Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 4 of 11 (Year 2017)

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

1. @Shovel
   Thx. That helped a lot to understand.

2. It’s great to see the presence of Logic in the Washington Times comment section. Nicely done everyone. Hopefully Thomas Stewart will be motivated to write more articles about the plight of American expatriates. He has a pretty good grasp of the situation already and may have picked up more useful points from the commenters.

   http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/24/ex-patriots-should-not-be-taxed-in-foreign-lands/

3. It’s tough getting through to Trump. I hope it’s true that Rand Paul might be able to do it though. It would be nice to think he could whisper some FATCA facts into the president’s ear (out of earshot of Kelly the president’s new gatekeeper).
   http://www.targetliberty.com/2017/08/how-to-get-news-articles-to-president.html

4. Tax reform is America’s best chance to grow jobs and boost wages
   By David Williams, Opinion Contributor – 08/22/17 06:00 PM EDT

   This is a silly article where all the focus is on lowering U.S. corporate tax as if that = #taxreform.

   Naturally the comments are all negative and don’t give tax breaks to the rich.

   In actuality, corporate tax reform may achieve objectives by switching to territorial even if the tax rates don’t go down for corporations. Thus this argument may derail most of the comments to the article. It is a missed opportunity to focus on territorial.

   So there I am in the comments out to defend corporate tax reform (and perhaps recast it with focus on territorial). Else territorial/residential for individuals is not going anywhere.

   http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/347554-tax-reform-is-americas-best-chance-to-grow-jobs-and-boost?platform=hootsuite

5. C’mon everyone. JC made it easy for us by posting a great comment on The Hill. All we need to do is uptick it enough to put it up top the “Sort by Best”. Thanks, JC.

6. I posted this on the EU specific thread here at IBS, but thought you’d like to read the latest questions posed by MEP in’t Veld to the EU Parliament regarding FATCA and the rights of EU citizens and residents;

   Question for written answer P-005250/2017
   to the Commission
   Rule 130
   Sophia in ‘t Veld (ALDE)
   ‘Subject: Multiple reporting requirements for EU citizens under FATCA and the associated IGAs’

   “The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a US law that was officially enacted to combat tax fraud committed by US tax residents through offshore accounts. The law forces non-US financial institutions to identify and report to the US Internal Revenue Service all their ‘Us person’ clients. It was implemented in Europe by means of bilateral intergovernmental agreements (IGA) concluded between the EU Member States and the US. EU citizens who are active in more than one Member State to have concluded an IGA are subjected to individual FATCA reporting requirements in each Member State on the basis of each agreement.
   1. Is the Commission aware that, under FATCA and the associated IGASs, EU citizens are subjected to similar reporting requirements in each Member State in which they are active?
   2. Could the Commission outline how many EU citizens could be affected by this repercussion? Does it intend to take any action to assist and protect EU citizens?
   3. Does the Commission consider the practice of multiple FATCA reporting requirements in different Member States contrary to the Treaty provisions on the free movement of people? If so, how will it address this violation of EU citizens’ rights?”

   http://www.europarl.europa.eu/plenary/en/parliamentary-questions.html?tabType=all&tabActif=tabLast#sidesForm

7. Go, Sophie! Thanks for posting the link, Badger.

8. Of course, EU citizens who don’t have US citizenship are also subject to reporting requirements in multiple EU member states, if they’re active in more than one EU member state.

9. Another on the US FATCA lawsuit…

   August 29, 2017, WealthManagement.com Dismissal of FATCA Lawsuit Upheld — Sixth Circuit affirms that plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge foreign reporting requirements

10. Rand Paul vows to fight for three-prong “bold but simple” tax reform (FATCA repeal not one of the prongs):

    http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/30/opinions/get-simple-on-tax-reform-rand-paul-opinion/index.html

11. @plaxy, from the article, Rand Paul asks:

    “Let me ask you a serious question. If someone has to pay more for someone else to pay less — which category do you think you and other Americans might fall into?”

    Good question for non-resident Americans, especially when we question what we get for those taxes.

12. Not good news for anyone with VanCity:

    https://www.vancity.com/PrivacyAndSecurity/YourPrivacy/FATCA/

13. Relief in sight for American expats as RNC adopts new tax position
    by Ashley Kong | on August 31, 2017
    http://harbourtimes.com/2017/08/31/relief-sight-american-expats-rnc-adopts-new-tax-position/

    The RNC’s Territorial Tax Reform proposal also pushes the American government to impose greater taxation on non-resident alien individuals’ gains on sales of US listed securities and assets other than real property and real property holding companies.

    This may sound like a reasonable trade off if necessary to get territorial for individuals passed. Yet I don’t believe other countries extra tax nonresident aliens. Some sectors within the U.S. may view this as a deterrence to attracting overseas investment into the U.S.

    Payfor now proposed. I thought that territorial could be justified on the economic merits itself.

    Could be viewed as extra boot for those who have renounced, their families, or for families of U.S. persons living overseas – as these persons are more likely to have U.S. based money than just the ordinary non-resident alien.

