Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

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.

1,720 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 4 of 11 (Year 2017)”

  1. The EU spelt it out back in Feb 2012:

    MEMO/12/88

    Brussels, 8th February 2012

    Commission welcomes US move to ensure enhanced international tax cooperation in a more business-friendly way

    The Commission welcomes the USA’s acceptance of an government-to-government approach to tackling tax evaders and implementing the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

    This more business-friendly arrangement for EU financial institutions is the result of intense discussions with the USA, following a letter sent by the Commission and EU Presidency to the US tax authorities in April 2011 (see IP/11/413).

    Through a government-to-government approach to tax information exchange, the administrative burden, compliance costs and legal difficulties which EU financial institutions would otherwise face in applying the FATCA provisions should be greatly reduced. The financial industry estimates that the costs of ensuring compliance with FATCA as initially designed would have been significant, with some sources estimating the cost of the required adaptation as $100 million for each multinational bank.

    Any Member State that wants to should now be able to adopt this government-to-government approach to information exchange through coordinated bilateral agreements with the USA.

    This would benefit Member States’ tax administrations by ensuring reciprocal information provision by the US, and could be the basis for broader cooperation between the EU and the US on information exchange at a later stage.

    In this context, the Commission will continue work to ensure that EU and national data protection legislation is fully respected in the implementation of the FATCA provisions.

    Overall, this cooperation with US regarding FATCA should help greatly in advancing the EU’s efforts to promote the global application of automatic exchange of information for tax purposes. It could also contribute to promote a single approach at global level to reporting arrangements on financial institutions.

    http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-88_en.htm

  2. Is FATCA ‘Much Ado About Nothing’? Is FATCA’s Tax Revenue Going to Offset Its IRS and Industry Costs?
    William Byrnes (Texas A&M University Law)/April 18, 2017 /Leave a comment
    http://kluwertaxblog.com/2017/04/18/15527/

    Sounds mostly a repeat and summary of his earlier work, yet importantly in an international tax blog.

  3. @JC

    ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, or, ‘Offshore Tax Evasion Tail Wags the IRS Dog’.

    What’s criminal is how the IRS is misleading taxpayers by inflating the amount of revenue OVDI brings in (therefore OVDI’s effectiveness) by including FBAR penalties in order to get more money from taxpayers to pay for FATCA.

  4. Everyone,

    This comment appeared at Sandbox this afternoon:

    Greetings
    Ran into the US Indica this morning in the process of wanting to open an account at a local credit union. (Note – – – LOCAL CREDIT UNION) where I was going to be asked to sign this form. Was told it was some kind of reciprocal agreement between our Federal idiots and the government of the USA (likely read the IRS). Took all the documents that were presented to their shredder and don’t think that I will be able to open an account with an institution that is preemptively already reporting to the IRS on a solely Canadian citizen. Any idea on what can be done besides ‘suck it up buttercup!’?

    Suggestions appreciated. If I understand correctly, this person is saying he/she is a Canadian citizen only?

    http://maplesandbox.ca/canadian-information-resources/comment-page-2/#comment-553597

  5. @JC – yes, good to see Prof Byrnes reiterating his conclusions that FATCA costs more than it will ever generate – and getting in a few digs at the draconian penalties as well.

    My comment there is currently under moderation:

    Thank you for this research.

    Another aspect to consider is whether the OVDP and Streamlined filings represent continuing tax revenue from taxpayers who have been “brought in from the cold”. I suspect that a large portion of the Streamlined filings coming from non-US addresses are from individuals who are getting their US compliance in order with the aim of renouncing their US citizenship. Thus, not only is FATCA ineffective in generating tax revenue, it is also instrumental in causing the flight of thousands (or more) US taxpayers who are exiting the system either formally or informally. If the IRS can count the Title 31 penalties as FATCA revenue, perhaps they should also be able to count the spike in renunciation fees being collected by US consulates around the world!

  6. @Tricia – I wonder if this is related to CRS? I know the US is not part of CRS, BUT… Australian CRS guidance clearly states that US tax-residents (including US citizens resident in Australia) must be reported to the ATO under CRS (in addition to being reported to the ATO in a separate file under FATCA). CRS has fewer exceptions – I don’t believe “local client base” institutions are exempt (was going to check this, but the ATO website is down AGAIN!) and there is no lower limit on account size (if you have $0.01 in an account it is reportable under CRS). Given the necessity of CRS reporting anyway, I wonder whether any FATCA-deemed-compliant FIs will decide to report FATCA data since they’re collecting it for CRS anyway.

    Note that under the “wider approach” adopted by Australia (and most countries), reporting FIs send their local tax authority a list of all account holders who have a tax residence outside of the country. The tax authority only shares this info with countries that have signed on to CRS. So the FI would have to report US tax-residents to the ATO/CRA/whatever, but that info would not be shared with the IRS.

