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

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

1. More fun and games over at Tax Connections:

   https://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/

   With a range of psuedonyms and some slightly less confrontational posts I’ve been able to get past the moderation. It still takes a few hours for comments to appear, and sometimes they disappear later in the day when someone’s boss (I assume) takes exception to non-compliance advocacy.

2. This one just lit up, thanks to the FB group:

   https://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/defining-residence-for-income-tax-purposes/

3. https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-seeing-difficulties-with-fatca-reporting-data?utm_campaign=daily-apr%202%202019&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&eid=25c1841b3a93de10e6553690ae18e10a

   Ahhh … all those foreign banks aren’t feeding the IRS info in the manner to which they have become accustomed. So sorry (NOT).

4. Who are France’s ‘accidental Americans’ and why are they suing big banks?
   4 April 2019
   https://www.thelocal.fr/20190404/who-are-the-accidental-americans-in-france?fbclid=IwAR2gPLfhWLPhfJUuxECuEo7BGL6EBpxpEP4as9lXr_MHwDqqcleDy98KCKs

5. JC: Vive La France! It’s great to see this “Local” attention on the French “Accidental American” fight. I hope to God they win their case.

6. Tax Connections will be hosting a debate between John Richardson (yay) and Edward Zelinsky (boo) on May 17th.

   You need to sign up with an e-mail address for an invitation to the livestream. Details and registration here: https://www.taxconnections.com/livestream

   You can submit questions for the speakers.

7. @ Nononymous
   Thanks. I just signed up. I’ll be cheering on John. Hope many other Brockers will be tuned in too.

8. My four questions for the speakers, in short form:

   1. What are the potential consequences of non-compliance for a dual citizen with no US income or assets?

   2. Are you aware of any attempts by the IRS to contact or pursue non-filers outside the US who have been reported under FATCA?

   3. Is it true that you can renounce US citizenship without coming into tax compliance?

   4. Is it ethical for tax advisors to not give potential clients the answers to the three questions above?

9. JC and Muzzled,

   The important French lawsuit you mentioned attacks the discrimination issue by suing the banks. To clarify for those not familiar with our lawsuit, our ADCS Canadian lawsuit (Federal Court decision in a few months?) is complementary and goes after the Canadian government for legislating the discrimination.

   We had no choice but to sue Government because our now Prime Minister Mr. Justin Trudeau was not honest when he said to us as Liberal Leader “The Government of Canada has a responsibility to stand up for its citizens when foreign governments are encroaching on their rights. We believe that the [FATCA] deal reached between Canada and the U.S. is insufficient to protect affected Canadians” and because Ms. Jody Wilson-Raybould, as Justice Minister, did not, as she should have done, withdraw from defending the lawsuit.

10. Stephen: And I hope to God we in Canada win our case too. Even if it ends up in appeals court, it would be SO wonderful for us to hear a Canadian in power (in this case, a judge) state that, yes, our Charter Rights have been infringed.

11. And now Royal baby tax dilemma….
    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/08/uk/meghan-harry-royal-baby-us-tax-intl-gbr/index.html

12. There have been a lot of royal baby articles in the British press over the past few months; what just appeared on CNN isn’t much different. Again my suspicion is that the seed was planted by tax advisors. Often there’s only one “expert” quoted per article.

13. Here is a much better article. Two points of interest.

    “in order to function (sic), it will need documents and proof and for that you need to have it validated” …. Ms. Markle will have to report the birth to an American consulate and obtain a consular report of birth abroad

    and

    ” Even though technically the U.S. doesn’t affirmatively embrace dual citizenship, it no longer objects to it. The policy for some years now has been basically “Don’t ask, don’t tell””

    https://nyti.ms/2AblK5t

14. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/Advice-about-Possible-Loss-of-US-Nationality-Dual-Nationality/Dual-Nationality.html

    “U.S. law does not mention dual nationality or require a person to choose one nationality or another. A U.S. citizen may naturalize in a foreign state without any risk to his or her U.S. citizenship. “

15. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/will-meghan-harrys-royal-baby-dual-citizenship-2-174547932.html?bcmt=1&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9sb2dpbi55YWhvby5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKHWsfnSq0sUsVfzeLoNkQWsI77bv9ymO5bj6QT_ZQFVruFsxvLuOikCUTgQSI2amKfXjcmlxWNO8SGidSY8FXngSpF1tMquDsJ_SEitO00ZF7HpEd0ZHDXcjv8nFUOoTjhPIWrSOtgcGFb1BRx5isAnVgGJJZK32uAfwY42u6ZA

16. @TomAlciere
    That link wants me to agree that Yahoo can use my data. ?!
    I think it may be an EU protection statement.

