Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 6 of 11 (Year 2019)

You can access all years at this link: Media and Blog Articles – Links for All Years

If clicking on a link brings you to the wrong page in the comment stream, click here to get to the most recent comments.

 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.

2019.12.15
Canadians travelling to or through the US should pay attention to their withering rights, H.M. Jocelyn, CBC News, Canada.
2019.12.12
EU revives issue of FATCA information exchange as year-end deadline for banks approaches, Helen Burggraf, AmericanExpatFinance.
2019.12.10
13 Reasons Why I Committed Citizide, John Richardson, TaxConnections.
US tax filing requirements that Americans living in Canada should know, David Altro and Avi Guttman, Globe and Mail, Canada.
2019.12.07
Confirmed – Rep. Holding to leave Congress at end of 2020, after reintroducing Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad Act,  Helen Burggraf, AmericanExpatFinance.
2019.12.06
Trump is trying to make it took expensive for poor immigrants to stay, Annalisa Merrelli, Quartz, US.
2019.12.05
Revenue Neutrality And A Move To Residence-based Taxation: Open Letter To Democrats Abroad, John Richardson, Karen Alpert, Laura Snyder, TaxConnections.
What It’s Like to Retire Abroad,  Glenn Ruffenach, Wall Street Journal, US.

Earlier 2019 articles are in the  Media and Blog Articles 2019 Archive.  Links to previous years’ archives are also at that link.

2020.01.01: This thread is now closed. Please comment at Media and Blog Articles Part 7 of 7
.

523 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 6 of 11 (Year 2019)”

  1. I figure there are about 612 names on the latest Liberty List (I didn’t check for duplications). If this is indicative of the other quarters, the U.S. will lose approximately another 2500 people this year. The country should weep over each and every one and ask itself, “why?” Yeah, right. In my dreams.

  2. 612 too many. But it reflects the reality that the land of the free is not really free. At least not for expats.

  3. And you never know when the US might tighten up who can enter the USA. I went on an ESTA last year, but as of seven days ago, anyone who has visited North Korea since 2011 now needs a visa. Their ESTAs are invalid. (I went to NK as a tourist in 2016.) So I now need to apply for a visa.

  6. Thanks BirdPerson. I don’t understand their logic. Why do we pay so much money if they then lie about which quarter we renounced in?

  7. Because they lie about everything (along with the cheating, stealing, bullying, and extorting). Nowadays, it starts right at the top.

  8. I see it less as lying as a reassurance that they’re either inept or simply don’t care. In either case, maybe they’ll just leave us alone now.

  9. @CB

    If you’ve got a CLN in hand, who cares about appearing on the stupid list? (Unless, of course, you need it to hang next to the CLN so proudly displayed in your living room, LOL.)

    They call it the “name and shame” list. Which is appropriate….. the renunciant’s name; the US government’s shame.

  10. @BirdPerson, yes I agree. However if they are inept or don’t care then they have no business producing a list for public consumption. Personal data is no joke these days and they are playing fast and loose with it. Not acceptable.

    @maz57, absolutely, they are only shaming themselves by publishing this list. I do care about the list though because it is comprised of real people’s names and affects real people’s lives (e.g. those running for public office, whose candidacy and political reputation may be severely damaged if their name does not appear for the quarter when they renounced – these people, such as the chap in Sri Lanka right now, are accused of lying, because Joe Public believes the US government and does not know how appallingly inaccurate the list is). We pay literally thousands of dollars under duress to get everything done perfectly by their idiot rules so we can finally be free of discrimination, and they are so disgustingly careless about what they have put us through that they actually lie about when we renounced. Their misuse and manipulation of our personal data is not acceptable in 2019.

  11. All good points, but if people believed there was any reasonable chance the US government was going to change for the better, they probably wouldn’t be renouncing in the first place.

    I left decades ago and have never regretted my decision. In that time I’ve seen things get steadily worse. And you’re right; for $2350 you would think they could get a simple list error free before they publish it. I know some of the people on this latest list. They are people I predicted would never renounce. I haven’t had a chance to speak to them yet, but I have a hunch the transition tax was the final straw.

