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

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

1. Anne Frank (I miss her input here very much) gave some advice on relinquishment for Boris Johnson: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/11/20/that-mayoroflondon-is-a-good-man-but-he-still-suffers-from-the-u-s-taint/comment-page-2/#comment-4397916

   and Ginny, fellow *Accidental American* also weighed in on advice for Boris:

   http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/ginny-writes-to-london-mayor-boris-johnson-help-stop-fatca-with-adcs/
   and
   http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/11/25/londons-boris-johnson-gets-help-in-irs-fight/

   Wouldn’t it be great if some others whose names would influence the mass media stepped up to offer their stories — and their donations to http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/. What an easier job, the story of rights lost to US citizenship-based taxation law would be.

2. From The Economist, February 14, 2015 (print edition)
   The world this week
   Business
   Funny that
   The number of people revoking their American citizenship or residency rose to a record high of 3,415 last year, according to a list published by the Treasury. No reason was given explaining why they have renounced their citizenship, but the number has leapt since 2010, when Congress passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

3. Savvy London Mayor Boris Johnson Paid IRS, Is Now Renouncing U.S. Citizenship

   http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2015/02/15/savvy-london-mayor-boris-johnson-paid-irs-is-now-renouncing-u-s-citizenship/2/

4. A horrible, scaremongering article from the Jamaica Gleaner: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20150215/focus/focus5.html

   The IRS said a record number of Americans have given up citizenship recently and some may have done so with the intent to get around FATCA. But the news is bad, because every one of those citizens will be thoroughly investigated with a view to seeing if they are trying to evade taxes.

5. @ Hogwarts and others,
   The article from Jamaica says:

   THOSE WHO GAVE UP CITIZENSHIP

   The IRS said a record number of Americans have given up citizenship recently and some may have done so with the intent to get around FATCA. But the news is bad, because every one of those citizens will be thoroughly investigated with a view to seeing if they are trying to evade taxes.

   The IRS said that people with a certain amount of assets will be treated as if all the assets were sold and will be taxed as at the day when citizenship was given up. This will also apply to long-term green card holders. Also, if one has given up citizenship and spends more than 30 days in the United States in a calendar year, he may be taxed as if he were a citizen.

   Has anyone heard of either of these things elsewhere? Or is this journalist just totally confused. I’ve never heard about former citizens being held to only 30 days in the US before being taxed again as a citizen……

6. @LM

   The Jamaica Gleaner article wasn’t written by a journalist. Look at the bottom of the page and you’ll see the author is a Compliance Condor — hence all the heavy-duty scare mongering so people hire him:

   Dayle O. Blair is an attorney-at-law, certified public accountant, and certified international tax adviser/analyst. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and dayleblairlaw@yahoo.com.

7. I think I have an angle here. I Tweeted Nigel Green that he should survey US persons living overseas in regards to their US Congressional approval rating.

   http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2015/02/15/savvy-london-mayor-boris-johnson-paid-irs-is-now-renouncing-u-s-citizenship/?commentId=comment_blogAndPostId/blog/comment/1057-33189-10074

8. @ Walter
   Well that explains it … compliance condor … might have known by the tone. It’s not likely that nervousinvestor’s comment will appear.
   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/02/13/tim-fernholz-invites-former-us-persons-to-email-him/comment-page-2/#comment-5583866

9. Added to http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/02/15/good-for-you-boris-johnson-mayor-of-london-for-adding-to-the-number-who-have-or-will-renounce-their-us-citizenship-accidental-or-otherwise/

   …and another Forbes article by Kelly Phelps, Mayor Of London Boris Johnson Announces He’ll Renounce U.S. Citizenship

10. @JC
    Greenback taxes did that last year. Something like 85% felt that Congress didn’t care about Americans abroad and the percentage of clients they had who intented to renounce in the next few years was lower than in the other surveys. So a bunch of boiling mad potential voters. Maybe they’ll run the question again.

