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
NEVER! There must be method to their madness.
http://www.westernjournalism.com/michael-moore-done-current-democratic-party/
@Embee and Shovel,
and what about Constitutional and Charter rights? More intrusive surveillance and abrogation of the rights of individuals en masse, while corporations and other entities and paper people live and breathe just to figure out protections and barriers to taxation, create loopholes, lobby for them, and defend them.
Who will speak for the masses of ordinary people? We’re not even in the conversation.
@ Bubblebustin
I hope you’re right.
@ badger
I thought Arthur and Allison were speaking for us … but now I’m not sure.
Nice twitstorm on #fatca today. Sorry I couldn’t join in the fray but I did tune in. Next Wednesday, same time (8:00am EST), I hope there will be even more anti-FATCA (CBT too) twittering. Thanks to the idea man and all the clever tweeties who came up with such creative tweets. I noticed some compliance condors managed to slip in but they were a daft minority.
Oops, Wednesday twitstorms start at 10:00am EST.
Awesome. I can start when I get up. 7:00AM PST. 😀
@Embee, who does speak out for justice for the ordinary person on tax matters like these, much less on ‘international’ issues?
Apparently even the glaring abuse of the savings and rights and best interests and government benefits belonging to minors and those with disabilities, and the deliberate mischaracterizations by the US Treasury ( and tacit and active acceptance of that bald faced slander by our Canadian FATCA colluders in the CRA, Minister of Finance Lebouthillier, Con and gLib MPs, etc.) of Canadian legal local savings as equivalent to those of moneylaunderingtaxevadingterrorfundingdruglords are of insufficient interest to even make it into the media like the CBC and tax journals.
We don’t see our Canadian government and Sunny J responding when the US Treasury says baldly that the SCE and thus Canadian local legal savings are effectively equivalent to those of moneylaunderingtaxevadingterrorfundingdruglords and so must be FATCA’d and FBAR’d forever and ever.
Abuse our local legal savings, and the CONS and gLIBs cover their eyes, ears and mouths and refuse to acknowledge the trespass against us, but mention softwood lumber or Canadian bankers, and they all stand to attention: see re softwood lumber dispute with the US; “….International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada is prepared for any situation and the government will vigorously defend the interests of Canadian workers and producers…” http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/newsalert+says+canadian+softwood+lumber+imports+caused+harm/12653218/story.html and ‘Volcker Rule in bank reforms violates NAFTA, Joe Oliver argues’ http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/volcker-rule-in-bank-reforms-violates-nafta-joe-oliver-argues-1.3072466
And what of the consent of the governed? Both the US and Canadian governments just want to tax us and don’t give a damn for our human, civil or constitutional rights or what the governed think – that much has been made crystal clear by the consistent behaviour of sucessive Canadian governments, both the CONS who enabled FATCA on our home soil, and those Sunny gLibs who currently abuse our Canadian taxpayer money defending the imposition of a foreign country’s FATCA law on Canadians, as well as those in both parties who over decades through collusion or negligence let the gaping chasms in the Canada US tax treaty stand for so long – a situation that they still are apparently fully content to allow to remain. Taking them to court is our only recourse, we’ve tried all the traditional methods that a democracy purports to afford us. It is not from a position of ignorance that both governments are abusing us, it is from the arrogance of power, convenience and political self interest.
We know very well and have ample primary documentation to prove that Trudeau, and Brison, and Goodale and others are fully aware of the significant FATCA and FBAR and US extraterritorial tax threat to the wellbeing and rights of Canadians, yet they hypocritically disavowed their pre-election positions, and now defend FATCA in Canada imposed on and paid for by Canadian tax dollars. As the party in power, they now have full access to the probing questions which they posed to the CONS https://openparliament.ca/debates/2014/1/27/scott-brison-2/ but which the CONS basically declined to answer.
The Charter, constitutional, human and civil rights of Canadians, and their sworn duty to protect us and Canadian sovereignty and autonomy is simply not as important to them as softwood lumber and Bankster investments in the US market.
No amount of shirtless photo ops and carefully orchestrated trips to coffee shops can paper over the hypocrisy and gap between what the Sunny Libs said on the record, and what they’ve chosen to do on the FATCA and US arrogant extraterritorial taxation of Canadians file.
My non-U.S. husband, who kept saying he thought Trump would win, also believes that Trump will not willingly give up the cash cow that is the diaspora. Which was in the back of my head when I read this today from Mnuchin’s confirmation hearing: “Trump would support hiring more IRS workers ‘to make money’ for the government, Mnuchin says”,
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-trump-would-support-hiring-more-irs-1484849023-htmlstory.html
*****
Treasury secretary pick Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he wanted to beef up the Internal Revenue Service and believed he could convince President-elect Donald Trump to increase staff despite promises of a hiring freeze. …
Mnuchin said that would not be a hard sell to Trump. “I can assure you that the president-elect understands the concept of when we add people, we make money,” Mnuchin said. “He’ll get that completely. That’s a very quick conversation with Donald Trump.”
“My non-U.S. husband, who kept saying he thought Trump would win, also believes that Trump will not willingly give up the cash cow that is the diaspora.”
I am a NON-US husband who has taken up the fight since I wanted my wife to remain silent and stay hidden, also thought the same and I presumed also that Trump will NOT give up the cash cow that is the diaspora. And everything Trump has done to this day has pointed in that direction.
Latest tweet from my end in the never-ending Twitter campaign against this financial war:
@Rebecca
Thats what I thought from the beginning. Trump is about making money – it is how he won the election. On TV just lately, they showed interviews with Trump voters and one of them just “He is a businessman and not another crooked politician. He knows how to make money and will make America great again.” He will not give up the revenue from millions of Americans abroad, IMO.
Have you seen this big juicy article to tweet and retweet?
From Maple Sandbox, Lynne posted this;
http://maplesandbox.ca/2017/is-u-s-treasury-secretary-a-real-tax-cheat/
‘Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Nominee, Failed to Disclose $100 Million in Assets’
“…Steven T. Mnuchin, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to be Treasury secretary, failed to disclose nearly $100 million of his assets on Senate Finance Committee disclosure documents and forgot to mention his role as a director of an investment fund located in a tax haven, an omission that Democrats said made him unfit to serve in one of the government’s most important positions.
The revelation came hours before Mr. Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker, began testifying on Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee,..”…..
And remember Timmy the Tax Cheat Geithner http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/us/politics/14geithner.html?pagewanted=all http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/13/treasury-geithner-obama-biz-beltway-cx_bw_0113geithner2.html who regularly exhorted those outside the US to pay their ‘fair share’?
“……….Timothy Geithner is finally cashing in.
After an appropriate stint at a think tank to write his memoir and a quiet transition to Wall Street, President Obama’s first Treasury secretary, who left office in 2013, is now ready to make millions thanks to help from a big bank he used to regulate.
Bloomberg News this week disclosed that Geithner has gotten a line of credit from JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s biggest bank, to invest in a new $12 billion fund at the private equity firm where he works, Warburg Pincus.
The filing with the New York Department of State does not give the amount of the line of credit or the terms, but according to Bloomberg, Warburg Pincus executives are signing up for a total $800 million and Geithner, as a top officer, is probably getting a sizable chunk of that.
The returns on the private equity investment are bound to be much higher than whatever interest Geithner will be paying on the loan, so he is virtually guaranteed to make many millions in profit on the deal……..”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/02/09/ex-treasury-secretary-geithner-cashing-wall-street/80057762/
Continues the trend of choosing Treasury secretaries who for all their lauded qualifications and homeland USA resident status can’t figure out how to declare and pay their ‘fair share’, while administering US extraterritorial laws to force people who are ALREADY paying tax to the country they actually live in to report and potentially pay another layer of taxes and penalties to the US – a country which they have NO meaningful economic connection with. We were supposed to know all about the unique and confiscatory regime of US extraterritorial tax and reporting, but Homeland America Treasury Secretaries resident in the US can get apparently a free pass for multi-year and significant oversights and underpayments as well as actual ‘offshore’ banking http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-congress-lew-caymans-idUSL1N0BDA1D20130213 ?
And the IRS wants to confiscate and penalize the legal local Registered Disability Savings plan interest, disability benefits and education savings plans belonging to Canadian children and dependents?
Its like deja vu all over again……….
What does Mnuchin’s comment mean re FATCA?
“..“Let me just be clear again: I did not use a Cayman Islands entity in any way to avoid paying taxes for myself,” Mr. Mnuchin said. “I would love to work with the I.R.S. to close these tax issues that make no sense.””
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/steven-mnuchin-treasury-secretary-nominee-assets-confirmation.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=span-abc-region®ion=span-abc-region&WT.nav=span-abc-region&_r=1
Not an outlet for making comments, but what if they http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/ ( “Email comments and suggestions for fact-checks to truthometer@politifact.com or find us on Facebook, and Twitter ” ) were to fact check Obama’s promises to expats, ex.
