Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 4 of 11 (Year 2017)
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-4-of-4)
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. I’ll make a permanent list of links posted here and keep adding to it, 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.
Notes:
From JC: 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.
From Badger: On an important archival note, please use the Internet Archive Wayback machine https://archive.org/web/ (see bottom right ‘Save Page Now’ box to enter URLs of webpages you want saved for posterity, and try to save backup copies of articles and other items of interest in some other form – such as a datastick or external drive. Some important and very significant webpages and the fulltexts of articles are no longer available (although some can be retrieved if someone using the Wayback machine saved 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.
2017.12.28
It’s time to address the double standard about tax havens, Angela Wrights, Macleans, Canada.
The US Is Becoming the World’s New Tax Haven, The Editors, Bloomberg View, US.
2017.12.21
Rep. Dina Titus Supports Americans Abroad Tax Reform, Democrats Abroad, US.
Now That The GOP Tax Bill Is Approved, The IRS Gets Busy, Brian Naylor, NPR, US.
2017.12.20
Taxpayers will have to wait to find out how they fare under new legislation , Renae Merle and Aaron Gregg, Denver Post (reprint from Washington Post), US.
U.S. Shareholders –Take Action by December 31, KPMG.
2017.12.18
Have You Ever Felt Sorry for the I.R.S? Now Might Be the Time, Patricia Cohen, New York Times, US.
2017.12.12
EU finance ministers issue warning to Trump over tax reforms, RTÉ, Ireland.
2017.12.11
Banque: les consequences étonnantes de l’accord FATCA, Edouard Lederer, Les Echos, France.
2017.12.10
As Australia ousts MPs with dual citizenship, Canada’s Parliament embraces many in its ranks, Kathleen Harris, Canada. (mentions MP who “assumed his U.S. citizenship was automatically rescinded because he did not meet several requirements for continued citizenship. [But when travelling to Washington] was told he was ineligible to enter the U.S. on a Canadian passport because he was a U.S. citizen. He was . . . allowed in on a one-time basis . . . it cost him $3,000 to later sort out the administrative requirements.”)
2017.12.09
The American Diaspora: Outreach and Organization, Victoria Ferauge, The Franco-American Flophouse, Japan.
2017.12.08
Foreign-owned banks to be hit by US tax rules, Financial Times, UK.
Trump Tax Plan Worries Europe, Christian Reiermann, Der Spiegel, Germany.
For articles earlier in 2017, click here.
EmBee: I second your suggestion to the ADCS team. Hill Notes needs to be asked to publish a correction to the statement you quoted.
From the Wall Street Journal (behind a paywall) https://www.wsj.com/articles/my-big-fatca-irs-1488413354
Comments are open. For those without a subscription, here is the text:
March 1, 2017 7:09 p.m. ET
Almost since the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) became law in 2010 to go after fat cats stashing money abroad, these pages have reported that it has led the IRS to treat law-abiding Americans as criminals. Turns out we have allies—at the IRS.
Buried within the most recent report the IRS taxpayer advocate submitted to Congress in January is a section taking issue with Fatca. “The IRS,” says the report, “has adopted an enforcement-oriented regime with respect to international taxpayers. Its operative assumption appears to be that all such taxpayers should be suspected of fraudulent activity, unless proven otherwise.”
Under Fatca, Americans must now report overseas holdings of more than $50,000 even if they owe no taxes, or else face crushing fines. For foreign financial institutions, the penalty for not giving the IRS what it wants to know about their American clients is a 30% withholding penalty on any U.S.-sourced payment to these institutions.
The taxpayer advocate minces no words: “The IRS has taken this approach despite a lack of comprehensive statistical data establishing the existence of widespread noncompliance or fraud” and “despite [Taxpayer Advocate Service] analysis indicating that the vast majority of these taxpayers actually appear to be substantially more compliant than a comparable portion of the overall U.S. taxpayer population.”
In sum, the IRS application of Fatca is “unsystematic, unjustified, and unsuccessful.”
The taxpayer advocate isn’t in the business of calling for laws to be overturned, so it recommends fixes around the edges. By contrast, the new “Campaign to Repeal FATCA” initiative launched last month by Nigel Green of the deVere Group—an international financial consulting firm—argues for nixing the law that turns Americans overseas into financial “pariahs.”
With the GOP controlling Congress and White House, the time is ripe for Republicans to make good on their pledge and give Fatca the heave-ho.
@Muzzled I have a comment on the article in moderation.
The article is also missing that FATCA may be repealed in the US.
Tax boost from FATCA, says economist http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2017-03-01/tax-boost-fatca-says-economist
When will they learn that the reciprocity is a myth????
@Karen, @JC…..several points.
1. Whilst I am happy with the WSJ article I am sick and tired of being labeled American!!!
2. In regards to the taxpayer adviocate, I have always thought that on average if you define compliant as paying tax and not being form compliant, that so called deemed Americans overseas simply owe the USA nothing because of higher tax rates abroad!!
3. Here in the UK there is the ongoing debate on Brexit. It is FACT that EU nationals in the UK post Brexit are already guaranteed the same rights that non-EU persons have immigration wise which means if you have been here five years you qualify for indefinite leave to remain!! What I am so sick about is these self rightous Lords who are all worried about EU nationals that in fact have no problem but happily drove the bus over 150,000 so called americans residing in the UK many of whom are accidentals.
More on the FAST Act that will affect *Homelanders Abroad* (and could affect those who hold another countries’ passport that shows a US place of birth should they wish to re-enter that place?).
