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)”

  2. EU-US tax war comes to the G20 http://www.taxjustice.net/2017/07/06/eu-us-tax-war-comes-g20/

    This is the most direct challenge yet to the increasingly well recognised problem of ‘Tax haven USA’ – that while global progress has been made in these areas, the US as the world’s leading financial services provider has if anything gone backwards, positioning itself as a central player in tax abuse and other corrupt flows.

    …

    The question is whether the EU is willing to push this as far as blacklisting the US. The US only made progress against the recalcitrance of other secrecy jurisdictions by using the threat of sanctions against foreign financial institutions to demand automatic provision of financial information (through FATCA). As the Tax Justice Network proposed last year, only the EU has the power to make such a threat to US financial institutions – and only such a threat seems likely to exert the necessary pressure.

  3. Thanks for that notice about the ‘Mythster’ Stack.

    So now that he’ll be working the private side he says;
    ““I look forward to working with our clients to analyze and respond to the complicated tax, risk and compliance issues they face,” said Stack.”

    But of course he’s only concerned about corporations and business, not ordinary individuals and families outside the US.

    I guess he’ll never admit that the complicated tax, risk and compliance issues he helped create and enforce on behalf of the US Treasury when he was working for the other side – and the immoral and unethical impact his work had for ordinary folks like us living outside the US is no myth ( ex. http://we-are-not-a-myth.tumblr.com/ ) Course his tune was different if you were a US corporation and it was the EU looking for taxes http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/05/16/you-cant-handle-the-truth-mythster-stack/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/29/european-commission-unfairly-targeting-us-companies-starbucks-mcdonalds-amazon-apple-taxes-treasury https://www.bna.com/stack-us-businesses-n57982068013/

    Stack said;
    “…A strongly preferred and mutually beneficial outcome would be a return to the system of international tax cooperation that has long fostered cross-border investment between the United States and EU Member States. The U.S. Treasury Department remains ready and willing to look for a path forward that achieves the shared objective of preventing the continued erosion of the corporate tax base while ensuring our international tax system is fair for all. ….”

    And exactly where is the ‘international tax cooperation’ in the US extraterritorially imposed FATCA enforced by extortion? And “fair for all”? What a laugh since he and the US uses ‘might makes right’ as their guide.

    As we know, there is NO fairness in US extraterritorial CBT, and the US Treasury FBAR ‘n FATCA fundraiser.

    Somebody should ask the Mythster Stack to explain where the mythical ‘reciprocity’ is in FATCA that they pretended the US would be ‘working towards’. The rest of the world is still waiting….. or pretending to their populace that they actually believed that part of the IGAs.

  4. No opportunity to comment, but speaking of FATCA myths and the Mythster Stack, see;

    ‘Foreign TIN Issues Could Signal Bigger Problems for FATCA’

    “Problems surrounding the required collection of foreign taxpayer identification numbers (FTINs) could expose the United States’ inability to live up to information sharing promises and imperil the future of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, a practitioner told Tax Analysts.

    Cyrus Daftary of IHS Markit said that if other countries are unhappy with the quality of the data being gathered, like incomplete or missing FTINs, it could create mounting pressure for the United States to abandon FATCA for the common reporting standard (CRS).”
    https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/tax-law/b/newsheadlines/archive/2017/07/06/u-k-defends-work-helping-developing-nations-adapt-to-new-tax-standards.aspx?Redirected=true

  5. @KAren
    Oh wow. The fact that America has become the biggest tax haven is one of my biggest pet peeves. The HYPOCRISY is STAGGERING. But I doubt that even Europe has the clout to change this. All countries should have boycotted FATCA from the beginning. As I have written once before – Al Jazeera ( no less) wrote many years ago that America was just trying to steal those bank customers from Switzerland.

  7. @Tom Alciere,

    If your successful then citizen ship really is forced on you. The tax law is set to punish you if you try to leave. The government can force you to exit on if they want. So you have to enter the system.

  8. From CBC, according to a senior government source regarding the payment to Omar Khadr:

    “…..the payment reflects the fact that his charter rights were violated, and the Liberal government will support the charter, even when it’s unpopular.”

    How I wish that were true for all Canadians.

    There’s a Wilson-Raybould/Goodale news conference at 11:45am ET to discuss. Be prepared for some stomach-churning hypocrisy about the Charter.

  9. @ Maya L
    The American widow of Speer and Morris (American soldier injured in the combat action) are all lawyered up to take Omar Khadr’s Canadian settlement away from him. BTW, it’s unclear whether he tossed that grenade. He was found so badly injured in the rubble that it would have been very difficult for him to have done that. So I would have to say that on top of hypocrisy we will likely see irony if our 10.5M in Canadian tax dollars end up in the USA.
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/khadr-compensation-speer-morris-1.4190468
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/omar-khadr-tells-his-guantanamo-story-in-new-documentary-1.3089953

  10. As for the youtube video about naturalization, you see U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen at 1:25 on stage, and after the ceremony there was a photo op where Blanca and I posed for a picture with her, during which time:

    Tom Alciere: It’s WONDERFUL for the ones who want U.S. citizenship,
    Sen. Shaheen: It is.
    Tom Alciere: But it’s TERRIBLE under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act for the ones in other countries, who are no more American than senator ted Cruz was a Canadian when he found out four years ago.

