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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. Gotta say that’s technically good photoshopping. Gotta say also that both Obamacare and Trumpcare seem more about maintaining the profits of the Medical Industrial Complex than maintaining the health of people. Obamacare was drafted by a VP of a major health insurance company (Liz Fowler of WellPoint) and since more premium hikes and less coverage are part of Trumpcare then I’d bet a similar skunk is involved with drafting it too. Healthcare in the USA always seems to be about coverage and not about actual caring for sick people. Something like tax collection being about exempting corporations and extorting individuals.

  3. Daniel Kuettel posted on Facebook.
    Currently, Rand Paul’s bill has 4 yes votes and 3 No votes. Please log into popvox and share your view. Popvox is cool because your opinion will be forwarded to your representation. I shared my opinion even though I can’t vote since I’m not a US citizen. Only by educating US politicians will they become aware of the issue.
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmericanExpatriates/permalink/788221241343950/

    https://www.popvox.com/us/federal/bills/115/s869

  5. More on the IRS-related provisions incorporated in the budget legislation:
    https://taxfoundation.org/budget-deal-irs-changes/

    Including this:

    Section 107 prohibits the use of funds by the IRS to target United States citizens for exercising any right guaranteed under the First Amendment to the Constitution.

    and this:

    communication.

    Section 105 prohibits funds for videos unless reviewed in advance by the IRS’ Video Editorial Board for cost, topic, tone, and purpose.

    Section 105 reacts to the IRS spending $60,000 producing Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island themed videos for an employee training conference in 2010. They also spent $1,600 to produce a dance video at the same event.

    Has there ever before been a superstate reduced to passing special extra laws to try to stop its tax agency from breaking laws already in force?

    Truly the IRS knows where the bodies are buried.

  6. “IRS Revamp May Come Separately From Tax Reform: Brady”
    https://www.bna.com/irs-revamp-may-n57982087462/

    The House Ways and Means Committee plans to remake the IRS in a standalone bill, instead of including it in a tax reform package, members told Bloomberg BNA.

    A GOP proposal released last year would split the Internal Revenue Service into three units and could remove some of its enforcement capability to ensure it is focused on helping taxpayers. But those changes may not fit into the tax reform bill because Republicans plan to pass it using the filibuster-proof reconciliation process, meaning all aspects must be related to the budget.
    [..]
    Members of the committee are planning to request feedback on how to restructure the agency and may hold roundtables or put out “invitations for ideas,” Brady said. Roskam and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) are “laying out a process to invite that feedback on how to best redesign the IRS for a much simpler tax code and really a redesign focused on taxpayer service,” he said.

    My emphasis.

  7. From the Irish Times:
    “PAYE workers may be unaware of Revenue tax liability”
    http://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/paye-workers-may-be-unaware-of-revenue-tax-liability-1.3067923

    …a Revenue official says that initial information sent to the Irish tax authorities from the United States under new arrangements for the automatic exchange of tax information shows a number of PAYE taxpayers have outstanding tax issues.
    [..]
    “A preliminary look at the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) data supplied by the US Internal Revenue Service [to Irish Revenue] indicates that there are dividends paid each year by US companies to PAYE taxpayers who, ordinarily, would not be obliged to complete a tax return,” a Revenue spokeswoman said.

  9. @iota,
    Interesting. I haven’t lived in the UK for 20 years but then very few people filed tax returns. I never did. So now if suddenly a bunch of people owe tax on foreign dividends they have to suddenly start doing extra stuff. Of course they didn’t know they had a problem. Quite how they received their dividends outside of actually having a foreign account is confusing me though.

  10. @Neill – I don’t know. I thought it meant these Irish PAYE residents had US accounts receiving US dividends, which got reported to the Irish revenue agency as part of the US gesture towards reciprocity. It’s not the UK, it’s the Republic of Ireland, and I’m not familiar with their tax system.

  11. Cheryl: My heart goes out to that poor fellow in Niagara Falls! He would find many sympathizers here!

  12. It seems the Irish Times article does indeed refer to Irish residents with US bank accounts not disclosed to the Irish Revenue.

    The Revenue is apparently in the process of cracking down on unreported offshore income. They wrote letters to self-assesment filers, warning that offshore accounts/income (not just US but also, perhaps more common, British and other EU) should be disclosed by 1 May to avoid heavy penalties. But the PAYE non-filers didn’t get warning letters. Now the FATCA and CRS reports are being received, and the Revenue are beginning to realise that warning only SA taxpayers wasn’t enough, they should have written to non-filers also.

  13. Concerning the Canadian – couldn’t he have gotten an international drivers license in Canada to be used in America? You DO have to be an American resident to get a US drivers license. I think he made one mistake after another, as if he just took the easier path and couldn’t be bothered. He seems to be frivolous in his actions, if you ask me. HIS OWN mistake.

  18. @Eric – I don’t suppose Kushner & Co care what the purchasers do, once the money is paid.

  19. @Polly

    The guy from Niagara Falls lived and worked in the US for 16 years, during which time he would have had a US drivers license. From his account, during this period a clerk demanded he sign a voter registration form before she would renew his license, even though he was not a US citizen. Against his better judgement he did so, and now for some mysterious reason it’s come back to bite him in the ass.

  20. Newly founded: Senate Friends of Australia Caucus
    http://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-senators-form-friends-of-australia-caucus-after-donald-trumps-hostile-phone-call/news-story/ec343172be8416fcfded62626339b0c8

    There are other caucuses that are friends of other countries that might be lobbied.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucuses_of_the_United_States_Congress

    I did a Cntrl “F” search for Canada. Apparently no friends of Canada in Congress. Blatant discrimination! There is a Friends of Mexico. No friends of England. Yet there is a Congressional Friends of New Zealand Caucus.

  21. @nononymous
    Yes- he had no business renewing his US drivers license if he didn’t live in America anymore. I got an international drivers license once- I think it was good for a long time- like a year or maybe more. He didn’t want to go through the hassle- I assume- of getting the international one. He just thought he could renew his American one without being an American resident anymore. That is what got him in trouble.

  22. @nononymous
    Oh- I see what you are saying. Let me reread the article. As a Canadian resident and snowbird- he should not have been using a us license anymore.

  23. @nonoymous
    Ah I see my mistake- he was renewing his American drivers license long long ago while he was still a US resident. Still it doesn’t make sense. America is more and more full of double binds. It is insane logic.

  24. iota: Re: “Kushner Family Offers Chinese Investors A Chance To Become US Citizens”

    “Come into my parlor”, said the spider to the fly.

    Hope somebody can warn those poor sods!

  25. @MuzzledNoMore – who knows, though – maybe the flies (or some of them) have plans of their own. 🙂

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