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

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

1. @Polly

   Yes, how can they say that the OECD was out-foxed, when those in Congress who seek to obstruct reciprocity (Reps) aren’t the creators of FATCA (Dems).

   Well this is going to earn me the tinfoil hat of the week but in order to have “outfoxed” the OECD, the Democrats and Republicans got together to create FATCA, hoping the OECD would create its own version in order for everyone else to sign on to both and then itself refuse to reciprocate! LOL! I don’t put ANYTHING past them!

2. Just yesterday while talking to a friend about Apple I said you couldn’t give the government more power because they abuse what they have. I cited civil asset forfeiture.
   Remember the IRS was using the structuring law to just take people money because they made numerous under $10k deposits. After a front page NYT article the IRS said they wouldn’t do it without proof of a crime. Think about that for a second. They didn’t think the people they took from did anything wrong but they took their stuff.
   Well it seems they are still doing it to people with no crimes involved:

   http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/17/small-businesses-still-fighting-for-cash-seized-by-irs.html

3. I would like to think that after 20+ months of highlighting the injustices that I might have become a bit better at it or more effective.

   This is an e-mail I sent 7 days ago:

   Dear Michelle Obama | Idea for one of your articles?

   Good Day Robert,

   I have noted about every year Forbes likes to come out with an article with title starting with Dear Mr. President.

   This could be a new twist and might attract more women readers:

   Dear Michelle Obama…

   https://cafemoi.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/dear-michelle-obama/

   Related to areas you write on: extraterritorial US tax and impacts.

   Regards, JC

   Result? http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2016/02/18/dear-mrs-obama-why-i-gave-up-my-u-s-citizenship/#7bb447ee4429

4. @JC Good work!

5. @Bubblebustin
   Yes I don’t think that the U.S. outfoxed the OECD. The OECD was clearly trying to building upon FATCA for its own purposes while hoping to tie the U.S. down, but the U.S. didn’t see the need to co-operate, since it had already gotten what it wanted. There were way too many angry articles in French for the Paris-based OECD not to know what was going on.
   @Tom Alciere
   Thanks for that Economist article. Crikey!

6. @Tom
   I happen to think that the only thing which would have worked against FATCA would have been a united front.

7. @Polly

   The website linked from my posts does reveal some banks in non-IGA countries, which are not FATCA-compliant. Presumably one would open in Canada, one surely will once the ADCS lawsuit goes through. Without compliance costs, they’ll offer better interest rates and the cheques will still clear through the Bank of Canada.

8. A former commenter at Brock (Conferation H, now known as Desperado) has started his own blog. I know some were unhappy at the intensity of his comments back then but he did make some interesting contributions (IMHO). He links to Brock and the Sandbox under a heading of: “Blogs who cannot tolerate my comments”. I plan to peek in, every now and then, to read what he has to say but I understand if others would rather not.
   http://realfederaltaxcrimes.blogspot.ca/

9. Robert Wood needs a bit more education in the comments section of the article that JC essentially wrote for him. In the comments, Wood more or less pooh-poohs the idea of RBT ever happening, with the implication that it’s an entirely lost cause. He should be pushing for it, not shrugging his shoulders and saying “Don’t waste your breath.”

   I have a love-hate relationship with Wood’s articles.

10. @Barbara

    That’s because Woods has a Jeckyll-Hyde relationship with US expats.

11. Wood is on the side of the IRS. He was an expert witness called by ADCS to testify on what the IRS may do with the FATCA information.

    He shows some sympathy. Just imagine this letter printed in its entirety under the Forbes brand.

12. EVERYONE Check out and COMMENT (only 20) I did but yet to see accepted

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2016/02/18/dear-mrs-obama-why-i-gave-up-my-u-s-citizenship/?utm_source=followingimmediate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160218#454eea5d4429

13. http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/18/news/us-expat-tax-revenue/

14. Phil Hodgen latest expatriation email is very interesting.
    He is basically turning on consular staff to say they are complicit int he pain that’s being caused and it’s time they take a stand:

    >I just hope that the consular official in Bern felt a twinge of guilt while watching her cry.
    >That civil servant was personally enabling a broken system.

