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. @Tom and @Deckard….let me also pipe in on the dust up that @Lake Superior rightly also pointed out.

    Early on with the selection of Arvey, I made it clear that I likely did not care for his politics and also did not care for some of the cases that he took on. I completely disagree with “assisted suicide.”

    But having said that I also made clear that any and all political issues undertaken by Arvey where the sovereign right of the People of Canada, of which I am NOT. I disagree with much of the actions in the USA, Saudi Arabia and China but those are issues that must be handled by the people of those countries!!!

    I further made clear that even though I completely disagree with the assisted suicide issue that Arvey championed, he was a brilliant lawyer in Canadian Courts!!!

    I have helped finance ADCS yesterday, today and tommorrow.

    In regards to the Bopp lawsuit which I did not finance in favour of Arvey……

    Bopp is considered a superb lawyer in the USA and has won in the Supreme Court which is a testament to his skill.

    My opinion on matters of life and funding elections, which are in line with Bopp, frankly do not matter because I relinquished my USC and they do not affect my life in the EU!!!

    There is one political vein that I think many if not most here at IBS have developed and that is a subtype of nationalism in that a countries laws need to stop at its borders!!! I do not care if the people of Canada pass a law that they think is so good it should affect me in the EU!!! In that case, I tell the people of Canada BUTT OUT!

    @Neill, I too am disappointed with the Bopp Lawsuit and Arvey so far. I wanted a WIN, any win, anywhere. Whilst I wanted a US win, I was a former “house slave in the plantation house” so did not have a lot of hope. In Canada I knew the first court case was going to be a hail mary pass but in the end I think they needed to throw the football and see if they could score. As a donor, I honestly felt that a victory in that lower court would flushed my investment into Lake Erie. That victory on technical grounds would have been of less value in future EU litigation.

    However funding ADCS has been of great value psychologically and saved me great stress gaining life credit units.

    The ADCS pathway has also increased the collective knowledge of most of us. I relinquished a decade ago but did not get a CLN. Since then I have lived my life as an EU Citizen, blending in as I always did from day one being the right and proper thing to do. I have been an undocumented relinquisher so long that I fear applying for a CLN may find some “defect” and that my former USC be “restored” to a current date. Thanks to ADCS and IBS, I know how to live my life as a non-USC and to stand my ground firm in that regards.

  2. @Tom and @Deckard let me either wet the dust or bring some of it in the air. 🙂

    As a European, I think USA gun laws, gun culture and gun ownership are insane!! I would never ever want to see that here.

    When I last was a US Citizen, I fully subscribed to the full culture of US gun ownership. If I was to emigrate back, I would be comfortable with that again.

    But as a former USC, now EU Citizen, I can understand the foreign to me “gun ownership culture” of the USA and its people and support BOTH the right of the people in the USA to bear arms equally along with the right of the people to change the second amendment!

    But as a EU Citizen what I think is more insane is when the executive branch seeks to change gun laws or create FATCA IGAs solely by the stroke of an executive order.

  3. @badger
    I think that the only logical conclusion that can be reached is that they are ramping up the penalties, since the outreach has been so abysmal. It is noticeable, for example, the foreign voter assistance program, which raises no money, uses social media to reach out to would-be voters and has been doing so for years now. Various expat-oriented tax preparers have also been doing this, increasingly their presence recently with the advent of FATCA. Indeed, it is pretty obvious that many people are only learning about CBT through those ads because the government has put no effort into publicity.
    @George
    That Qatar leak sounds really bad. I find it strange that they have a file that saying that certain people are spies, though, since the first rule of working for MI6 is that you don’t talk about working for MI6. It’s not like a spy is going to put “spy” down as their occupation on the bank account application. Something quite nefarious is going on there. As noted in the article, these files have been altered with the addition of information. Banks may require a lot of information, but they haven’t yet started requiring information about one’s linkedin profile.

  4. Hmm, on the Qatar leak the person that was categorized as an MI6 agent was a Canadian, which seems odd. I suspect someone is trying to make Qatar look bad.

  5. @Publius, re;
    “..Indeed, it is pretty obvious that many people are only learning about CBT through those ads because the government has put no effort into publicity….”

