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. @Calgary
    Whatever comes of it, we will always know that CBT is wrong and unjust. It just IS. There are no real arguments to explain away abuse.

  2. @EmBee

    I can’t for the life of me figure Robert Woods out. Either he’s bragging about what a brilliant president the United States has (almost to taunt us) or setting Obama up to look really bad when this thing blows up in the US’s face. I actually think Obama was oblivious to FATCA in the beginning but for good or for bad, now has to live with it.

  4. @Bubble

    “I actually think Obama was oblivious to FATCA in the beginning but for good or for bad, now has to live with it”

    I seem to recall that when Obama was a senator, he was a sponsor of some of the anti-offshore legislation promoted by Carl Levin.

  5. @Samuel Adams

    Let me rephrase. “Oblivious to the affect FATCA would have on non-resident US persons living abroad…”

    As much as everyone else does, I don’t believe we considered at all when FATCA was passed and was aimed at resident Americans hiding money offshore.

  6. @Bubblebustin Oblivious to anyone living overseas. Perhaps he thinks after initial fuss it will all settle down.

  7. The PayPal requirements appear to be pointed at US resident users who withdraw money in USD:

    https://www.paypal.com/au/webapps/mpp/irs-reporting-requirements:

    As a result of recent changes to US legislation, PayPal has reporting obligations to the US tax authority, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). We are required to identify customers with more than a certain transaction and payment volume and establish if they are US persons or entities subject to US taxes. Information about customers that are US persons or entities must then be provided to the IRS. PayPal Australia, along with all other US based payment processing companies (such as international banks), is required under this legislation to confirm whether account holders that meet the following criteria are US persons or entities subject to US taxes:

    $20,000 USD in gross payment volume from sales of goods or services in a single calendar year AND
    200 payments for goods or services in the same calendar year AND
    Have made at least one withdrawal from their account in US dollars. PayPal will be asking customers approaching these levels to confirm if they are a US person or entity.

  8. @JC

    “Have made at least one withdrawal from their account in US dollars. PayPal will be asking customers approaching these levels to confirm if they are a US person or entity.”

    ONE WITHDRAWAL? Well, this is really going to hit a lot of people and may result in a lot of people refusing to use Paypal and, consequently, diminish purchasing from the US.
    Here, in Canada, the TD bank has – – and promotes for it’s customers – – having a US$ account, and even promotes, alternately, setting up a US-sited TD account for such dealings. We have one of these in-Cda US$ accounts and any purchases I have made at Ebay or certain other companies that were in the US (e.g. gifts to be sent to others), these payments went through Paypal and were drawn from this TD US$ account.
    With this in mind, I certainly am going to think twice about doing any shopping in the US and I’m just a little minnow.

  9. @LM. If you withdraw in Canadian dollars then no issue. Yet what if someone pays you in USD and then wants refund from your Canadian dollar account to USD – best not to do this through PayPal, maybe. I believe PayPal would consider a withdraw a transfer to a bank account and not for a purchase.

  10. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-irs-enforcement-budget-idUSKBN0GP0VY20140825?rpc=40

    According to data seen by Reuters, the division expects to see the number of special agents decline to 2,130 by fiscal year 2016 due to attrition, down 13 percent from this year. That is despite hiring 48 agents this year. At its peak in 1995, the agency had 3,358 agents.

    At first glance this looks like the IRS is hard pressed but then consider how much more of their work has become computerized since that peak number of agents. The computers attach red flags to files and send out robo-threats leaving the files per agent about the same as before.
     

    IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in a separate interview said the lack of resources means the unit is starting fewer investigations. “There are fewer cases that you can take,” Koskinen said. He did not give specific numbers.

    Of course he didn’t give specific numbers. Specific numbers are for the tax slaves, not the tax masters. Koskinen’s prime function is to whine about the shortage of agents and plead for more money for his agency.

  11. Tax hassle leads to increased renunciation of US citizenship
    http://blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org/inbox/2014/08/24/tax-hassle-leads-to-increased-renunciation-of-us-citizenship/

    In my February post on this topic a number of readers asked why the fuss? After all, the vast majority will owe no additional tax. But the requirements, the reporting hoops and the penalties for non-compliance are the stuff of nightmares. Which means simple compliance is very burdensome … “This is a giant, expensive hassle” is one complaint. Then there is a corollary issue of so-called accidental Americans, most of whom are dual-nationals with no ties to life in the U.S. who are also bound by the new obligations.

  12. Welcome @LakeSuperiorGuy.
    Thanks for the reminder about explicitly including reference to Canadian permanent residents in discussions here, as well as Canadian citizens.

  13. @Eric I believe the go for describing what some call dual citizens applied to accidental Americans is “unintentional dual citizens.”

  14. Drawing the connection between the extraterritorial taxation of corporations and citizens:

    “Practically speaking, global taxation is hard to enforce and loaded with bad incentives, which is why our fellow members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have moved away from global taxation of corporate income, and abandoned global taxation of personal income. If anything, the U.S. has gone in the other direction — by insisting, for instance, that foreign companies report various financial transactions with U.S. citizens to the Internal Revenue Service, and taxing foreign cost of living allowances, which makes it more expensive for companies to employ expats. On the corporate side, the Barack Obama administration has repeatedly suggested tightening up on tax deferral of foreign income and other credits, which would make it even more expensive to be a corporation based in the U.S.”

    This Bloomberg article is LOADED with good stuff in support of RBT!

    http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-08-26/burger-king-and-the-whopper-about-taxes

  17. Yes, Polly. It might be the smoking gun we’re looking for if Obama loses his anti-inversion campaign.

  19. @Neill: It seems that the US could easily offset all the renouncers with the EB-5 program. These guys would be paying some real taxes as well.

    These days you can assume that pretty much every EB-5 holder has a pre-immigration trust, meaning that they’re not paying tax on the income from any of their assets besides the $500k they brought to the U.S. to put into the EB-5 business.

    Many EB-5 holders come only for one temporary reason: to get an English-language university education for their kids. They will leave before they pay any exit tax, let alone estate tax. Note that there are 15k to 20k people giving up green cards every year according to USCIS statistics. I doubt these are the family reunification folks who waited 12 years for their green cards in the first place.

    In the first place the only reason these people even go for an EB-5 instead of an E-2 non-immigrant treaty investor visa (with far lower capital requirements & no exit tax) is because many states refuse to treat E-2 dependents as state residents for university purposes, e.g. Michigan. State residence means in-state tuition (a $14k/year discount in Michigan) and relaxed admissions standards as compared to regular international students. So they are getting their money’s worth on whatever U.S. taxes they pay.

  21. @ Bubblebustin,

    DiploPundit appears to be on the level. It looks like a serious blog. Before posting the link, I double-checked the DoS Public Notice #8850, which he embedded in his article. You can also access Notice #8850 directly at this link, which has a ofr.gov extension, which is Office of the Federal Register, or through the OFR main page (click on Public Inspection Desk). So unfortunately I think it’s for real.

  23. @Eric,

    That’s interesting. I had no idea they had created vehicles to protect your stuff before you enter the US.

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