
2016.12.23
How FATCA Infringes and Trammels our Statehood, Stephen Kangal, Trinidad and Tobago News, Trinidad and Tobago.
Barclay’s chief preparing to take a stand against US regulators over unduly high fines to European banks, James Quinn, The Telegraph, UK.
2016.12.22
Canada refuses to name bank that broke money laundering rules 1225 timtes, Mike De Souze, Robert Cribb & Marco Oved, National Observer.
Financial Intelligence agency gave bankers head up about money laundering disclosure, Mike De Souza, Robert  Cribb & Marco Oved, National Observer.
2016.12.21
US citizens may pay double tax on Kahlon’s child savings program, Michael Zeff, Jerusalem Post, Israel.
Applying to be Swiss in the Trump Era, Steve Krump,  SwissInfo, Switzerland.
2016.12.20
File That Tax, Boom Chicago, YouTube, Netherlands.
Tijuana City Councilman Faces US Money Laundering Charges, Sandra Dibble and Dana Littlefield, San Diego Union, US.
2016.12.19
Senate Report Finds IRS Agents Living Large on Public’s Dime, Guillermo Jiminez, Tax Revolution Institute, US.
AG to UNC: Come to Parliament first – a Joint Select Committee to deal with FATCA . . ., Ria Taitt, Daily Express, Trinidad.
Rand Paul criticizes framework of tax reform plan, Naomi Jagoda, The Hill, US.

Articles from earlier 2016 are at this link

Articles from 2015 are at this link

Articles from 2014 are at this link

Media and Blog Articles  thread, Part 1 of 3, is at this link.

Media and Blog Articles thread, Part 2 of 3 is at this link.

 

2,818 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 3 of 11 (Year 2016)”

  2. I shall refer to a new review of two books. The relevant comment on FATCA is the third-from-last paragraph. The review is entitled:

    “Parking the Big Money” by Cass R. Sunstein in the January 14, 2016 issue of http://www.nybooks.com

    The two book-titles are:

    The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens
    by Gabriel Zucman, translated from the French by Teresa Lavender Fagan, with a foreword by Thomas Piketty, University of Chicago Press, 129 pp., $20.00

    The Price We Pay
    a film directed by Harold Crooks, inspired by Brigitte Alepin’s 2010 book La Crise fiscale qui vient (The Coming Fiscal Crisis)

    There is discussion at reddit.com .

  4. The link gets me to *Webpage not Available*.

    (I’ll try later to change link in your comment above, seniorexpat.)

  5. 16 issues to make 2016 candy for the market

    8. More KYC hassles: All types of abbreviations such as Fatca (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) and CRS (Common Reporting Standard) mandated by foreign countries and those by local regulators such as KYC-II and UBO (Ultimate Beneficiary Owner) might hassle you if you have investments in capital markets. These are part of an ongoing global war against tax evasion and undisclosed money. But, if these result in a cleaner, more transparent environment, genuine investors wouldn’t mind.

    http://www.westfieldtimes.com/business/16-issues-to-make-2016-candy-for-the-market/92230/

  7. Creepy, creepy, creepy is it not? Thanks, Barbara for more sleazy words actually published as great financial advice.

  9. The FEIE is very generous compared to the standard foreign tax credit mechanism. The complexity is low as well. Each year I have to sit in a spread sheet to get my FTC done. Go live in a low tax country and your golden with FEIE.

  11. Not exactly golden, Neill. Put a brake on your envy. I live in a fabled “low tax jurisdiction”, and while the FEIE makes some things simpler, the lack of a tax treaty makes for some godforsaken messes, such as having to toss 15.5% of our gross self-employed and royalty income into the IRS garbage can for years, on top of the local mandatory contributions. We are both convinced that by the time we so-called retire (if ever), we we’ll see a return of, at best, 40 cents for every dollar we spat into the US social security system. Or, quite likely, nothing at all. I won’t be surprised at a new law called something like the Patriotic Freedom Retirement Act which ‘rescues’ social security by requiring you to live in the f—ing grand old USA in order to claim benefits, same as Medicare we’ve also paid for (see the logic?).

  12. @Barbara, with the funding shortfalls you are exactly correct. Since medicare is not available overseas social security should not be available overseas.

    Hmm, I was just thinking….I wonder if @Calgary looked into her son getting social security disability as I know similar situated persons in the USA that did so.