    >I am past the point of giving such people a hall pass: “everybody’s gotta work, hey I’m just
    >doing my job, I do what I’m told, I’m powerless.” Nope. You’re helping to make things worse.
    >At some point you must take responsibility for your actions.

15. WSJ thinks the 1099-B is a hard form. I tried to educate them that it’s peanuts compared to 8621:

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-worst-tax-form-1455877800

16. Maybe others should tell this person how afraid they should be:

    http://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-57/fatca-872774/

17. Many people could ask pertinent questions let no stone be upturned

    Democrats Abroad
    Dear Jak,
    Global Town Hall Update

    Senator Bernie Sanders has accepted our invitation to join this Sunday’s Democrats Abroad Global Town Hall. And from Secretary Hillary Clinton’s campaign we will be joined by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Clinton’s top foreign policy advisor, Jake Sullivan. That’s this Sunday, February 21 from 12 PM -3 PM (Washington, DC time – please note the expanded time).

    This is a great opportunity to hear the campaigns speak directly to Democrats Abroad and answer our questions ahead of the Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary. If you haven’t already RSVPed for the Global Town Hall, RSVP here now: http://www.democratsabroad.org/global_town_hall
    Global Presidential Primary Reminder

    Just a reminder, the Global Presidential Primary starts March 1st and runs through March 8th. Voting in the Global Primary affects how many delegates each candidate receives from Democrats Abroad – so take the opportunity to vote where you live and help make that decision.

    For more information about the Global Presidential Primary, go to http://www.democrats abroad.org/gppto find out where your Voting Center is – or to download a ballot so that you can vote by mail or email.
    See you on Sunday!

    Julia Bryan
    International Secretary

    Art Schankler
    International Treasurer

18. Good:

    http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2016-02-19/hice-says-committee-workng-impeach-irs-commissioner

19. Americans abroad can vote in global presidential primary

    http://www.dw.com/en/americans-abroad-can-vote-in-global-presidential-primary/a-19061221?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

20. From the CNN article: “And while some U.S. citizens get slapped with a giant “exit tax” bill — sometimes in the millions of dollars — when they renounce, experts say it still amounts to a fraction of what the government might have generated from them in future taxes.”

    So *this* is how the “experts” justify the abrogation of the government’s obligation, under its own laws, to acknowledge the *human right* of a person to renounce his US citizenship: because the US could have collected so much more if the person had remained a citizen.

    Corollary?: citizenship = money. I always thought it meant rights, loyalty and identity. My parents must have missed class the day this “principle” was taught.

21. @Muzzlednomore
    Yes, it really is off-putting how much about money U.S. citizenship seems to be. “Goodwill ambassadorship” doesn’t count only the hard, cold cash going into the U.S. coffers.

22. @Muzzeldnomore
    Yes- this is probably the reason for all the demands. America feels it is being robbed. Constantly.

23. Mr. Wood is on a roll!!!!

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2016/02/20/422-fee-increase-to-renounce-citizenship-yields-millions-with-exits-up-560/?utm_source=followingimmediate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160220#773a143a36c5

24. This is BRILLIANT and very funny!!!!!
    http://www.americabutbetter.com/

25. Great comments @Charl. Keep working on Robert Wood

    I put this comment in on the Dear Michelle Obama article:

    Hello Robert – another area along the lines of your expertise: You might have an article on the tax treaties inequities for US persons overseas. They do prevent double taxation if you are a US resident with overseas investments, and if you are a nonUS person living in another country with investments in the US. However, in the case of a US person living in another country (even with no investments in the US) they get Jiu-Jitsued between US tax laws and tax laws of their country of residence – in that the total income and US tax liability is not considered in aggregate – only in silos – each tax / credits by themselves.

    Let’s say you live in a high tax country such as Australia, Canada, UK. The higher tax you pay on earnings than the US tax rates may not be carried over as a credit to extinguish US tax liability on areas of tax the US has but not your own country, on areas where US taxes are higher, or indeed on US taxes by a different name than in your country of residence.

    In conclusion the tax treaties are not made fair for US persons overseas (except in very small ways – Canadian pension as you indicate), the tax treaties are made fair for these groups: US resident with overseas investment, nonUS person resident outside the US with investment in the US.

    This is a good inequity to call out, as not much focus in press or anywhere about it. It will be a novel yet highly related topic for you. Please consider.

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