Tax Connections, March 2, 2017: Next Month Your U.S. Passport Could Be Revoked For Debts
@George
With respect, EU citizens in the UK have no guaranteed legal right to remain post Brexit, just as UK citizens in the E U have no rights to remain post Brexit. UK retired citizens in the EU also stand to lose their reciprocal Healthcare and hence their right to remain.
Retired citizens do not have the security that a job can offer an expat. As much as I criticize the Lords, in this case they offer the only voice for expats.
@George
I don’t believe the Lords had any input on the Fatca decision?
@George
Having recently read a number of articles in the Guardian and elsewhere about EU nationals who’ve lived in the UK for twenty years or more, are married to British citizens and have British children, and who are now being told to prepare for removal because they don’t meet the criteria for permanent residence, all I have to say is good on the House of Lords, that is an appalling situation, an utter disgrace.
@nonymous
I agree, I am ashamed of Teresa May and her Government. These people came to the UK in good faith that they were fellow Europeans, they may have UK spouses, children, mortgages. They contribute to the UK economy, farming, Healthcare. The 5yr rule does not guarantee anything. Those retired EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living abroad can only continue to live in their chosen EU countries if the UK and hence the EU continues the EU granted rights of reciprocal Healthcare, something that Mrs May has refused to assure.
Private insurance companies do not want to assume the risk of insuring the elderly.
There are thousands of retired Brits in Spain and elsewhere that may be forced to return which will be a greater burden on the NHS.
They have all had their EU citizenship taken from them.
PS
I have often questioned how the UK House of Lords could be compatible with Democracy.
I now at last see that it can act independently from any party influence and free to vote their conscience on behalf of the people, unlike the Commons who have had to succumb to the influence of their parties whip.
Keith Redmond, valiant twitter warrior, is taking aim at Ali Khan and David S. Lesperance, compliance condors, at #fatca. GO KEITH!
Beware of Congressional “Pay-Fors”
MARCH 2, 2017 POSTED BY CHRIS
http://conservativeread.com/beware-of-congressional-pay-fors/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
JC: Good work on that Hill Notes comment!
Calgary: Thanks for alerting us to the latest on the FAST Act. I didn’t realize that was still in the works. Maybe this Congress will do something about that as well. I’m sure the FAST Act would be considered to be unconstitutional.
@ JC and MuzzledNoMore
I don’t see any Hill Notes comments.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-03/the-most-desirable-passports-on-earth-don-t-include-america
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/most-desirable-passports-earth-don-080006049.html
US tied for 35th with Slovenia. The ranking was produced by a blog called Nomad Capitalist. Apparently located in the heart of Texas. The Yahoo version of the article has, as you would expect, loads of really intelligent comments. Like this one:
richard
2 hours ago
i live in america, why would i even want a passport?
@EmBee They removed my comment. Must have been “inconvenient truth.” I tried to repost on the hill article.
Re: Bloomberg News: Re: US passport tied for 35th with Slovenia.
Slovenia is where Melania Trump is from.
This will be a meme in the upcoming Twitter Rally this Wednesday 10 a.m. EST.
@ JC
At least nobody can say Melania takes a back seat to Donald. They are both from 35th ranked countries. Eye-rolling, head-shaking, sadly typical comments at Yahoo re: the Bloomberg article.
From last week, but I don’t think it’s been posted:
In sweeping move, Trump puts regulation monitors in U.S. agencies
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-regulations-idUSKBN1631NV?il=0
The actual order:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/03/01/2017-04107/enforcing-the-regulatory-reform-agenda
Any word on who the “regulation monitor” (officially, Regulatory Reform Officer) for Treasury will be?
“Under Trump, an Already Depleted I.R.S. Could Face Deep Cuts”, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/politics/trump-mnuchin-irs.html
From which:
“President Trump has a rocky history with the Internal Revenue Service, which he has complained audits him with unfair ferocity. Now he wants to significantly cut the tax agency’s funding at a time when it has already been bleeding staff and struggling to keep up with a flood of returns ahead of Tax Day.
“The plans, revealed this week in documents associated with the White House budget outline, put Mr. Trump at odds with his Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who has argued that the I.R.S. needs more money and a larger staff.
“Another round of cuts, tax experts say, could put one of the few federal departments that pay for themselves on life support. …
“The White House budget office has proposed a 14.1 percent cut to the I.R.S. for the fiscal year that begins in October, reducing the agency’s budget to $9.65 billion; six years ago, it stood at $12.1 billion ($13.6 billion when adjusted for inflation). …
“New internal data released by the agency this week underscored the pressure it is under. The number of individual tax return audits fell last year to its lowest level since 2004, and enforcement staffing levels were down by nearly 30 percent from 2010, to just below 16,000. Criminal investigations related to tax-related identity theft, money laundering, public corruption, cybercrime and terrorist financing also are on the decline, and I.R.S. officials cited budget constraints as the reason.
“ ‘This is only going to continue that trend,’ Roberton C. Williams, a fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, says of the potential cuts the agency is facing. ‘Audits are really a necessary function in the sense that it maintains the integrity of the system.’ “
@Edelweiss
Boy, that comment , I just cannot stop laughing!
richard
2 hours ago
i live in america, why would i even want a passport?
@PatriciaMoon
Laughing? It HURTS.
Jim Jatras on IRS Medic … good stuff!
@Polly
Sorry, I don’t catch you. ???????
@Patricia Moon
The ignorance and closed-mindedness hurts!