  12. Prime Minister Trudeau on Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms…

    …Charter protects all Canadians ‘even when it is uncomfortable’
    CBC News

    July 8, 2017 00:21
    ‘This is not about the details or merits of the Khadr case,’ PM says. ‘When the government violates any Canadian’s charter rights, we all end up paying for it’

    But *we* are ‘US citizens who happen to abide in Canada,’ not really Canadians????????

  13. Calgary: Thank you for posting the video of Trudeau’s exact words. Perhaps Mr. Arvay might find a way of incorporating the quote into his opening arguments. We haven’t heard one this good in a long time!

  14. And perhaps the Tweeters would like to have a go at Trudeau! Even though it’s made the US mad (particularly the family of the soldier who was killed) Canada will uphold the Charter by compensating a former, underage (alleged) terrorist while it refuses to uphold it in the case of citizens who have done no wrong at all except having “US Personhood”.

  15. New from WSJ! https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-tax-overhauls-fate-rests-on-big-six-talks-1499437368 This article is behind a paywall but someone sent me some excerpts. Our fortunes may rest upon the decisions of six men, the “Big Six”. I trust that Jim Jatras, Nigel Green, Mark Meadows and Rand Paul will be in touch with this group but I think a letter-writing campaign directly from all of us to the “Big Six” would be in order.

    “The group is composed of two lawmakers with their own tax plan, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady; two veterans of Washington political warfare, Sens. Mitch McConnell and Orrin Hatch ; and two Trump administration representatives more schooled in the ways of Wall Street than Washington, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn.”

    “The group is working its way up to the hardest decisions, trying to make choices on key policy questions and hoping to release a framework in September that is more detailed than the administration’s one-page April outline. Congress would then write legislation over the following months.”

    Barbara, would you like to send to this group the letter of mine that you sent earlier to Mark Meadows?

    I have to run out but if I can find some contact information for these people later on I will post it here.

  17. Here is Contact Information for the “Big Six” who will be influential in deciding whether or not our issues are addressed in the pending tax reform. Let’s raise our voices yet again! The next few months could be make it or break it.

    Paul Ryan, Speaker
    H-232 The Capitol
    Washington, D.C. 20515
    Ph (202) 225-0600; FAX (202) 225-2012

    Congressman Kevin Brady, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee,
    1011 Longworth House Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20515
    Ph (202) 225-4901; FAX (202) 225-5524
    @RepKevinBrady

    Senator Mitch McConnell,
    317 Russell Senate Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20510
    Ph (202) 224-2541

    Senator Orrin Hatch
    104 Hart Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20510
    Ph (202) 224-5251; FAX (202) 224-6331

    Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury
    Department of the Treasury
    1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
    Washington, D.C. 20220

    Gary Cohn (no contact info found)

  19. Additional contacts for the “Big Six”:

    @SpeakerRyan
    @OrrinHatch
    @SenateMajLdr (Mitch McConnell)
    @stevenmnuchin1
    @WhiteHouse (Gary Cohn)

    My thanks to Charl for these!

  21. A message from Jus de Fruit on American Expatriates FB:

    So no need for a summary of the audition seeing as a filmed version will be available soon. Suffice to say that things went as well as we could hope.

    In the morning I met with an MEP who will be travelling with the next ECON delegation to the US. He was not aware of the issues. He is now. He agreed to find a slot in the itinerary to raise the issue of Accidental Americans with the relevant US Authorities.

    The presentation of the petition went well. Followed Tim Smyth’s advice and tried to put the Commission in a corner. Seems Sophie Int Veld is on the same wave length. The Commission in Sophie’s words sent messengers to be shot. Personally I took the fact that three different teams from the Commission were represented as a badge of honour. They simply don’t know what to do with us! Ok got a bit belligerent with one of them, offering to step outside (not to fight but to witness me failing to get an account at BNP Fortis).

    Various MEPs approached me after the meeting for more details. I am back at the EP tomorrow to meet more MEPs and their assistants.

    We live to fight another round!

  22. Mme in’t Veldt was simply exquisite and should have brought a hammer. The Irish-French dual gentleman couldn’t have summed it any better in his ten minutes or more.

    Much thanks for the link.

  23. Call for a Isaac Brock Feature on this one:

    Hatch Calls for Feedback on Tax Reform

    The Senate Finance Committee is yet again asking the general public to send comments on tax reform. The deadline is July 17, and the email address is taxreform2017@finance.senate.gov.

    https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/hatch-calls-for-feedback-on-tax-reform

    Maybe I’ll just dust off my previous submissions to the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. Maybe ADCS should send them the fine multipart/multimedia submission sent previously to the Senate Finance Committee international work group on tax reform.

    They claim that these submissions will be private. I don’t mind to have a submission placed on a website somewhere.

    They don’t have a specific category that fits our case. #4 talks about international and competitiveness yet also has the words “preserve our tax base.”

    I don’t see a “simplification” category, or a “fairer” category.

    If we send submissions in perhaps they will be categorized under the 4 categories provided. Instead of getting drowned out in the individual person tax category, as I imagine there will be a vast majority from Homelanders in this category, maybe best to angle it as international, category #4.

    Already a month has passed since this request. The 17th is this coming Monday.

    Perhaps this call for submissions has not been broadcast widely. That would mean something less than a mountain of submissions, so more opportunity to impact.

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