    And the IRS promised Congress back in 2003 that if they were given the power to levy a new ‘NON-willful’ penalty along with their new job of enforcing the FBAR on behalf of FINCEN, that they would do outreach, education and publicity. (see http://www.hbtlj.org/v07p1/v07p1_sheppard.pdf http://moskowitzllp.com/Downloads/PDFs/FBAR-Penalty-CA-TAX-JOURNAL-SMM-AVD.pdf

    That of course they didn’t do, and whenever they say that taxpayers should know of their duty to file FBARs, they refer to bs notices on their own website, and scanty info sent to ‘practitioners’ and ‘professionals’ in the US – mostly bragging PR pieces about high profile prosecutions. Any actual FBAR ‘education’ by the IRS was extremely limited since there has been ample evidence that even many US tax professionals/preparers INSIDE the US didn’t know about FBARs, much less preparers and ordinary individuals outside of the US. And the IRS is WILLfully as aware of that, as documented ex. in their own reports; “…. The First Report recognized that many taxpayers failed to file FBARs “because of lack of knowledge or confusion about the filing requirements.”76 For this group, the
    government prescribed enhanced outreach and educational programs such that accountants, tax practitioners, and tax-filing services would advise their clients to file FBARs when appropriate.7 ” (see;
    ‘Evolution of the FBAR: Where We Were, Where We Are, and Why It Matters.’ ” 7(1) University of Houston Business & Tax Law Journal 1-41 (2006); selected for republication in 57(12) The Monthly Digest of Tax Articles 21-41 (2007). ” http://www.chamberlainlaw.com/attorneys-96.html )

    And when as so often there is not even any useful IRS ruling or guidance on things like whether our local registered savings plans like the Canadian TFSAs, RESPs, RDSPs, etc. are actually ‘foreign trusts’, or how to treat Australian superannuation funds (see FOIA obtained materials and emails http://www.taxproblemattorneyblog.com/2016/03/even-irs-confused-australian-superannuation-accounts.html ), or the IRS makes a determination that would retroactively burden our local legal savings that the tax treaty does not address. There is a bit of an overview of that re the IRS mistreatment of Canadian RRSPs – and unnecessarily abusive saga;
    http://hodgen.com/the-ultimate-rrsp-and-the-irs-essay/ and the RRSP crisis ratcheted up when the IRS initially included them in the OVD penalty calculations (see post from 2011 and conflicting comments from the IRS http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.ca/2011/09/update-on-rrsps-in-ovdi-92611.html ). At the same time as US Ambassador Jacobson claimed that; “My message on this one is to sit tight. We are not unreasonable. We are not unsympathetic. We are not irresponsible.” ( David Jacobson – U.S. Ambassador t0 Canada – October 18, 2011) URGENT NOTE: THE US EMBASSY HAS REMOVED THIS SPEECH, the links no longer work to the fulltext – even in Wayback Machine. If you have saved the fulltext we need to archive the whole thing here at IBS!!!!).

  10. @JC,

    Very poor. RBT is only a part of the puzzle. You need to let people work abroad and come back having accumulated assets and accounts and not have them confiscated. ACA continues to be happy with an exit tax so long as it only hits high income people. Lets face it nobody ever goes to work in another country and then comes back. Just like no American would ever want to work an another country and not want to come back. Working in another country is just like a big vacation where you eventually get tired of living in a place that’s not as good as the US.

  13. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeua-three-amigos-summit-1.3565189

    Obama to address Parliament when here for the 3 amigos meetings. I think someday we are going to be very sorry we didn’t mass together and demonstrate at events like this or the liberal convention in Winnipeg in June. I’m not an organizer but am quite willing to be a foot soldier (lie down before bulldozers etc.). Shouldn’t we just show our faces, be witnesses, demonstrate.

  14. @Cheryl, I just saw that. So infuriating that he can just waltz in and address OUR Parliament when our own CON and FIBBINGLIB Parliamentarians and Prime Minister have chosen to bend over to the US, and throw out our Charter and Constitution if we’re Canadians with US taxablebirthplace/parents/spouse/children/expired green card, etc.

    Apparently no date released publicly yet.

    The coverage will all be about Trudeau’s hair, Sophie and Michelle’s designer dresses, and Obama eating something like poutine or Beaver tails or drinking Maple syrup.

