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.
2020.01.01: This thread is now closed. Please comment at Media and Blog Articles Part 7 of 7
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EmBee: RE: the snowbird legislation. You took the words right out of my mouth! 🙂
Well said, EmBee. I can’t imagine that this legislation if passed would do one thing for Canadian Americans. As a matter of fact, should the Holding TFFAAA bill ever get reintroduced and passed, US citizens taking advantage of it would have much fewer days in the US than plain old Canadians before getting taxed.
It all fits in with the America First slogan – which really means America Only.
@ Admin
Thanks for adding the “click here to get to the most recent comments” feature. I only just noticed it and it’s very helpful.
A friend just handed me his copy of the Oct. 5 edition of the Economist. On p. 65 I was astonished to read, in the article entitled “FATCA chance?”, that I am a member of the “tax-averse elite”. Gosh, I’ve never been a member of an “elite” before! I’m so glad to finally be informed!
The statement was made in reference to Jenny’s current fight against HMRC in Britain and it’s transfer of data to the IRS. The whole sentence reads: “Anti-corruption campaigners pooh-pooh such efforts, which they view as doomed rearguard actions by a tax-averse elite.” Golly gee, this implies I’m corrupt as well!
I believe I’ve seen a link to this article here on Brock but it was behind a paywall.
There’s just no way to repay John Richardson for all the time, expertise and money he has put into trying to slay the three-headed monster — CBT/FBAR/FATCA and its new evil partner TT/GILTI. Here’s yet another great article written by him …
https://www.americanexpatfinance.com/opinion/item/282-fatca-the-2010-tax-evasion-law-that-s-now-an-extra-territorial-money-sucking-machine
Thank you, John.
Thanks, EmBee.
I’ve created a featured post for John Richardson’s American Expat Finance article, FATCA: The 2010 ‘tax evasion law’ is now an ‘extra-territorial money-sucking machine’. I’ve copied EmBee’s comment, above, to its thread and moved the reply comments there.
The Post Millenial, Canadian News
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is probably still a U.S. citizen too
We’ve been down this road. I agree with Elizabeth May. When she became Canadian, she lost her American citizenship. At that time, there was no obligation to inform the state department or to obtain a CLN.. The point is largely moot.
I agree too — as many of us were told by officials of the day.
Assuming May didn’t do something stupid like obtaining and using a US passport or voting in a US election, she’s on solid ground. If it was her intent to lose US citizenship when she became a Canadian citizen and she’s done nothing since to contradict that, then she is not a US citizen. No law says loss of US citizenship depends on obtaining a CLN. Congress itself has said exactly that, although I can’t find the quote immediately.
If she felt like spending US$2350 and going through the rigamarole, they would issue her a CLN that was backdated to 1978 when she naturalized as a Canadian. Guess what? That would legally recognize that she hasn’t been a US citizen since 1978, so logically she cannot be one presently.
Journalists rarely get stuff like this right because they’re mostly interested in sensational headlines and can’t be bothered to delve into the complications. Not surprising because the Consulates themselves often don’t understand their own laws. The article is junk.
What a strange little site. It’s like a Canadian Breitbart, only dumber.
Anyway, who cares? The thing is, if you’re Canadian and don’t want your US citizenship, don’t act like a US citizen and it’s all good. Nobody’s going to make you pay US taxes, or register for the draft, or get a US passport.
Regarding Elizabeth May, I would accept her claim under normal circumstances .However,she is a politician and running a political party and that assertion would require more than her word. What it would require would be enframed copy of her CLN on her office wall, next to any other certificates or diplomas.
Politician or not, its up to whoever wants to challenge her claim to disprove it. The author of that article failed miserably and I’m happy to take her word over that of an uninformed journalist who is so lazy he couldn’t even get the facts right. Although I’m sure she could easily afford it, I don’t blame her for refusing to pay the extortionists US$2350 for a useless piece of paper. By my count she committed at least 3 expatriating acts with intent; that should suffice.
Now if she were to appear before a Notary, spend $50, swear a statement that says: “I was born a US citizen, I lost my US citizenship in 1978, this is how it happened, but I absolutely refuse to hand them $2350 for a stupid piece of paper….”, and hung that on the wall……
Tax Slave for Life
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0009t5l
This BBC podcast is available for a limited time. The CBT/FATCA part starts at the 20 min. mark and is about 6 minutes long.
Will Trump learn any empathy for non-USA resident citizens from this experience?
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/01/why-president-trumps-move-from-new-york-to-florida-could-hit-a-wall.html
Tax slave for life Too bad she can’t get proper advice. Born in UK , American father. Didn’t need to do a blessed thing.
@ Portland
I know. I thought the same thing. If only she’d discovered Brock before she lept into the FATCA fire.