11. Wow:

    http://www.peoplespunditdaily.com/news/economy/2015/02/16/americas-anti-competitive-anti-comity-international-tax-system-part-ii/

12. @Neill
    All Brocker commenters should start sending KUDOS to Daniel Mitchell for this outstanding article! The article should be forwarded to all journalists and US politicians who haven’t yet “GOT IT”

    Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

13. I “ditto” what LM just said!

14. Dan Mitchell gets it!

    Actually, he always has gotten it and I tip my hat to him for that.

    Keep em coming Dan!

15. This was such an interesting comment, from a new perspective, that I thought it would be good to put it in this thread in case someone may have missed it.
    Marc @ Robert Woods
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2015/02/15/savvy-london-mayor-boris-johnson-paid-irs-is-now-renouncing-u-s-citizenship/2/

    I read and follow with interest your comments and coverage of this topic and share it with no less than 65 finance majors at the universities where I teach in Germany and Belgium. None of them are U.S. citizens and they are all astonished at the audacity of the undemocratic and confiscatory tax laws that you have in the U.S. A comment that keeps recurring amongst the students and myself as well, is why have you never, to my knowledge, interviewed those directly responsible for FATCA, either officials at the Treasury, the IRS, or even better, the legislators in Congress who voted for this monstrosity? For foreign students in democratic countries, the first thing that comes to mind in any form of journalism is to go to the source to get answers. I have been reading your column for several years already and you keep abreast of the FATCA debacle, but you never approach those who created this legislation and confront them with the reality of the harm that it is causing to both honest law abiding middle class US persons living outside of the United States and to the general U.S. economy. You seem to just ruminate on the terrible situation, but not do anything to get answers from those responsible for it. U.S. citizens are now toxic to most all international banks, but apart from that they are toxic and unwanted in business partnerships abroad, as once they hold more than 10% of the business venture, the entire business falls under U.S. tax reporting. That is unthinkable and unacceptable for the other non-U.S. partners, so the U.S. person is systematically excluded from the rapidly growing global economy of start-ups and international business ventures. In many countries banks immediately advise business start-ups that they will not handle their accounts if there is any U.S. participation whatsoever. Knowing these powerful facts, why have you not questioned those responsible for this as to how they justify keeping such self destructive, anti- U.S. person/business laws in place?

16. @EmBee

    Good find! That question needs to get put to every journalist who writes about CBT, FATCA, FBAR, Exit Tax, Reed Amendment, Renunciations etc.

    We need to push the journalists to ask the questions to the “Godfathers of FATCA” and Supporters of CBT.

    I am assuming all those Judges who sat on Cook vs. Tait are dead and gone by now. But Carl Levin, Chuck Schumer, Jack Reed, Charlie Rangel and Barack Obama (buddy of Levin) are all still around.

17. London Mayor Boris Johnson Hates the IRS, Too

    Since many of these people are high earners seeking to hold on to as much of their wealth as they can, they garner little sympathy stateside.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/boris-Johnson-renounces-us-citizenship-tax-bill-mayor-london/385554/?utm_source=SFTwitter

    Comments open via DISQUS

18. @EmBee

    Yes, that’s a great comment. You or someone else posted it here the other day. Too bad that Mr Wood didn’t respond to it directly. I think he’s found his comfort zone and doesn’t want to venture outside of it.

19. @Pastbeyond 60 Great comments on that The Atlantic magazine. I think that this is one of the more popular US publications, so your comments are well worth the effort. Also, I detect a bit shorter comments from you as in shorter n better. Don’t forget to Like your comments and if you already Liked something you may only do it once from a single computer.

    Everyone may Like comments on that Atlantic article even if you don’t make a comment.

    @Bubblebustin @EmBee I think it may have been @pastbeyond60 who started up along these lines a few months ago (or someone else a few years before that). I tried to land that in on Robert Wood a few times – yet we can’t get him to interview anyone.

    Related to the comment is this post: From HomelanderNot

    “What an interesting idea! Though the really guilty parties involved in making this “hell on earth” for American expats most surely would decline. Imagine asking Charles Rangel to justify creating such a monstrosity. Why he had to step down as chair of the Ways and Means Committee in March 2010. The Ethics Committee finding him guilty on 11 counts of ethics charges and the entire House voting for a sanction of censure against him at the end of 2010.