  13. @ Cheryl
    I see it’s the Gollum again … probably condorish and depressing. Busy day ahead … read it later (maybe).

  14. Thanks for the article, @Cheryl.

    You’re right EmBee. I had hope at the end when the international compliance lawyer said not to give into scaremongering, but it was dashed when warned we should be very scared.

  15. @BB & Embee

    I see your point but I thought it was one of the few articles that differentiated between residing in U.S v Canada and that the income was earned in Canada. No mention of dual nationality or accidental though.

  16. Someone was wondering how long was the longest wait someone had to see their name on the Liberty List. I remember quite a few people saying theirs took over a year.

    Has anyone see their name appear on the List longer than a-year-and-a-half after renouncing? Thanks.

  19. For a fun and somewhat instructive view of Swiss banking and the Us treasury, watch the murder mystery TV series ‘Banking District ‘. Available streaming on MHz Choice

  21. @Muzzled

    She forked over 11k quid to get squared away with the IRS and renounce US citizenship.

    She could’ve gotten squared away with her UK bank for whatever it cost her to acquire an SSN – some stamps and possibly a train ticket.

    Sadly, I imagine she sought professional advice.

  23. Two questions for you. I.. What happened to the pub? II. Is the Canadian lawsuit decision going to be appealed?

  24. ‘Fatca could push French banks to close up to 40,000 accounts’
    “……….. Although some countries started passing data in 2014, the IRS offered France a period of grace before reporting that ends in January 2020.

    But after this waiver expires, the president of the French banking association, Laurent Mignon, warns that French banks may face no choice but to close the accounts of all ‘accidental Americans’ – thought to be about 40,000 people.

    He wrote a letter to France’s finance minister saying: “As from 1 January 2020, including for accounts opened before that date, if they are unable to provide such information, banks may be unable to fulfil their reporting obligations to the tax authorities.”

    “French banks may therefore be required to close the accounts of the customers concerned (before December 31st 2019).”

    “To date, approximately 40,000 accounts have been impacted. Otherwise, banks would be likely to be subject to very significant financial and reputational sanctions.”

    Americans in France are also reporting it is getting harder to open French accounts as they are viewed as ‘difficult’ by French banks because of the requirements of Fatca.”
    https://www.investmenteurope.net/news/4004136/fatca-push-french-banks-close-accounts

    This article has an excerpt from the letter from France’s bank federation president Laurent Mignon to finance minister Bruno Le Maire
    https://www.thelocal.fr/20190729/french-banks-could-be-forced-to-close-40000-accounts-of-american-citizens

    ”
    Thousand Belgians risk to lose their bank accounts because they were “accidentally born in the USA”

    Belgian banks are obliged to provide the US tax authorities with data on Belgian customers born in the USA. However, not all Belgian clients born in the US have the necessary data. This is why in 2020 they face the threat of blocking their bank accounts and Belgian banks an extra tax of 30 percent on transactions between Belgium and the USA.
    Aubry Touriel
    Fri 23 Aug
    15:45

    Belgians born in the US are subject to so-called FATCA legislation. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was passed by President Barack Obama in March 2010 and warmly welcomed all over the world.

    The law obliges banks to forward financial information to the US tax authorities in order to prevent tax evasion by US citizens. Since 2015, Belgian banks have also been obliged to disclose bank details of customers who are US citizens.

    The law also applies to Belgians who were born in the USA but who otherwise no longer have any relationship with the country. Because they are still considered Americans, they are now in danger of losing their bank accounts.
    Paperwork

    The new law obliges Belgian banks to send the data of these clients to the Belgian tax authority, which in turn sends it to the US tax authority. This procedure also applies in the opposite direction to Belgians living in the USA.

    In addition to the account number and the BIC number of the Belgian financial institutions, the account balance, interest and dividends of the Belgian accounts must also be communicated. Another figure to be dealt is the American Taxpayer Identification Number. However, citizens who were accidentally born in the USA often do not know it, therefore they are now threatened with blocking their Belgian accounts. Anyone wishing to request this number must undergo a lengthy and costly procedure.
    Sanctions

    If all the data needed for this procedure are not to be found in the file, people could in trouble. The US may decide to levy 30% tax on all payments from the US to this bank.