    Anyways, I would also not be surprised if Congress decided to limit social security for those that left the USA to live in low cost countries. I have noticed growing articles on retirees leaving and they are written with a stroke of envy.

    Lastly, I can see a day when any federal or even state pension will not be paid overseas. Retired US postal employee in Canada…too bad.

  13. Three pages and then one sentence “Just because George may qualify for Exclusion for U.S. income taxes doesn’t mean that he automatically pays zero taxes in his expat home.”

    Problem is we are up against articles like that one!!!

    Hence, I think the battle has to be a citizenship battle not a tax battle. IF the USA had signed the Master Nationality Rule, we would not be in this mess.

  14. But the article opened up a new can of worms with “McKeegan said that, “California is known as one of the worst states.” He said that if George has a California driver’s license or even a library card, and even if George qualifies for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion he will still be required to potentially pay taxes in California.””

    Hmmm, looks like a lot of states can also claim expats.

  15. George,

    re:

    Hmm, I was just thinking….I wonder if @Calgary looked into her son getting social security disability as I know similar situated persons in the USA that did so.

    No. I see that as similar to leaving him off at the US border, asking the US to take over his care and agreeing he is a US-deemed US citizen. My son is Canadian and will be as OK as I can plan for him after I am gone, with a combination of the RDSP I now hold and contribute to for him and which I will not close for US tax purposes as he is as entitled to that Canadian registered savings plan as any other person with a disability in Canada (the RDSP that the US deems (like the RESP and TFSA) a *foreign trust*) and the portion of what I leave for him and his sister when he will no longer qualify for provincial disability funding.

  16. @George: Yeah, I love that sentence too: “Just because George may qualify for Exclusion for U.S. income taxes doesn’t mean that he automatically pays zero taxes in his expat home.”

    This sentence implies that the FEIE might entitle him to pay zero taxes in his expat home, but not automatically. What BS.

    It should have read: “Just because George may qualify for Exclusion for U.S. income taxes doesn’t exempt him from paying his full share of taxes to his expat home, on top of any remaining US tax obligations, capital gains taxes, US social security contributions, and $10,000+ penalties to the US for failing to report his daughter’s junior girl hockey league bank account, over which he has cheque-writing privileges.” Such a disclaimer would have at least had a smidgen of accuracy.

  17. @Barbara,

    I am sorry but you don’t have a monopoly on paying for stuff that’s either a total waste, a bad investment or won’t benefit you. If you earn a lot of money you get all that crap as well even if you live in the US.
    I have paid massive amounts to medicare. I have paid in a lot to SS but luckily I retired at 51 just as I got to the second and really bad bend point of payouts. I have paid the net investment income tax and I will never get any healthcare from all that money.
    While many of you people voted for Obama I wasn’t allowed to but I was required to pay the taxes you guys wanted. I suffered all the bash the rich stuff you guys wanted to including OVDP.

  18. @George
    There are glowing articles about retiring abroad, but also articles about it not working out as well. The people my friends and family know who have moved to Mexico seem to do so because they have financial problems in retirement, not because Mexico is where they want to be.

    I do wonder what the grounds are for California’s claim, since Cook v. Tait was explicitly about citizenship and one is not a citizen of a state in the same sense.

  20. Re: article referenced by @Tom Alciere

    The program [streamlined] is remarkable because it offers compliance with no penalties for people who are able to use it.

    No “Get Out of Jail FREE card!” The article/author needs a point of information re “penalties” in regards to “streamlined.” Facebook comments.

  21. Perhaps the best way to present the penalties of streamlined is in contrast to Homelanders in the same situation. Also need to note that Homelanders are not subject to double taxation, are better able to take advantage of tax breaks in their country of residence, and that living overseas there are $0 in services from the US government. The comment may be best from someone who went through the streamlined process.

  22. Streamlined: “5-percent miscellaneous offshore penalty on highest asset value in a given year”
    Streamlined is 3 years so 5% + 5% + 5% ??
    Confirmation that “asset value” excludes any debt against those assets?
    One may owe no tax through this but heaps in 5-percent miscellaneous offshore penalty.

  23. @JC,

    Streamlined is supposed to include compliant accounts. OVDP included assets like houses but only if non-compliant. 5% of house values could be huge. Maybe the assets are different in streamlined.

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