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.
Are we seeing more and more people talking about FATCA repeal or does it just seem that way?
Bubblebustin: “All negative comments about the Freedom Caucus, Fred. Do they matter?”
Yep they matter … but not to the Freedom Caucus 🙂
Hey, not saying I like it but the GOP is in power now, might as well make the best of it.
Bubblebustin: but should, by some miracle, FATCA be repealed, or RBT be chosen (I’m NOT holding my breath), while we will be celebrating here, the comments on HuffPo and elsewhere will be overwhelmingly negative, lambasting Trump and co for opening the door again to horrible unpatriotic tax evaders.
By the way, if FATCA were to be repealed, the FBAR obligation and filing obligations would remain, I suppose. Since FATCA was aimed at enforcing these obligations, what will replace it?
@iota when you pull up the house repeal bill it appears to kill the whole thing and solves pfic and so called foreign trust issues. But like anything in dc you need to line up these bills and amendments very carefully as a comma can make a big difference
@Polly I think the numbers are unchanged.
@Fred as always bravo these are the cards and we are all playing the final hand.
@Fred once fatca is repealed all need to put their sights on bringing the 1970s fbar into the 21st century. Remember Trump through the secretary has the power to index the 10000 and to exempt groups and countries.
Remember fbar predates aml and kyc so it’s no longer needed for most of the world.
@George – Meadows says there would still be a degree of transparency and accountability, which seems to imply that there would still be a degree of reporting or sharing of account information.
According to govtrack the Meadows bill is identical to Ron Paul’s bill. Not that that casts much light on what Meadows might have meant. Maybe he was just waffling to reassure certain legislators that they could safely support the bill without bothering to read it.
It would be child’s play to create an editing app to display side-by-side before-and-after versions showing the law as it stands and the law as it would read as modified by a given bill. It doesn’t surprise me at all that Congress doesn’t do this.
@Iota……I have since “cut and pasted.” It appears that the bill would excise FATCA from the code. So his language on reporting my guess in political speak is that it reverts to the consititutional status quo that existed before. The good news is that horrible exercise has shown that Fat Cats are unicorns……………….I think that will peel away a few Democrats with the support of Democrats Abroad.
It also abolishes the form for the $50,000 reporting with a Form 1040.
And it abolishes the PFIC Filing and reduces the penalty still related to PFICS to something that “appears” OK.
You are right……if only they had to post a side by side showing before and after but…….then it would be hard to be sneaky. I remember in the 90s that there was a flaw in some legislation by a misplaced comma or some other punctuation error that cost the Department of Defense a small fortune in relation to a mandated procurment.
Thinking again on what can be in the next two years….IF Trump does not direct his Sec Treas to index FBAR and exempt countries with robust AML and KYC maybe Congress could create legislation directing the Sec Treas to do so.
@Fred, to expand on why FBAR needs to be dispensed with. I think its very valuable to point out how 1970s FBAR really is.
Back then….I remember how banks in Florida were accepting deposits in cash in duffle bags!! AML and Know Your Customer did not exist. The very reason for FBAR no longer exists in the 21st Century!
Just look at how antiquated the filing system used to be. You mailed in a paper form that sat in a box in the midwest never to be looked. Then….they moved to what is now an antiquated pdf system you send by email rather unsecure in the 21st Century. And again likely not looked at.
Once the world moved on and nations started adopting AML and KYC the USA no longer had a need for FBAR. To be honest AML and KYC is superior in most of the EU than in the USA.
Seriously when I hear FBAR, disco…long hair…bell bottoms….Vietnam protests pop in my mind!!
In regards to taxation I also think the rest of the world has moved on to the idea that everyone needs to pay tax and they need to do it once. It does not matter where as long as you pay it somewhere. If you pay tax in Belgium or pay tax in France as long as you pay tax in one of them the other is not going to get bent out of shape (US style).
But again….the USA still (yes still) has the national helium reserve in Texas for………………..airships.
@All…..I am not on any social media which is good and keeps me out of trouble as I would get into trouble. Anyways the America Expat facebook page is open to the public and the following was an interesting set of comments;
—-
Keith Redmond- ACA and specifically a key member of the leadership has turned off many Republicans including Republicans Overseas.
Like · 5 December at 06:44
Keith Redmond-Trump cannot change CBT to RBT. Has to be part of a legislative bill to be passed by Congress and put on Trump’s desk. He can be supportive as he stated he supports the RNC platform which includes FATCA Repeal and change to RBT. The irons are being struck while hot BUT IT WILL NOT BE DONE OVERNIGHT.
Like · 5 December at 06:57
Keith Redmond-EVERYONE can do their part by writing their reps in Congress and in the Senate once the new Congress is in session. Stating it here is cathartic but it is NOT enough.
Like · 5 December at 06:57
Sabrina Kiefer-Keith, since I live in London I went to the ACA Town Hall last Thursday (Dec. 1st), and took some notes. Legal Counsel Charles Bruce was one of the speakers, and maintained that there will be big changes under new Treas Secy Mnuchin since much of the staff below him will change including the IRS commissioner. Among other things, he said that since the Republican administration intends to introduce territorial taxation for corporations, “RBT will be on the table as a result” since it is a small step to advocate the same for individuals. So I asked when he thought we might know more. No one knows when. However, I voiced my disbelief when he said that CBT was part of both the Republican and Democrat platforms. He replied that there’s a difference between what Dems say publicly and what they really think, but gave no further detail.