17. ACA Submits Written Testimony to House Ways and Means Committee on TCJA
    April 8, 2019

    While this testimony is directed at the problems created by Congress overlooking important subjects affecting Americans abroad, we want to emphasize, at the outset, that thebest solution is not going back and cutting into the changes made by TCJA but rather by adopting residency-based taxation for Americans abroad. This is the simplest and most straightforward step.

    https://www.americansabroad.org/news/aca-submits-testimony-to-hwm-on-tcja/?utm_source=MailChimp_190409&utm_medium=Member_mailing

18. JC: Thanks for posting ACA’s latest letter. Although I don’t care for the particular solution that they have advocated in the past, I’m glad they’re still trying. The letter places our issues before the US government yet again. Let’s see what happens this time.

19. Noted, ACA request is no cure for the Transition Tax.

20. Sorry if this has been posted previously, a kill-FATCA petition in NZ — wish there were a lot more petitions in other countries:

    Petition of Gordon Davison: NZ withdraw from the US FATCA tax treaty

    Home Parliamentary Business Petitions

    Published date: 22 Mar 2019

    Petition request
    That the House of Representatives urge the Government to withdraw from the 2014 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act treaty because it means America enforces its tax codes of US and dual citizens who are NZ tax residents.

    Petition reason
    The 2014 FATCA tax treaty enforces the USA’s tax code on US persons in NZ. I believe it breaches NZ sovereignty through the use of American executive oversight into NZ. If the USA can enforce its tax code in NZ, what else can it enforce outside its jurisdiction? I also believe the treaty breaches the Privacy Act by forcing banks, the IRD and employers to hand over confidential information to the USA IRS. We don’t enforce Eretria’s tax code for citizens abroad so why enforce the USA’s?

    https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/petitions/document/PET_86242/petition-of-gordon-davison-nz-withdraw-from-the-us-fatca?fbclid=IwAR19ceM-vqSorSWYhPpF5fF411MoCWyLQQTFMUJfeStq99Z3F62aWNGjQwo

21. https://youtu.be/_uuWmH8Fhws

    YouTube journalist Sydney Watson, a dual Aussie/US citizen, flew to LAX and was detained. At 4:12 she says the border agent explains she was flagged because she had previously always entered on her Australian passport, but this time used an American passport.
    It’s obvious from the rest of the video that it is not the real reason she was flagged. However, it appears to answer the question of whether border control is able to instantly cross-reference a person who has entered the country before on another passport.
    This information is relevant to those USPs who may have had a US passport they let expire and thinks they can enter the US “under the radar” by using their other nationality’s passport.

22. Petlover: I haven’t watched the video yet but I want to thank you for bringing up this issue. This is precisely why I am living in self-imposed “exile” from the U.S. They keep border crossing records for 15 years. I’ve got 7 more to go before I would feel OK about trying a visit to the U.S. again. Even then, I doubt very much that I’ll be willing to risk it unless there are some drastic changes to the current situation (like maybe the UN taking some action on our behalf!!!)

23. Bless his heart. John Richardson continues to put out That Channel videos featuring interesting discussions about US tax tyranny.
    

24. @petlover. @Muzzled
    Sidney does not make it clear which passport she checked in with. She seems to be saying that she had used an Australian one in the past because her American one had expired and not been renewed for a while. That would mean she would have had to apply for an ESTA, but that would mean it’s unlikely she would have been given one. I would guess she had used an Australian one only to leave the US and for other world travel.
    Yet it seems by what she says that the border agents were not expecting an American to enter, or perhaps they used that excuse to start questioning her.
    I would guess that they were intending to detain them both only because of the complaint by comedy central and agents were then able to check her past travel history and saw that she had used an Australian passport to leave the US in the past, which is perfectly legal.
    I do not think it proves one way or another that your past travel can be instantly flagged.
    Incidentally my American only son in law was once detained on entering the US as an airline had incorrectly listed him on an incoming flight as checking in and traveling on a Lebanese passport. It took him over an hour to convince them he was 100%American and it must be an airline list mistake. It was never explained how it happened or an apology given by the airline.

25. Sydney Watson was born abroad (as I was, and my sister who once — in the days before computerised everything once entered the USA with her Irish passport, accompanied by another 16-y.o, a British friend. And Immigration rang the friend’s mum to check that they were allowed to travel; nothing about the passport although she’d travelled with a US passport before (it was expired, the trip was spontaneous. ESTA didn’t yet exist.) I’ve renounced. When (& if) I next go the USA I may go via Canada with my noncitizen child just so if refused entry I won’t have wasted the transatlantic air fare. If you watch the whole YouTube video you’ll see Sydney had second thoughts about whether the passport was the reason for the stop — it was actually Comedy Central accusing her of terrorism. But CBP can’t exclude an American — not even an American (unlawfully) arriving on a foreign passport. Indeed more than once (including the famous case of a former Nazi SS Officer who entered as a DP and got naturalised — when it turned out his mother was an American citizen the court said the USG had to recognise he was a US citizen at birth and couldn’t be deported. Of course that was before Yaser Esam Hamdi: these days the USG has other means of making you … renounce. And that within the USA.

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