    How about this. Instead of the proposed tax: cracking down on revealing beneficial account ownership in states such as Delaware, Wyoming, and Nevada. No doubt there may be leakage in tax on non-resident aliens who are beneficial owners as the IRS has no visibility on these accounts.

    Disqus open.

14. I have a comment in at Harbour Times (no links or mentioning other groups) under moderation.

15. Regarding VanCity, it appears that their adoption of CRS reporting as of 1July 2017 means they no longer consider themselves a local client base institution exempt from FATCA. I will look at some other credit unions I knew to be FATCA-free, see if anything has changed there.

    In any case it only says “self-certify” US citizenship, which means that anyone prepared to lie is quite safe.

16. Indeed, another credit union where I’d considered opening an account has also changed it’s policy. It seems that CRS compliance has lead to automatic FATCA compliance. Interesting… I wonder if it’s time to do another scan of the credit union landscape – perhaps the local client base loophole has gone away.

    Still not a huge issue if you don’t report yourself as a US person and the credit union doesn’t bother to validate your answer. (And fundamentally who cares if the IRS can’t do anything useful with the information, at least as far as Canadian citizens are concerned.)

17. @JC: “This may sound like a reasonable trade off if necessary to get territorial for individuals passed. Yet I don’t believe other countries extra tax nonresident aliens. Some sectors within the U.S. may view this as a deterrence to attracting overseas investment into the U.S.”

    Yes, it may sound reasonable if, but only if one doesn’t think through the knock-on effects. You have, but will everyone else? To the logical, the proposal to apply full US capital gains tax on NRAs alone would make this a non-starter. Are those making the decisions here logical and rational?

    As written, the “pay-for” here is simply bonkers, even if we disregard the fact that it tramples every US double tax treaty in existence. It is almost as if this part of things was placed in the proposal deliberately as a ‘poison pill’.

18. Thanks for posting about Vancity. I would remind all members of credit unions that they have to have an annual members meeting/AGM. If you are not afraid to out yourself, or have renounced/relinquished, or are under the radar, etc. then perhaps it is time to plan to attend and somehow register complaints, and raise issues publicly like what happened to their stance re ‘local client base institution exempt from FATCA’?

    My only dilemma is that I don’t want to frighten other members into the arms of US compliance and outing themselves if they aren’t already. I’m not a member of Vancity, and the credit union where we do most of our banking has not to date asked any questions re my citizenship status though they know that I was a USP and was planning to relinquish – they haven’t asked for any further update on whether I have or not.

    Vancity’s AGM is past, and seems to be held in May https://www.vancity.com/AboutVancity/GovernanceAndLeadership/AGM/ .

19. Passport Revocation Update from the Taxpayer Advocate: Video by IRS Medic

    https://www.irsmedic.com/blog/2017/09/passport-revocation-update-taxpayer-advocate.html

20. FATCA is a blinding disaster that the 6th Circuit can’t see. So let’s help them.
    2017-08-30

    IRSMedic interview with Donna Lane Nelson

    https://www.irsmedic.com/blog/2017/08/how-the-6th-circuit-denial-of-fatca-affects-expats.html

21. “We believe that the IRS will be starting with denials because there will be less red tape than with revocations. Simply denying someone a passport because of tax debt is much easier than tracking down those that owe over $50,000 and actively taking their passports away. We can’t seem to find anyone at the IRS or State Department that can tell us exactly what the revocation process looks like, or the reinstatement process. Will they actually stop you in the airport? What if you are living in another country – can that country take your passport?”

    Beginning to look like the Reed Amendment.

22. Re: Passport denials and revocations based on tax debts

    You can only have a tax debt if you are in the U.S. tax system. The passport revocation laws, once understood, will create the following:

    1. Huge disincentives to come into U.S. tax compliance (for those who are not in compliance).

    Think of it. If coming into compliance could generate penalties exceeding $50,000 (which is very easy) people will avoid compliance. The only way to have a “tax debt” is to be in the system.

    2. Provide even more incentive to renounce.

    Seriously: “The gig is up!” Every “U.S. Person” outside the USA (and even in the USA) really needs another passport!

    Renounce and rejoice!

23. I’m unable to read the whole article but this looks VERY interesting.

    Stephen: do you know anything further about this that you could post here?

    https://www.law360.com/articles/959953/paul-others-seek-6th-circ-rehearing-for-fatca-challenge

24. If you’re able to get on the American Expatriates FB page, Deedee posted a link to the full article.

25. @Patricia Moon

    OMG again! Thanks for posting the link:

    https://www.vancity.com/PrivacyAndSecurity/YourPrivacy/FATCA/

    Here I was oblivious that Vancity had changed it’s FATCA policy. At the bottom of the article there is a link to another one “About the Common Reporting Standard”.

    https://www.vancity.com/PrivacyAndSecurity/YourPrivacy/CRS/

    This would not likely affect those like me who have renounced and have a CLN. However,there is a potential for trouble for those flying under the radar. Perhaps it could be posted prominently on Brock?

    After the holiday weekend, I can stop in my local Vancity branch to see if I can find out anything further. They already know me as an “ex” US person. Looks like the combination of FATCA and CRS may be tightening the noose of US extraterritorial overreach.

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