Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Media and Blog Articles – Part 1 of 11 (to 26 May 2015)

You can access all years at this link:

http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-links-for-all-years/

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.  You could mention such articles in the comment stream for this page, or if I see one on another thread, I can copy the link to here. I’ll keep adding to the list, but not deleting, so we’ll end up having sort of a “bibliography” too.  [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.

Note also: JC suggests 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.

26 May 2015:  This thread is now closed.  It continues at Media and Blog Articles Open for Comment, Part 2 of 2.

2015.05.26

New Survey finds US expat voting could impact 2016 Presidential Election, Greenback Expat Tax Services, NASDAQ GlobeNewswire.

This congressional committee wants to hear all your FOIA gripes, Colby Itkowitz, Washington Post, US.

The black money recovery skills of IT department are nothing to write home about, Vivek Kaul, The Daily Reckoning.

2015.05.25

The Intersection of US Federal Tax Law with Collection of International Information- – Including Other  Federal Agencies, Patrick W. Martin, TaxExpatriaation, US.

2015.05.23

America the not so brave:  America has led the global assault on tax dodgers and their enablers.  But the reality still lags behind the rhetoric, The Economist, UK.

Cash Banned from Chase Safe Deposit Boxes, Matt Chilliak, Live and Invest News.

2015.05.22

US Steuergesetz hat unerwartete globale Konsequenzen, Colleen Graffy, Geopolitical Information Service.  Also at Consequences of US widening net to catch tax dodgers, Colleen Graffy, World Review.

The horse may have bolted … but, Angelo Venardos, Asia Asset Management.

Important Correction:  Passports Required to Enter and Leave US — but SSNs May be Optional, Patrick W. Martin, Tax Expatriation, US.

2015.05.21

Americans working abroad face unexpected financial issues, Sarah O’Brien, NBC, US.

Senate tax reform groups get more time, Bernie Becker, The Hill, US.

2015.05.20

Malaysia will defer FATCA reporting, FSI Tax Posts.

America’s Self-Inflicted Wound, Moises Naim, The Atlantic, US.

Janice Mays:  The Tax Guru Who Guides House Democrats, Alex Brown, National Journal, US.

Sen. Rand Paul Launches Filibuster in Protest of Patriot Act Renewal, C-SPAN, US.

Articles from earlier in 2015 are at this link

Articles from 2014 are at this link

Media and Blog Articles Open for Comment, Part 2, is at this link

Media and Blog Articles Open for Comment, Part 3, is at this link

3,971 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles – Part 1 of 11 (to 26 May 2015)”

  1. @Bubbles, I do NOT want to provide a link. Please no one provide a link, if you want to see it google it. Remember when you provide a link, it can be traced back, no good will come from that.

    This quote ties exactly with what you wrote. NO ONE understands it,

    Savvy?

    —
    12. Are US citizens living abroad subject to the individual shared responsibility provision?

    Yes. However, U.S. citizens who are not physically present in the United States for at least 330 full days within a 12-month period are treated as having minimum essential coverage for that 12-month period.
    —-

  4. A reminder that this is why Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty is a Canadian non-profit rather than a charitable organization as some would like. We too would surely be audited.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/dying-with-dignity-loses-charitable-status-after-political-activity-probe-1.2919706

    Wanda Morris, CEO of Dying With Dignity, said the group accepts it will lose its charitable status and is converting to non-profit status after about Feb. 15, when the CRA ruling takes effect.

    The agency’s letter said the group does not conduct “any activities advancing education in the charitable sense.”

    Morris said the conversion to non-profit status will free it from the tangle of rules on political activities, allowing Dying With Dignity Canada “to focus on political advocacy without constraints.”

    The charity received about $300,000 in donations in 2013, and says it spent about $35,000 on political activities, an amount representing about nine per cent of all spending. Charities are not permitted to spend more than 10 per cent of their resources of political activities, but definitions are often unclear.

  7. Global Taxation: Mirage and Reality — a working paper just published – and seeking feedback!

    https://www.academia.edu/10222252/Global_Taxes_and_International_Taxation_Mirage_and_Reality

    Richard M. Bird
    is Professor Emeritus of Economics, Rotman School of Management, and Senior Fellow of the Institute for Municipal Governance and Finance, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. He is also Distinguished Visiting Professor, Andrew Young School of Public Policy at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Adjunct Professor of the Australian School of Taxation and Business Law of the University of New South Wales, Australia, and a member of the Centre Advisory Group of the International Centre for Tax and Development.

  9. Good opportunities to insert FATCA into the comments on any of the articles about the US steel issue which call it an issue of Canadian sovereignty;
    ex.
    “..Canada’s minister of international trade, Ed Fast, called the application of “Buy America” provisions on Canadian soil an “affront to Canadian sovereignty.”..”
    http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/canadian-government-threatens-to-block-alaska-ferry-project-over-us-steel-requirements-289073851.html

    and,
    “..International Trade Minister Ed Fast said Canada took a rare step Monday when it signed a legal order to block the state of Alaska from imposing the protectionist Buy American policy on a project to construct a new ferry terminal on the British Columbia coastline.

    “We have been clear: the application of protectionist Buy America provisions on Canadian soil is unacceptable and an affront to Canadian sovereignty,” Fast said in a statement after the Canadian government signed the order under the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act.

    The law opens the door for Canadian authorities to prevent anyone in Canada from complying with the Buy American provisions in the project.