“…….. Obama understands the special concerns and issues of Americans living abroad and
will seek to address these as president………”……
…….. “.,,,,,,,Our government must work to ensure that overseas Americans have every chance to compete
on a level playing field, and he will work with Americans abroad to identify and understand problems they
may face as a result of U.S. government policies….”
……..”Obama will work with members of the Americans abroad
community and the U.S. embassies to determine how the U.S. government can be responsive to the concerns of overseas Americans. …………..As president, Obama will work to establish a direct dialogue
with Americans abroad. …”……..
…..”He welcomes a continued dialogue between the White House, the State Department, and citizens
abroad in an Obama administration…..”……..
http://obama.3cdn.net/610c7f29ee85b124a3_3cm6bxltu.pdf.
Repeal FATCA
Fernando Betancor 13 hrs ago
https://medium.com/@fdbetancor/repeal-fatca-87543f6a219#.9fy16kyk1
I landed my “Berlin Wall II” comment in there.
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).
https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/5pfw5q/ma_can_i_not_accept_us_citizenship_for_my_child/
Could use more informed voices and less uninformed speculation (e.g. not “apply for an ITIN instead of an SSN” bullshit).
@eric
the best solution would be to give birth in Canada, next best anywhere outside the US
“Next best”?
@Eric
Under the 14th amendment of the U.S. constitution your child would be born in the U.S. and therefore a U.S. citizen by birth.
Given that you are working in the USA, it’s unlikely that you could argue that you were not subject to the jurisdiction of the USA.
So, if you would to avoid the citizenship do NOT allow your child to be born in the United States. But, if you are continuing to work in the USA and you want your child living with you, you might ask the question:
How does the child immigrate to the United States to live with you – the parents?
Assuming the child is born with U.S. citizenship, under the current law (in very very general terms) the child could renounce U.S. citizenship prior to age 18.5 with few consequences. See Internal Revenue Code S. 877A. (You see it’s all about tax).
Strange story, US citizen travels to Toronto to see what Canada might be like as a home, mentions attending compliance condor renunciation seminar (no surprise at which one)
http://globalnews.ca/news/3195182/donald-trump-inauguration-how-to-move-to-canada/
“…..But the process to renounce her U.S. citizenship seems so complicated that she’s not sure what she’ll do.
“It is pretty daunting at this age,” Zsiros said. “I don’t have to work or get a job or anything, so I may just come here and rent a place and stay here rather than changing citizenship.”…….”
Young dual just found out about US extraterritorial taxation;
‘Dual US/CAD Citizen.. Just learned about US taxes and feeling stressed. Please help! ‘
https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/5palap/dual_uscad_citizen_just_learned_about_us_taxes/
US Ambassador to T & T, Estrada shows his ignorance, accuses those ‘abroad’ of financial crime – that of local legal banking outside the US while living outside the US.
“OUTGOING United States Ambassador, John Estrada, says he will not shut up on the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) issue because it was a US law that will affect not only US and Trinis holding dual citizenship, but ordinary citizens too.”……………
………”…“We have US citizens living here. Some do not want to pay taxes. We have US citizens involved in financing of terrorism, money laundering – all criminal activities. You have citizens here with dual US and Trini citizenship.
They are doing the same thing,” he said. …”
and then he goes on to invent his own convenient version of US history;
“…This has nothing to do with trampling on the rights of citizens,” he said, and “with big stick bullying, or the latest comment I heard about US colonialism and Trinidad and Tobago being treated like a banana republic.” The US was never a colonial master nor was it a colony, he said.
…..”
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,238664.html
And how exactly did his career in the Marines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Estrada prepare him for a role as an ambassador? I guess the US feels that they can afford to stop even feebly pretending that FATCA is anything but a big fat extraterritorial data and rights grab by US might, imposed on other sovereign nations at the end of an unwarranted and unjustified US economic sanctions gun.
If you can’t get them to cede national sovereignty and enable FATCA, then send in the Marines.
Please read Heitor’s new FB posting re: cost comparison of RBT to CBT.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/334650186701060?view=permalink&id=728695213963220&p=10&refid=18
Spoiler Alert: His conclusion is: The change to RBT would practically not affect revenue, and would even cause a small increase due to lower administrative costs.
Gotta get this into the hands of those who count the beans for the US Treasury. Don’t be afraid guys, RBT will not reduce your bean intake.
Dear President Trump: Why I’m Leaving America
Robert W. Wood , JAN 23, 2017 @ 08:52 AM
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2017/01/23/dear-president-trump-why-im-leaving-america/#4baf553844a2
Interesting that Wood provides a letter synthesized from several.
Comments open.
@JC
Maybe a condor of a different feather than Mr Nightingale?