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.
How’s this JC?
Calgary More scare tactics from compliance condors.
“Let’s be just like the USA and ignore Europe and 160+ other countries on earth!”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/07/06/tax-brits-globally-to-stop-scandals-says-city-standards-group/
Not the usual tax “justice” nutters saying it this time, but rather the head of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment
@Eric – I guess after Brexit they need a full-employment plan for tax preparers and accountants. Certainly won’t benefit anyone else.
@Tricia Moon I like your work.
Here is another by A.S. Alexander.
https://twitter.com/asalexanderdesk/status/750485675854573568
@Eric, I will actually lobby my MP to support that but with one modification that its reciprocity based CBT. The UK needs to retaliate against BOTH the USA and Eritrea taxing its UK nationals in those two countries.
Sadly, I believe that is the only avenue left to ultimately bring down the whole CBT charade.
I never wanted my kids registered as US citizens born aboard long before FATCA reared its ugly head. I did not want my children to be denied health care for having a pre existing medical condition the way I was. They are 100% Australian.
I gave my reply on what I thought of the article.
It was from a bank financial planner who obviously gets and reads from the publication such professionals get and read and then pass on their advice based on such to we Canadians who need help with our financial planning:
Is that the solution financial planners should present to US-deemed *US Persons / US Citizens in Canada* who are also (and should be first) Canadian, in step with the advice we get from our, now, Liberal government representatives?
Roy asks,
“Particularly I want to know how I, a “person” born in the sovereign state of California, can be completely subject to the political jurisdiction of the United States owing it direct and immediate allegiance arising out of the protection the United States affords me and at the same time be a naturalized national of the Republic of Panama other than by brute, tyrannical force.”
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/07/06/the-internal-revenue-code-does-not-explicitly-define-citizenship-or-require-citizenship-based-taxation/comment-page-1/#comment-7618943
It will be interesting to see what legal mechanisms the Brits explore in trying enforce CBT.
@Eric
I really wish I could write in to that one and I would explain why imposing a very complicated tax code on people on top of the U.K. tax code is not a good idea. Although I am sure that they would love to be able to tax the phantom gains on overseas property at the moment.
Re: the Telegraph article touting a UK version of CBT: Two wrongs don’t make a right. Other countries getting on the CBT bandwagon is NO way to get ourselves extricated from the mess we are in. There is only one thing that is going to do that, the universal abolition of CBT as practiced by ANY and ALL nations. Period.
I cannot wish this nightmare on anyone else. If you haven’t read it yet, please see the submission recently sent by the Alliance for the Defeat of Citizenship Taxation (ADCT) to the OECD, the World Bank, the IMF, and the United Nations who are working in concert on the “tax evasion file”. Perhaps the author of the Telegraph article should get this link “tweeted” to him. He needs to hear a different point of view on his “great idea”.
http://maplesandbox.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/You-Pay-for-What-You-Dont-Get.pdf
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/intfinlaw/2016/07/taxpayer-advocate-mid-year-report-to-congress-irs-implementation-and-enforcement-of-fatca-withholdin.html
Thursday, July 7, 2016
‘Taxpayer Advocate Mid-Year Report to Congress: IRS Implementation and Enforcement of FATCA Withholding Is Burdensome, Error-Ridden, and Fails to Protect the Taxpayers’ Rights’
By William Byrnes
Annoyed with a “birth tourism” hospital next door to her home, a Richmond, BC woman seeks to limit Canadian citizenship ‘jus soli”:
…”Kerry Starchuk wants the Liberal government to end automatic citizenship for babies born in Canada to foreigners, unless one of the parents is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. Canada and the U.S. are the only G7 countries that allow birthright citizenship.”…
…”Earlier this year, the Liberal government rescinded a former Conservative government bill that proposed not granting citizenship to newborns of non-residents, unless the baby would become stateless.”…
…”An internal federal government report, released in 2014 under access to information, considered restricting citizenship by birth on soil. The report, to then-citizenship and immigration minister Jason Kenney, said there was limited data on birth tourism, but “anecdotal information indicates that the problem could be more widespread.”…
http://theprovince.com/news/local-news/richmond-womans-e-petition-calls-for-end-to-birth-tourism-in-canada#comments
Subj: No more tax dodging? Britons ‘should pay UK taxes wherever they live in the world’
Dear Mr Wallace,
I read with absolute horror your article suggesting the UK should adopt the model of citizenship based taxation.