    CRS is asking about tax-residence, not citizenship – so a solely Canadian citizen who spends too much time in the US could be caught up by CRS.

  8. @Karen,

    It’s a good question but I don’t think so because it isn’t due to be implemented until July 1, 2017.

    Canada has issued draft legislation effective July 1, 2017, that will require financial institutions to begin reporting information annually to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) beginning in May 2018…………After June 30, 2017, customers opening accounts with a Canadian financial institution generally will be required to provide their tax residency status and tax identification number (TIN) for all countries in which they are resident for tax purposes. In addition, applications for accounts held by certain entities may require disclosure of the entity’s individual controlling persons who are tax residents of countries other than Canada.

    Understanding the Common Reporting Standard

    I will have to digest the rest a bit later – Blue Jays (at 2-10) are having a better nite!

  10. Does anyone know where to find the Bopp text “Notes on FBAR vs. FATCA” cited on that RO website?

  12. The US tax compliance industry lobbies for greater accommodation by the IRS:

    “Earlier this year, the AICPA Tax Section called together several practitioner groups to work together on getting comments to Congress on the importance of improving IRS taxpayer services and offering various suggestions. One of the suggestions is to create a new unit to serve tax practitioners (about 60% of returns are prepared by a paid preparer).”

    https://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/aicpa-other-groups-call-for-improvements-to-irs-services/#.WPduMZFfOhA

    Instead of reducing complexity to the point where the reliance on tax practitioners is reduced, tax preparers are calling for taxpayers to fund a new division to accommodate them.

  14. @Karen:

    “CRS has fewer exceptions – I don’t believe “local client base” institutions are exempt (was going to check this, but the ATO website is down AGAIN!) ”

    Doesn’t CRS only require reporting of non-residents? Which a local client base institution would not have?

  15. So with the UK election could Labour if they get in try and get this expat? Somebody who lives in the UK will know even if they are an evil expat not paying their fair share to uncle sam.

  16. @iota

    CRS looks at tax-residence, not physical residence (though they are usually the same). The Australian CRS guidance (which closely follows OECD guidance) is very clear that it it possible to be tax-resident in two countries simultaneously – and uses the example of US citizens to illustrate.

    And, now that the ATO website is working again, I found the reference I was looking for:

    Other exclusions found in the FATCA Agreement but not available under the CRS are:

    local banks
    financial institutions with a local client base
    financial institutions with only low-value accounts
    sponsored investment entity and controlled foreign corporation
    sponsored closely-held investment vehicle.

    Further categories also treated as non-reporting financial institutions are those treated as deemed-compliant financial institutions or exempt beneficial owners in the current U.S. FATCA Regulations.

    From 1 July 2017, there are entities falling within FATCA excluded categories that will be required to fulfil due diligence and reporting obligations for the first time as a result of the commencement of the CRS.

    from the ATO website

    So, local client base banks will have to ask new account holders about tax residence from 1 July. They will also have to go through the due diligence procedures on existing accounts.

  18. @Tricia;
    Another important FATCA comment/opinion letter – from within the EU, which raised data protection, and other rights issues, power imbalances between individuals and FFIs, unwarranted bulk transfer of personal and financial data, etc. – as they may conflict with EU law and protections – regardless of whether individual nations implement FATCA;

    ex.
    “…careful assessment of how FATCA’s goals balance with
    that of the EU’s fundamental right enshrined in Article 8
    of the Charter of Fundamental Rights – the right to a private and family
    life, i.e. by demonstrating necessity by proving that the required data are the minimum
    necessary in relation to the purpose. A bulk transfer and the screening of all
    these data is not the best way to achieve such a goal. Therefore more
    selective, less broad measures should be considered in order to respect the
    privacy of law-abiding citizens, particularly; an examination of alternative, less
    privacy-intrusive means must to be carried out to demonstrate FATCA’s
    necessity….”……
    http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/article-29/documentation/other-document/files/2012/20120621_letter_to_taxud_fatca_en.pdf

  19. Don’t know where to put this, but it also is another archive of some important FATCA comment letters to the US, and a few to home country governments (UK), but only available to those with access to Tax Notes;
    http://www.taxnotes.com/FATCA-expert/comment-letters

    You can’t open the fulltext, but you can read the titles which identify the source and subject in a general sense.

  21. @Fred (B)

    Indeed. Notes that Americans are averse to leaving the US, but it’s not really clear what she blames it on. A lack of adventure? Can’t find her on FB or Twitter, unfortunately.

  25. I’m afraid you’ve missed the point entirely. Native born home landers are less likely than others to work abroad. In some cases they would be better off in Canada, New Zealand or Timbuctoo. Not a big deal or an opinion to get exercised about

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: