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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. He is probably in fact the most knowledgeable Compliance Condor in the UK, and his clients are quite wealthy, well into the seven and eight figures. But he would have been obviously far too expensive for me. I wound up using someone who had once worked for him and had set up her own practice. Also one of the most knowledgeable but playing the role of ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ cop. He scared me while she did everything she could to reassure me. I don’t know what’s worse!

  2. I’ve only encountered him in forums. Like many others, he always seems to take the view that when the IRS don’t make it clear how an item is supposed to be treated, you should treat it in the way that maximizes tax due, and to do otherwise is to court certain ruin.

    I took the opposite position: where the IRS didn’t say clearly that I should report an item, I assumed I didn’t need to. Including Oyster cards. My assumption at every point of doubt was that if they couldn’t be bothered to say something was required, or prohibited, it was extremely unlikely that I could be penalized for guessing wrong, and also unlikely that the IRS would even try.

    If I had followed Guya’s advice I would have ended up paying the IRS several thousand dollars.

    By following my own logic, I paid nothing. (Mind you, I had a very simple situation – no PFICs for instance.)

    For anyone interested, here’s a link to a forum discussion about whether Oyster cards must be reported on FBARs. (Answer: no)

    http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=62135.30

  3. @Iota, Guya will make a more conservative statement on a public forum but probably will often take a more aggressive position to lower possible taxes for a client. So none of this is black and white

  5. @Iota, he’s just very thorough. I wouldn’t have been able to afford him. Even if I had hired him and been put into a quiet disclosure rather than OVDI (which would have bankrupted me), he would have charged me at least £12,000 PER YEAR because I held over 40 PFICs, and I would have been looking at several hundred pounds per PFIC, possibly going as far back as eight years!!!

    The accountant I ended up using charges me just a fraction of that, though I suspect she charged me less than she normally would have done. In the end, I think she felt sort of bad about the whole thing and never invoiced me for my final year, even though I reminded her.

    In the beginning, I believe she thought I was better off than I was because she wouldn’t have expected someone in my income and asset bracket to be aware of the problems. I had asked TaxesforExpats and Greenback for an estimate and was looking at around $6000 per year, due to the huge number of PFICS, even though these only averaged a few thousand pounds each!! Normally, the likes of Greenback would be more like $600, I think…

    At the time, I felt desperately scared.

  7. Love it. Someone posts a question to the Trump campaign on Reddit, carefully and thoroughly laying out the various difficulties faced by US expats, followed by a series of questions to Trump about his policies toward expats…and what’s the first comment someone comes up with?

    Trump supporter: “Why do you live abroad?”
    The author replies: “I typically work at universities, and I am now starting my own business related to language learning.”
    Trump supporter: “Why you don’t start this business in the United States?”

    As if it’s so unimaginable to live outside the USA. Typical Homelander or what?

    https://www.reddit.com/r/AskTrumpSupporters/comments/4v58b3/trump_and_his_policies_for_americans_living/

  8. @monalisa – Sounds like you ended up with a human being, which is good.

    Not that I’m seriously suggesting the high-charging, fear-mongering accountants aren’t human, but I wouldn’t want to see a son or daughter of mine making their living basically by terrifying people. What a business, eh!

  9. @Publius

    In response to your:

    A big thank you to Mr. Hom. It’s a shame that the case hasn’t sent a broader precedent, since if it were more widely applicable, it could prevent people from being told to do fiddly things like list the highest balance of their London public transport system card (better known as the Oyster Card). I thought that was loopy but then it seemed like Guya, who Neill considers to be knowledgeable, was having his clients do it.

    Actually I think the case is quite significant. At a minimum (whether a broad precedent or not) it will get people thinking that:

    1. There is such a thing as “FBAR Law” (the statute and the regulations) and it is right there for people to read.

    1. The IRS is subject to that law.

    2. Not everything that involves money means that somebody is dealing with a “financial agency”. It appears that a number of tax/fear people take the position that because:

    “If it’s a financial agency that it will involve money” that “If it involves money that it’s a financial agency”.

    Some commentary on the case is here:

    http://blogs.angloinfo.com/us-tax/2016/07/27/yesterdays-taxpayer-fbar-victory/

  10. Counting things like grocery points cards as financial accounts means that it is quite easy to check the box 25 or more accounts, meaning that you do not have to fill out the whole form.

  12. @USCitizenAbroad
    Yes, good points. I was just noting that Victoria de la Torre Jekker was being very careful about suggesting that it set a precedent.

  13. IRS will be checking the bank records of the people who went through Streamlined.
    taxconnections.com/taxblog/irs-to-use-foreign-bank-account-info-to-scrutinize-forgiven-taxpayers/?#.V5uFro-cHIV

  14. I wonder if that’s just a tax accountant’s scare story. It says “may”, and it doesn’t give a cite.

    “As the IRS receives more bank account information from foreign institutions [..] it may begin to revisit amnesty applications to see whether the bank account info provides evidence that forgiven taxpayers did not in fact qualify for amnesty.”

    I would think a particular suspected taxpayer’s FATCA records may be scrutinized, in the hope of finding court-worthy evidence. But routinely comparing taxpayers’ free-form “non-wilful” statements with FATCA info would be a very labour-intensive way of trying to disqualify taxpayers from Streamlined. They don’t want to disqualify taxpayers from Streamlined, they want to lure them in and tax them and if possible find juicy cases for audit and possible prosecution. I think this guy’s just trying to scare up some customers.

  17. @Tom Alciere

    When is the US going to get its “day of reckoning” for failing to reciprocate?

  18. Watch what happens if the US pulls the trigger on a country by grabbing 30% of its cash flows through the US. Capital always flows to where it is most welcome and the reward justifies the risk.

  19. It’ll depend on how big and important the country is. If noone cares about them like a small African or Caribbean country, they’ll what they can get. Would they go after Belgium…I don’t think so. I guess we may find out or there will be more smoke and mirrors.

  22. @Barbara – the Fifth Amendment case is about very old records which the IRS wants but can’t get hold of. More detail here:

    http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/08/01/irs-stumbles-in-bid-to-follow-stale-trail-of-tax-evasion-breadcrumbs.htm

    Steven Greenfield was implicated in a tax-evasion scheme in 2001 when an employee of Liechtenstein Global Trust leaked thousands of documents from accounts held by the private financial institution.
    Over a decade after the leak, the Internal Revenue Service issued a 2013 summons for Greenfield’s financial records, including all records related to his management of offshore accounts.
    Greenfield refused to comply, however, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
    Though a federal judge ordered him to produce a subset of the records demanded by the IRS, the Second Circuit vacated the order Monday.
    “For all but a small subset of the documents covered by the District Court’s order, the government has not demonstrated that it is a foregone conclusion that the documents existed, were in Greenfield’s control, and were authentic even in 2001,” U.S. Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi wrote for the three-judge panel. “Second, we find that the government has failed to present any evidence that it was a foregone conclusion that any of the documents subject to the summons remained in Greenfield’s control through 2013, when the summons was issued.”

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