I thought it might help you see this problems with this if I show you how badly it would affect me and others.
I have lived and worked in the US for 20 years. I took a job here just because it seemed exciting. I never planned to leave the UK until the opportunity came up.
I am married to another UK citizen and have two children born int he US. They think of the UK as a foreign country. I have saved and invested while in the UK and now while in the US.
I have like most investors have capital gains that have not been realized in my taxable accounts. I plan to realize them slowly during retirement.
I have significant money saved away in retirement accounts both the the UK and the US. Likewise these will be withdrawn slowly during retirement.
I have saved for my children college needs in US tax deferred/free 529 accounts. I have saved for my future medical needs in tax free HSA accounts.
Now if the UK suddenly decides to tax me even though I am not resident the following things will happen:
1) My taxable investments will become toxic to the UK tax system. My investments are almost certainly “non-registered funds” in the UK. I would have to sell them all at once and take a massive tax hit in the US. This would significantly damage my retirement savings and leave me with much fewer investment options.
2) My 529 and HSA accounts would become taxable in the UK because they are unprotected by the Us.UK tax treaty. They would also be toxic because they are “non-registered funds”. I can’t control these investments. I would likely have to withdraw the money and be penalized for early withdraw by the US government. This would damage the money saved to pay for future medical care and destroy our savings to send our kids to college.
3) My tax bill would rise dramatically as the tax treaty buckets different income types such that the tax rate is maximized for each bucket. Say for example if the UK has a higher income tax rate and the US has a higher investment income rate then I would pay the larger rate for both. Also some taxes are not allowed to be offset (for example the net investment income tax of the US).
Looking at this I see no real alternative to renouncing my UK citizenship. This is not an option for my children since they are too young. We invested some of their birthday money when young they would have to sell their meager investments until they became old enough to renounce. I don’t really look forward to explaining this to my wife if the time comes either.
Since I have been outside the UK for more than 15 years I have no vote. You think though that you have the right to impose taxes on this non-voting citizen who uses nothing in our home country?
Neill.
@Neill
Horrifying. Just horrifying. I hope this does not go forward. What an awful idea. And a very stupid one.
Tweeted the maplesandbox link to this dangerous idiot. Btw:
http://i.imgur.com/cypARtf.png
Just another self-serving, wealthy hypocrite…
So my Australian born children would have to put in tax returns to three countries! It is not their fault for having an American born mother and a British born father. This is getting really ridiculous!
The Australian Govt would not be impressed either. Well over a million people resident in Australia were born in the UK.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Australia
Second article on the UK tax thingie:
http://www.theweek.co.uk/74272/britons-should-pay-uk-tax-wherever-they-live-in-the-world
Neill: “You think though that you have the right to impose taxes on this non-voting citizen who uses nothing in our home country?” I think Great Britain tried this back in the mid 18th century. I seem to recall that they ended up in a war and lost bigtime! Glad you put Mr. Wallace on notice that he’s advocating the repeat of one of history’s greatest idiocies.
I mailed Simon Culhane directly (assuming I got the right email address). I need to make sure these people realize what a crazy idea this is.
@Ellen D
EmBee once wrote about a scenario close to yours. Maybe she’s be kind enough to share it again.
“The Internal Revenue Service said Facebook may have understated the value of intellectual property it transferred to Ireland by “billions of dollars,” unfairly cutting its tax bill in the process, according to court papers.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco seeking to enforce IRS summonses served on Facebook and to force the world’s largest social network to produce various documents as part of the probe. The tax authority is examining whether Facebook understated its U.S. income by selling rights to an Irish subsidiary too cheaply…”
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/irs-investigating-facebook-over-billion-dollar-tax-understatement-n605811
@ Bubblebustin and Ellen D.
Here it is …
CBT INSANITY
Citizenship-based taxation (CBT) is insanity. Not everyone who moves to another country is a tax evader. Most are ordinary people who move for adventure, for love, for family, for a better future or for all manner of reasons which have nothing to do with taxes. Picture a world in which ALL COUNTRIES HAVE IMPLEMENTED CBT and then consider the following hypothetical scenario.
An American marries a Canadian. The newlyweds have to choose one country over the other because they can’t afford to live in both. They choose Canada. They only seek a happy life together but thanks to CBT they are now filing taxes in TWO countries — Canada and the USA. The Canadian and US tax codes do not mesh so the couple try to keep their finances uncomplicated (simple savings and checking accounts only), otherwise they would need to hire a tax specialist. Investments and retirement savings plans are not a good choice for this couple. The cumbersome, complex US tax code is fraught with pitfalls and huge penalties for foot faults. An innocent error or omission on a FBAR or 8938 form, for instance, threatens them with thousands of dollars in fines … and those forms have nothing do do with calculating any tax owed. They are detailed annual reports of all their financial assets in Canada. Canada requires a similar report for their US assets but hasn’t adopted the over-the-top punitive penalty attitude of the USA … not yet anyway.
A few years later an extraordinary job opportunity arises in New Zealand so the couple moves there to work, live and begin raising a family. Remember, in this scenario, ALL countries use CBT. Now this couple is paying and filing taxes in THREE countries (New Zealand, Canada and the USA) because neither wants to give up his or her birth citizenship. They grimace and bear all the added paperwork and expense involved. A professional tax preparer is definitely needed at this point to attempt to reconcile three sets of tax codes with the US tax code being, hands down, the worst and most vindictive of the three.
More years pass and the extraordinary job in New Zealand unexpectedly turns into the agony of a layoff. Now the couple have a New Zealand born child to consider as well. Their search for work in New Zealand proves futile but the couple tries to hang on while their savings rapidly dwindle away. Soon they no longer can afford to make a move back to either Canada or the USA to start all over again. New Zealand has won their hearts; it’s the birth country of their child; and it’s where they truly want to live — at least for the foreseeable future (perhaps until aging parents in either Canada or the USA need their help). They have permanent residency (PR) cards for New Zealand and have begun the process of becoming New Zealand citizens which would give them dual status with their birth countries. Their situation is dire.
Then, just in the nick of time, a good job offer comes up but unfortunately it is in Australia. Luckily the company will pay all their moving expenses so the family moves to Australia, by necessity, but they know they will eventually return to New Zealand, just as soon as the job market turns around there. For this reason they maintain their New Zealand PR cards. They also temporarily stop the process of obtaining New Zealand citizenship. Now this poor couple must prepare taxes for FOUR countries: Canada (by citizenship), the USA (by citizenship), New Zealand (by maintaining their PR cards) AND Australia because that’s where they are currently living and working (by residence). Now their tax preparation expenses are wiping out a major portion of their income, even though taxes owed to the three countries they are not living in at the moment calculate out to be almost zero. Paperwork is consuming their lives page by page by page. Meanwhile their tax specialist is happily building a college fund for his children and a retirement fund for himself.
Luckily this scenario is hypothetical but what if other countries did follow the USA’s lead and switch to citizenship-based taxation? The world would soon become one in which emigration and immigration would become so hideously chaotic and cumbersome that everyone (except the very rich) would become prisoners in their home countries. Families with mixed citizenships would be torn apart. When will the USA finally accept that the international norm is residence-based taxation (RBT)? When will it abort CBT and adopt RBT, for sanity’s sake?
@ Norman Diamond
This story is only hypothetical and undoubtably inaccurate in many aspects. It is only meant to demonstrate what could go wrong if all countries join the USA in the insanity of CBT.
Thank you EmBee. Appreciate the brain exercise you’ve given us imagining what it would be like to have the entire world adopt CBT.
That would be an excellent one to put in the comment section of “The Week” article Neill posted, along with the other great ones.
@ Bubblebustin
Mine’s an awfully long story and has a “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” quality which doesn’t seem to fit with The Week’s article (some of which I could not, for the life of me, follow their “logic” on). Courgette and Neill made good comments and managed to restrain themselves from saying, “You idiots!!! What in the world are you thinking?” That would be my inclination.