    The federal government signed the order on the grounds it hurts the country’s interests…”
    http://business.financialpost.com/2015/01/20/ottawa-threatens-to-use-rare-law-in-buy-american-dispute-with-the-u-s-over-b-c-ferry-terminal/

    Get that. A Conservative minister who raises the issue of “AN AFFRONT TO CANADIAN SOVEREIGNTY ” ON CANADIAN SOIL. But who doesn’t give a damn for our Canadian local legal banking and family accounts filled with Canadian earned wages, or for our privacy and right to be free from US extraterritorial demands that the CRA seize the information and turn it over to the US – making it subject to the Patriot and Homeland Security laws.

    I hope they keep issuing statements like the ones above, because it just makes them look worse and worse re FATCA.

  10. @i2

    The guy from the BusinessWeek article wrote:

    “Why should the rich get to take all that wealth with them when they move? Why should they be able to walk out of the country with resources that they have accumulated largely by dint of their history in the U.S.? We don’t let them walk out with a share of the mineral wealth of public lands or a piece of the interstate system—yet just like the interstate system, their wealth is mostly a product of the efforts of other Americans back through time. Exiting the country with all that property should surely count as theft.”

    What about those who left the US while they were young or left without any money but became successful elsewhere? This is another example of the stupidity of Citizenship Based Taxation.

  11. Mark Nestmann predicts that the FATCA train will derail this year due to the fact that the US has no legal mechanism in place to provide reciprocal information as they agreed they would.

    IRS Commissioner said that the US won’t provide reciprocal information to nations that don’t have systems similar to IDES. I say it doesn’t matter that the US lacks the legal mechanism to provide reciprocal information when the US can use doubts about another nations data security as an excuse not to send data the other way!

    http://www.nestmann.com/why-fatca-is-a-train-wreck-waiting-to-happen?inf_contact_key=3bbddeff0c67352297ae6e356012062e22972ea39e24ff955ccf5eeaed626d9b#.VL-OhIg76rX

  12. Why should FATCA stop because America isn’t reciprocating? They still have a gun to the FFIs heads.That is not going to change. The 30% withholding is enough to keep FATCA going. IMHO-sadly.

  13. @Bubblebustin,

    I can’t disagree with that particular article Mark Nestmann wrote.

    Someone named BlackDog on GarthTurner’s blog (WhiteKat was banned a while back), asked Garth and his ‘blog dawgs’ recently what they thought about this article also written by Mark Nestman dealing with “Cyprus-style bailin-ins”: http://www.nestmann.com/its-official-the-worldwide-bail-ins-are-coming#.VL-t5UfF964.

    Mr. Turner replied: “Stop with the conspiracy junk. There is no legislated bail-in provision in Canada or the US designating retail deposits as bank collateral, nor putting them at counterparty risk. This is false. Mark Nestmann is now, and always has been, a dingaling. — Garth”

  14. @Polly

    You wrote:

    “Why should FATCA stop because America isn’t reciprocating? They still have a gun to the FFIs heads.That is not going to change. The 30% withholding is enough to keep FATCA going. IMHO-sadly.”

    Let’s hope the US is stupid enough to pull the 30% trigger on a couple of FFIs. The result will be a loud steady sucking sound from the divestment in US assets world wide.

  15. The whole thing is a charade. Without reciprocity why would any nation continue to play along by allowing customer data to flow to the US? Couldn’t the citizens whose data that was transferred sue the host nation for not refusing to cooperate with FATCA under those circumstances? All nations with reciprocal agreement should be saying “show me and I’ll show you”.

  16. @Walter
    That might be the only thing that would work- divesting. As we have seen however, the banks prefer to throw out US persons than miss out on the income.
    @Bubblebustin
    So other countries really need reciprocation? They don`t use CBT for one thing. They might like to catch some tax evaders, but America scares them all more. I think they signed the IGAs and knew they wouldn’t get any reciprocation. They were just making noises so they wouldn’t look like such pushovers.

  17. @Polly

    It doesn’t matter that they don’t benefit from reciprocity in any significant way. The point is, Canada could use it as a reason not to comply with the US’s demands for information, that is if Canada has the cajones.

  21. @Polly

    My MP, a Conservative instrumental in bringing us the FATCA IGA, was rather intrigued by the fact the the US hasn’t passes reciprocal legislation and the latest Bopp lawsuit announcement when I met with him on the 15th. He said he was going to talk to some minister I think, about it. Haven’t heard anything back yet though.

  23. @Bubblebustin The reciprocation/exchange is this: you give us the financial information of all your US persons and we will agree not to lock you out of the US dollar banking system and not to ruin your economy.

    Or, Canada may say ok we will reciprocate yet only if you are ready to simultaneously provide the same information to us that we provide to you. And, please explain why there are no plans to conduct due diligence in the US on accounts for nonUS citizen beneficiaries.

    @ Publius Use Google Translate.

  24. BREAKING NEWS FROM FT.com:

    London mayor bows to ‘outrageous’ demand to pay US tax bill

    Boris Johnson has finally agreed to pay an unsettled capital gains tax bill to the US government, in spite of previously insisting he would not bow to the “absolutely outrageous” demand.

  25. Note the shameless recommendatiom of the FT:

    High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/149b859c-a15b-11e4-bd03-00144feab7de.html#ixzz3PUw7IaHg

    “US expats whose spouses are not American are often advised to cut their US tax bills by making their spouse the owner of the property they may ultimately sell. But the shock expressed by Mr Johnson last year when he learnt he was liable for US tax suggested he had not planned for the liability.”

    Now is the FT suggesting mechanisms for Tax Avoidance!?!?!!!?!!
    @HaydonPerryman – do you wish to comment?

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