Like · 3 · 4 December at 14:35
______
Georges further comments…..I think he was referring to Democrats Abroad NOT the DNC concerning CBT but that is confirmed by wikileaks. And yes I do believe that there are quite a few busy beavers working Washington and we will have needed relief.
Thanks George!
Agree.
@Fred over at the facebook page they are mildly blasting American Citizens Abroad and it MAY be deserved. But….I go back to the fact we need all the allies we can get and that includes on this issue DA and RO co-operating and working together. There is NO time for political point making and posturing.
ACA’s proposed RBT implementation might work for some; it wouldn’t have worked for me.
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/UploadedFiles/American_Citizens_Abroad_WG_Submission.pdf
Ask America for permission not to be subject to taxation on my UK income? On an IRS form, no doubt, with the usual penalty-of-perjury jurat. And it would do nothing to remove the now-universal suspicion that anybody born in the US is probably US-tax-resident.
@George – “Among other things, he said that since the Republican administration intends to introduce territorial taxation for corporations, “RBT will be on the table as a result” since it is a small step to advocate the same for individuals. ”
I don’t see the logic.
Shifting to territorial taxation for corporations could make US businesses more competitive and help simplify the tax code, as I understand from what I’ve read. Shifting to RBT for individuals doesn’t seem to offer similar benefits.
Trump says:
“We seek harmony and goodwill among the nations of the world — and we believe that respect for mutual sovereignty helps form the basis of trust and understanding.”
http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/military-force-national-security/2016/12/06/id/762562/?ns_mail_uid=92171968&ns_mail_job=1698836_12072016&s=al&dkt_nbr=6ggvyp9f
Believe him?
Iota:
Jeez this is horrible. Certificate of departure. I guess this whole mess will never be made simple again.
The way I see it, when you leave a country in, say, 2016, all you have to do in 2017 is file and wait for the bill or the refund, and send a letter explaining you no longer reside there. From 2018 on you can forget about them (except if you keep a house or a saving account in which case you will pay property tax and tax on the interest earned).
Obviously, if there is any kind of reform, the US will not make that easy.
Well, I have now filed 4 years of taxes & 7 of FBARS so …
@Fred – “Obviously, if there is any kind of reform, the US will not make that easy.”
Regretfully, I have to agree. While I was reading the ACA proposal, I was thinking about the exit tax. Does the ACA really believe that a country that punishes its citizens so vindictively for renouncing “to avoid taxation,” is going to let them go without a price tag?
The bright spot is, whatever happens about FATCA, at least current and future expats will know where they stand, or will find out as soon as they need a bank. And then they can make an informed decision as to what they want to do about their US citizenship.
@iota A more recent ACA proposal has just been released. There’s a discussion on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/groups/citizenshiptaxation/permalink/1228643740558705/
The discussion links to “side-by-side comparison” with current law – that link is broken. Fortunately, I downloaded a copy – you can find it here: http://fixthetaxtreaty.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Residency-Based_Taxation_ACA_Proposal_Side-By-Side_Comparison_161201_Final.pdf
As noted on FB, there are some major problems with this proposal:
* it leaves FBAR rules untouched and is silent on FFI reporting requirements under FATCA
* it requires you to obtain a “Departure Certificate” from the IRS and pay the equivalent of the exit tax on departure (with NW threshold raised to $5m)
* it repeals FEIE (actually all of section 911 is repealed), but you can’t apply for the Departure Certificate until you’ve been overseas for 5 years – so CBT is WORSE in those initial 5 years (talk about “building a wall”!)
* the procedure for applying for the Departure Certificate is vague, but appears to leave the timing of the actual departure date up to the bureaucratic “efficiency” of the IRS
* it totally ignores Accidental Americans
I’m sure there are more problems with this proposal.
Admins — I think proposal deserves a post of its own.
Noose tightens on tax havens in global crackdown https://www.ft.com/content/ab8ee980-b6f3-11e6-ba85-95d1533d9a62
@Karen – thanks for that. It’s shocking.
I can’t understand why ACA would see such a regime as a solution. It’s bizarre.
@iota some folks have suggested that ACA is too much working with compliance types. The solution sounds like something compliance people would think up.
@George – “The solution sounds like something compliance people would think up.”
Or IRS people. It occurred to me while I was peeling the carrots just now – this strange proposal seems as if it’s designed to solve IRS problems more than USP problems.
@not that Tara – “Noose tightens on tax havens in global crackdown”
Thanks for that link. Food for thought.
@Iota @George – Yes, another full employment act for tax compliance professionals and the IRS. What’s wrong with the system every other developed country uses: move out of the country and you’re no longer a taxpayer. Yes, some have special rules for temporary migrants and to ensure there’s no gaming the system – but nothing this complex. And, if you MUST charge an exit tax, Canada’s doesn’t look too onerous and only applies to assets accumulated while a Canadian taxpayer/resident.
@iota
ACA is Democrat party centric, as well as heavily influenced by the Tax / Accounting compliance condor community.
Hence, the over-engineered proposals they come up with, which in the end, still leave many Americans abroad heavily screwed.
The ACA plan has reappeared on their website at https://www.americansabroad.org/media/files/files/ad2154e6/Residency-Based_Taxation_ACA_Proposal_Side-By-Side_Comparison_161201_Final_vW2LRQ8.pdf
It seem to be mostly the brainchild of Mr Bruce, judging from a footnote on the ACA site:
“The principal draftsperson of the comparative chart is Charles M. Bruce, Legal Counsel American Citizens Abroad, Inc. ”
It all fits depressingly well with his depressing CV, see his webpage at his day job’s website:
http://www.moorelawoffices.us/Charles_Bruce_Bio.html