Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

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)”

  1. Niels Marquardt, CEO AmCham Australia and former US Consul General, Sydney, speaks on the need to move away from citizenship-based taxation, Sunday Live, Sky TV, 20 Nov 2016.

    “. . . [approx. 0:17] And I just think we need to move toward a territorial tax régime, so we’re not taxing citizens who live overseas or even non-citizens. Australians. It’s a big issue for many Australians who’ve lived in the United States and come back, that they continue to be taxed by the IRS. We need to fix that. . . .”

    Thanks for the video, JakDac.

  4. A WSJ article “New Tax Rules on Corporate Inversions Face Uncertain Future” mentioning how Mark Mazur and Robert Stack re-interpreted law giving themselves authority to write regulations limiting corporate tax inversions. Some excerpts:

    “We have a problem. We asked Congress to address it,” said Robert Stack, Treasury’s top international tax official. “They didn’t do anything.”

    “Democrats, worried that more firms would flee, proposed targeted legislation that would make it impossible for companies to invert by buying a smaller foreign target. Republicans resisted, pushing for a broader tax-code overhaul.

    That left any action to Treasury, and as corporate departures entered bankers’ routine pitches to companies on how to lower tax bills, the department began to explore its own powers, said Mark Mazur, assistant secretary for tax policy, who oversaw the rule making.

    That happened in the background while Mr. Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew prodded Congress. Mr. Mazur, a 60-year-old longtime government economist, described a bottom-up process, driven more by Treasury staff.

    “At first we thought that we didn’t have authority to do much or anything substantive,” he said.

    Publicly, that posture flipped quickly, and Mr. Obama urged them along. Announcements followed in September 2014, November 2015 and April 2016, produced by a core group of about 12, along with an Internal Revenue Service team. “

  5. “Planning for the Use of the United States as a Financial Haven: Part One”
    http://www.bna.com/planning-united-states-n73014447997/

    Apparently it wouldn’t be good for US tax-haven states if the US signed up to CRS, because then US tax havens would have to report extensive information back to the customer’s country of residence. FATCA is okay because of the limited “reciprocity”.

    The United States has not agreed to participate in the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), relying instead on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) regime enacted in 2010 and initiated in 2014. United States participation in CRS is highly unlikely. Even with a change in control of Congress, CRS may be viewed as unnecessary because FATCA has been implemented by a series of intergovernmental agreements (“IGAs”), most of which provide for reciprocal exchanges of information.
    [..]
    The United States has limited reciprocal disclosures to be made to FATCA partners and does not require its financial institutions to gather the same account information which FATCA requires regarding the foreign financial accounts of U.S. citizens.

  7. @Innocente
    Maybe I am getting old, but I have no clue what you just quoted there from the WJS article. Like- what is a “bottom up” process?

  8. Poor Guardian journalist John Crace: The U.S. government has been chasing after his wife for U.S. taxes and she didn’t even know she was a citizen until after her American mother died. It sounds like his wife has gotten herself into a real mess. Maybe an invitation could be extended to him for his wife to attend John Richardson’s next meeting in London. His wife seems to be making a real hash of it. No comment section, but it is possible to send the guy e-mails via his column. Poor pumpkin.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/02/digested-week-flag-and-lighter-solution-to-a-bureaucratic-nightmare

  10. For 10 years, a fake U.S. embassy in Ghana sold illegal visas and ID papers
    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article118758218.html

    Every Monday, Tuesday and Friday for the past decade, a pink building in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, flew an American flag from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m.

    Inside, a portrait of President Barack Obama hung on the wall, and people claiming to be consulate workers speaking English sold visas to the U.S., India and other countries to rural Ghanaians for $6,000 apiece.

    It was all a fraud, a scheme of organized crime rings and a Ghanaian lawyer to defraud people of tens of thousands of dollars, according to the U.S. State Department, which recently raided and shut down the fake embassy. And it wasn’t just the U.S. There was also a fake Dutch embassy being run as well.

    The U.S. does have a real embassy in Accra, and a standard tourism visa costs $160, according to the U.S. Department of State’s website.

    But Ghanaian and Turkish crime syndicates were able to keep their fraudulent business going for so long by bribing corrupt local officials and doctoring bank statements, according to the State Department. They also specifically targeted people who lived in rural areas of Africa who would be easier to fool.

  11. @Eric
    A friend of mine was invited to spend 6 months traveling though Africa in a camper. They started in Angola. She told me that Africa is the most corrupt continent in the world. EVERYTHING works through bribes.

  14. @Jane
    I think the whole world is heading that way! It seems to me with globalization, not the good is being spread but the bad ideas!! But it might also be a result of global competition and too many people on this planet fighting to survive. And if we look at terrorism, they have no conscience! They murder anybody, they torture. Not even children are sacred anymore. There used to be morals used even in wartimes. Or look at healthcare. Who stopped believing in healthcare for the masses? I honestly don`t know what this world is coming to.

  15. @TomAlciere
    Isn’t this becoming a trend? More and more countries are turning their backs on America. Nobody is more blatant about it than the new president of the Philippines. More and more people consider their former leader- America- to be hypocritical and corrupt. A so called world leader has to be somebody with values- somebody people want to emulate. Nobody wants to be like America anymore. Where is that leader who people trust and are willing to follow of their own free will?

  16. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/04/after-carrier-deal-trump-vows-tax-35-percent-for-us-business-going-overseas.html

    “But any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the U.S. without retribution or consequence, is WRONG!

    The only way this will work is if the US puts up tariffs against nonUS companies – else the US based companies will be undermined in that they will be less able to control costs than their international based competitors. It is another reason for an overseas company not to have an HQ in the US.

    For real US Persons !? Such mentality seems to condone punishment “if move from US”. Not a good sign.

  18. Keith’s interview with IRS Medic is a treasure …. and it gives an approximate date (sometime in January) for FATCA hearings in Washington at which he will testify. Thank you for posting the interview, EmBee!!!!

  21. Not open for comment, but new by Allison Christians.
    English abstract, fulltext French only. Too large to use Google translate except portion by portion.

    Christians, Allison and Benoit-Guay, Nicolas, À Qui Le Droit De Taxer? Être Membre D’Un État Et Les Enjeux Fiscaux Qui En Découlent (Who Has the Right to Tax? International Tax and the Membership Principle) (May 31, 2016). Philosophiques, Volume 43, No. 1, p. 127-132, Printemps 2016. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2809741

  24. Mark Meadows seems to have mixed views on FATCA. Sept 2016 piece in The Hill quotes him as saying”

    FATCA, enacted in 2010 as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, has faced a wide range of criticism involving U.S. treaty obligations, intrusion of other countries’ sovereignty and privacy rules.

    “It was having a chilling effect not only on us being able to do business abroad but certainly from expats [who] are running into regulations. I don’t believe they were the intent of the law originally,” said Meadows, who recently introduced a bill aiming to repeal FATCA.
    [..]
    H.R. 5935 is “designed to hopefully give us still some accountability and transparency, but yet at the same time not make doing business with American citizens not the most difficult in the banking world,” Meadows said.

    http://origin-nyi.thehill.com/policy/finance/298130-lawmaker-seeks-to-investigate-obamas-foreign-tax-compliance-law

    So would some information, on some accounts, still be reported if this bill were to be passed?

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