She went to a compliance condor for advice, that’s what happened.
The chances of her ever getting to the IBS are generally slim to none as far as I can see, whereas on Quora I believe my time has been spent much more productively with 2.8 MILLION answer views where I have tackled the compliance condors head-on and make it clear pretty much every time that the full time residents and citizens of other nations usually can and usually should simply completely ignore the IRS.
I also embarrass the land of the free brigade, hopefully enough that they might just ask questions of their political representatives.
And via my local MP I now have a government response to my complaints regarding FATCA and the UK government helping the IRS punitively tax our residents and citizens against all world norms and to my belief that HMRC are breaking the law by rounding these people up and handing over their data and that of those they share accounts with.
Jesse Norman, secretary to the treasury.
He basically says he understand FATCA creates difficulties for US “expats” but that the USA has the right to tax citizens as it see’s fit, no mention of course that this is illegitimate taxation by the standards of every other nation on earth, no mention of compliance and discrimination clearly impacting basic human rights of our residents and citizens.
He goes on to be a proper little spokesman for the US authorities and tells us FATCA imposes no new tax obligations, now where did we hear that before?
He also claims FATCA reporting of UK residents and citizens financial details to the USA is legal, well we’ll see about that.
And of course, rather than see these people as UK citizens first and foremost he describes them as “US citizens resident in the UK” when he says “government officials continue to engage with their US counterparts to find a way forward for” US citizens residing in the UK”.
He then thanks me for making him aware of the issue, like I was the first to write!
So, back to my MP again….
@Mike
When pestering politicians, always ask them to confirm in writing that the government will provide no assistance to the IRS if it attempts to collect taxes or penalties owed. It’s worth making them say it out loud.
When I got Canada’s Finance Minister Morneau to confirm that the CRA would not collect from people who were Canadians at the time the US tax was incurred, it was the first time I know of that anyone in government mentioned the Revenue Rule since Minister Flaherty mentioned it before the IGA was signed in Canada.
” Jesse Norman, secretary to the treasury….describes them as “US citizens resident in the UK” . Isn’t that the drumbeat one always hears no matter which country you are in ?
Instead of the dribble that one reads in the G&M et al, the only REAL way to get the needed message across to largest number is by placing a page-wide ad in the major papers for a few days, written BY THOSE INFECTED for those infected but unaware of the actual rules of the game being played. Can it be written in a legally acceptable fashion for publication?Would it be published ? As for cost (?) ,it would not be cheap , but nothing worthwhile ever is. It is like aiming the magic radiation at the intended cancer.
” Now if she were to appear before a Notary, spend $50, swear a statement that says: “I was born a US citizen, I lost my US citizenship in 1978, this is how it happened, but I absolutely refuse to hand them $2350 for a stupid piece of paper….”, and hung that on the wall……”
What surprises me is that we still have people here who trust a politician at their word .
What we would have here would be a notarized copy of a politician’s words pasted on the wall. Let’s count the politician’s that one can trust . Scherr ..Trudeau… Singh …as for someone doing something for us.
Can’t think of a one.
Two options then: run for office yourself or trust the civil service to run the country for you.
It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.
As for the two options. I am too old and too honest to run and as far as trust goes , giving my keys to the jailkeep, has nothing to do with trust.
What you are saying is lump it and shut up . Thank you for your inspiring words.
For a while I’ve felt that the group founder of the American Expatriates Facebook group has a strong tendency to be over-the-top. I’ve tried to ignore it and just browse the postings there to stay informed; however, over the past several days his attitude towards group members has gone from rude to massively arrogant and the hyperbole has reached fever-pitch. It all started with the Warren stuff on strengthening FATCA and this morning I saw his post about how “it may come down to Americans overseas deported from their resident countries as they are a burden on their resident countries’ financial systems + economies.”
Enough is enough already! What kind of message is this? Group members are harassed for harbouring even a slightly differing opinion, banned for being mildly obtuse and now he is promulgating the idea that non-compliance/renunciation are flight reactions to the situation (calling it “an individual remedy for the moment but does not eradicate the disease” in a recent group comment thread).
Yes, it’s his group and he can do as he sees fit, but I think more harm than good will come from it. When I joined the group a couple of years ago, I offered to help organise efforts in my country of residence and I was told a website was in the works. Both of those have resulted in no action and I have come to the conclusion nothing will be forthcoming.
I’m posting this here because I’m curious if anyone else perhaps feels similarly. Such a black and white view doesn’t suit the extremely grey and murky business of all that being a US person can entail, which is dependent on a multitude of factors such as place of birth, country of residence, other citizenships, employment status, age, degree of FATCA/CBT challenges faced….
I used to think he sympathized with expats and worked to help them find their “individual remedy”, but it sounds like that is changing.