    In order to avoid these sanctions, the Belgian banking sector has decided to block the bank accounts of customers whose data are incomplete by 2020.

    There are few solutions available to those concerned: they can either apply for a social security number in the USA or surrender their US citizenship. Both procedures are lengthy and expensive.

    In Belgium, around 1000 people are said to be affected by that law even though It is not known exactly how many people were “born accidentally in the USA and have no social security number”.
    ”
    https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2019/08/23/thousand-of-belgians-risk-to-lose-their-bank-accounts-because-th/

    Remember, Treasury originally denied that FATCA was causing denial of banking services to those deemed US citizens who lived outside the US.

  25. Thanks for finding that Guardian article @MuzzledNoMore. Unbelievable re; “74-year-old British senior citizen has forked over more than 11,000 pounds to get herself squared away with a bank in her own country – Britain!”
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/25/british-citizens-born-in-us-risk-having-uk-bank-accounts-frozen

    Yet, in 2011 US Ambassador to Canada Jacobson denied that the US was unreasonably tormenting Grandmas outside the US, and said “………… sit tight. We are not unreasonable. We are not unsympathetic. We are not irresponsible…….”:

    For those who missed it the first time round in 2011, here are his remarks in full re the US practice of extraterritorial US CBT:
    “…recent media coverage of an issue that has been around for about 100 years, since the United States imposed an income tax in 1913. From the beginning, my country has taxed the incomes of American Citizens no matter where they live, no matter where they earn their livings.

    This is different from the way Canada — and some other countries — do it.

    The good news, however, for US and dual citizens living here in Canada, is that you get a credit for taxes paid to a foreign country. And because tax rates in Canada are typically higher than the rates in the United States, most US and dual citizens living in Canada who pay their taxes to Canada don’t owe any tax to the United States though they do have to file a US return as all other American citizens do. (I might add for the record that someone some place might have an anomalous tax situation where they pay tax in Canada yet still owe tax in the United States. And I’m certainly not here to give anyone tax advice.)

    The situation, however, is different for American citizens living in some other countries, particularly the so-called tax havens. In those places with little or no income tax, Americans will owe tax to the US since their deduction for taxes owed to the Cayman Islands, for example, will be much lower than the taxes owed to the US.

    And given our budgetary problems, the United States wants to make sure we are paid all the taxes we are owed. American citizens shouldn’t be able to avoid their tax obligations by establishing a residence in a tax haven.

    There are two particular problems with the operation of these rules here in Canada. First, there are so many dual citizens, typically by birth, probably more than a million. So this issue is much more common here than in any other country in the world.

    Second, the penalties — at least in a theoretical sense — can be quite severe.

    So you could have a situation where some 70-year-old grandma:

    was born in the US;
    moved back to Canada as a young child;
    never earned any money in the US;
    has no assets in the US; and
    dutifully paid all of her taxes in Canada.

    She didn’t file a US return because she didn’t think she had to. And because she didn’t owe any US taxes. Nonetheless, grandma could be theoretically subject to serious penalties. To my knowledge we have never gone after a grandma in those circumstances.

    But there has been a lot of press about this lately and people are worried that we will come after them.

    When I read all of this I was concerned. So last week I called the Commissioner of the United States Internal Revenue Service to see what we could do. I explained the problem to him.

    The result is that both he and I are sympathetic to the concerns. We are going to work together to see if we can’t find a way to accommodate grandma — and others — here in Canada. But we have to figure out a way to do it without letting the person who is trying to evade taxes in the Cayman Islands off the hook.

    My message on this one is to sit tight. We are not unreasonable. We are not unsympathetic. We are not irresponsible…….”
    from
    18 October 2011: Ambassador Jacobson’s Remarks To The Canadian Club
    U.S.-Canada Relations: Issues and Opportunities

    http://canada.usembassy.gov/ambassador/news-and-speeches/18-october-2011-ambassador-jacobsons-remarks-to-the-canadian-club.html

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