    Then there is Turo-Tax Timmy (Geithner), who failed to pay social security and medicare taxes and received no penalties when he did amend the returns. Other returns not amended until his nomination for Treas. Secy. Failure to properly verify the work status for 3 household employees. And guess who stood solidly behind the nomination of this tax cheat? None other than Sen Charles Schumer, ExPatriot act author who said in 2012 -“About 10,000 people in the last 10 years have renounced their citizenship. Not a single one has been penalized.” One wonders if Mr. Schumer reads the bills passed in the Congress, given the fact the H.E.A.R.T Act of 2008 established the exit tax which would most covered expats would think certainly qualified as being “penalized.” Last but not least, Mr. Douglas Shulman, former IRS Commissioner who clearly lied to the Oversight Committee concerning the IRS targeting of Tax-Exempt Organizations and who terrorized expats during his tenure with his promises of finding them; allowing the bait-and-switch debacle of FAQ 35 in 2009 and refusing to meet his duties by responding to the Taxpayer Advocate Directive in late 2011.

    I cannot imagine how any of these individuals could ever stand up to scrutiny concerning these horrific laws and policies against citizens who failed to file largely due to the unenforcement of the law for decades in the case of tax filings. What to say of FBAR, the enforcement of which clearly appears to be a gross abuse of the original intent of the law.”

20. What an interesting idea! Though the really guilty parties involved in making this “hell on earth” for American expats most surely would decline. Imagine asking Charles Rangel to justify creating such a monstrosity. Why he had to step down as chair of the Ways and Means Committee in March 2010. The Ethics Committee finding him guilty on 11 counts of ethics charges and the entire House voting for a sanction of censure against him at the end of 2010.
    Then there is Turo-Tax Timmy (Geithner), who failed to pay social security and medicare taxes and received no penalties when he did amend the returns. Other returns not amended until his nomination for Treas. Secy. Failure to properly verify the work status for 3 household employees. And guess who stood solidly behind the nomination of this tax cheat? None other than Sen Charles Schumer, ExPatriot act author who said in 2012 -“About 10,000 people in the last 10 years have renounced their citizenship. Not a single one has been penalized.” One wonders if Mr. Schumer reads the bills passed in the Congress, given the fact the H.E.A.R.T Act of 2008 established the exit tax which would most covered expats would think certainly qualified as being “penalized.” Last but not least, Mr. Douglas Shulman, former IRS Commissioner who clearly lied to the Oversight Committee concerning the IRS targeting of Tax-Exempt Organizations and who terrorized expats during his tenure with his promises of finding them; allowing the bait-and-switch debacle of FAQ 35 in 2009 and refusing to meet his duties by responding to the Taxpayer Advocate Directive in late 2011.
    I cannot imagine how any of these individuals could ever stand up to scrutiny concerning these horrific laws and policies against citizens who failed to file largely due to the unenforcement of the law for decades in the case of tax filings. What to say of FBAR, the enforcement of which clearly appears to be a gross abuse of the original intent of the law.

21. @Embee I may need a mini tutorial how to block that text. Last from HomelanderNot

    @Pastbeyond60 works on DISCUS for bolding.

22. @ JC
    At the beginning of the text put blockquote inside backward () arrow “brackets” and at the end of the text put a forward slash (/) in front of blockquote, all inside backward and forward arrow “brackets”. It’s hard to explain without ending up html tagging what you’re trying to explain. Hope that helps.

23. Sorry, I omitted something there …
    At the beginning of the text put blockquote inside backward and forward arrow “brackets” and at the end of the text put a forward slash in front of blockquote, all inside backward and forward arrow “brackets”.

24. At the start put blockquote inside these brackets
    At the end, put /blockquote inside the same brackets

    You can do the same for italic … and bold ….
    and

25. Didn’t work; can’t edit;

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