    Not about the many ways in which Canada has ceded sovereignty and autonomy to the US – including signing over Canadian citizens resident on Canadian soil.

  15. Update re date of foreign leader Obama to address our Canadian Parliament:

    “White House and Canadian officials are eyeing June 29 or 30 as the date for U.S. President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Parliament, CBC News has learned.”……
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeua-three-amigos-summit-1.3565189

    Well, why not Canada Day? Perhaps Trudeau and co can fete Obama on the anniversary date of the day the Canada FATCA IGA came into force.

  20. @badger:

    At the houses of Parliament,
    Everybody’s talking ’bout the President
    We all chip in for a bag of cement.

    –Junior’s Farm, by Paul McCartney

  22. The “don’t let the door hit you in the ass” crowd has shown up in droves on the Wood article above. Pushback NEEDED!!!!!!

  23. Opportunity to point out that FATCA privileges US financial institutions over those of the rest of the world. And the US won’t sign on to the OECD CRS – adding even more advantage for the US.

    Where is the ‘free trade’ then?

    http://thehill.com/policy/finance/trade/278776-obama-headed-to-canada-to-meet-with-top-leaders
    ‘Obama headed to Canada to meet with top leaders’

    “……… President Obama is heading to Canada in June to meet with Canadian and Mexican leaders to discuss strengthening their economic ties.

    Free trade is expected to remain a hot topic in the U.S. presidential election as Obama travels north to attend the North American Leaders’ Summit on June 29 with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, the White House announced on Wednesday.

    “The summit is further recognition of the value of a more integrated North America to advance the security and prosperity of the continent,” the White House said in a statement…..”….

    “………While in Ottawa the president will get a chance to call for support of the TPP in an address to a joint session of the Parliament of Canada, where top Canadian officials have vowed to hold a vigorous debate on the sweeping trade agreement.”….

    Remember and re-read Prof. Arthur Cockfield’s comments to our Parliament re FATCA and trade/NAFTA and other issues;

    https://openparliament.ca/committees/finance/41-2/34/prof-arthur-cockfield-1/
    “We’re not sure how many Canucks are going to be involved, but certainly the number is in the hundred of thousands. Thousands of Canadian businesses will also be implicated in this new regime. For instance, if you are a U.S citizen who has signing authority over an account, then that account information will go south of the border. A U.S. person who substantially owns a Canadian business will now have a foreign government looking at that account information. It could, in my view, harm cross-border competition, frustrate cross-border mobility. I believe it violates the NAFTA agreement. I’ve written a book on the topic of NAFTA tax law and policy, and it’s my opinion that FATCA, again, violates certain provisions within NAFTA.

    What are we getting in return for this privacy giveaway? Well, as far as I can see—”

    “—it’s nothing. We’re not getting anything other than the relief of the threatened economic sanctions. The Americans, in the intergovernmental agreement, give us vague assertions of reciprocity, but they will never come through. U.S. lawmakers and U.S. citizens will never accept the evisceration of their privacy rights and their privacy laws, which of course is what they’re asking of you.

    My main recommendation is to amend Bill C-31 so that the legislation is in place, is implemented, but only affects temporary residents of Canada—U.S. citizens who are here temporarily and not permanently. I believe this will be in compliance with the American demands and that hence there will not be any economic sanction.

    Thank you.”

    from; Finance Committee on May 13th, 2014

    Cockfield also says Canada can;
    ……….”Challenge U.S. action as violation of international law (e.g., NAFTA, WTO)”
    http://ccla.org/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/FATCA-and-the-Erosion-of-Taxpayer-Privacy-U-of-T-2014.pptx

    See also;

    ‘Submission to Finance Department on Implementation of FATCA in Canada’
    Allison Christians, McGill University – Faculty of Law and Arthur J. Cockfield, Queen’s University – Faculty of Law; March 10, 2014 ttp://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2407264

    and
    FATCA and the Erosion of Canadian Taxpayer Privacy
    Report to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, April 2014
    http://ssrn.com/abstract=2433198

  24. @EllenD, @Charl–
    Wood article is front and center on Drudgereport website. This is driving a ton of traffic to article. Drudge readers (I think) tend to be right wing, hence the many snarky comments.

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