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. FATCA impact on nonAmerican http://news.liveandinvestoverseas.com/post-fatca-madness/

2. Recently I wrote to a congress lady in my old district. I don’t know if it is proper for me to post her response here but man, she was totally clueless and still selling the kool-aid. I’m thinking it might be time for a new round of “educational” letters to US legislators. We have some hard data now with the DA study, the Tax Foundation study, the three lawsuits, the human rights claim. Also, is it remotely effective to start blitzing their FB pages with FATCA questions? Might someone be willing to help me come up with a “legislator letter”? (I just get so po’ed I start ranting and thus render myself ineffective. I think we need something smart, crisp and full of hard data). Any ideas of what to post on FB pages? Also on sites like MSNBC they have “start a new conversation” sections. If a few could commit as a group to start conversing there might that be another avenue to pursue?

3. Victoria thinks it is time for a new “blitz”:

   http://thefranco-americanflophouse.blogspot.ca/2014/09/fatcacbt-acting-in-your-own-defense.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/mjljN+(The+Franco-American+Flophouse)

4. @Charl – Breath in. Breath out. Much better now.

   Maybe include a few quotes from authoritative sources to back you up.

   From Wikipedia:

   The Wall Street Journal reports that “FATCA worsens the already profoundly unjust the tax treatment of millions of middle-class Americans living abroad.” “FATCA rules were intended to correct a tax loophole. Applied to Americans living abroad, they are absurd.”

   The Executive Summary of a recent survey of Americans by Democrats Abroad says that FATCA affects everyday Americans everyday. “These survey results show the intense impact FATCA is having on overseas Americans. Their financial accounts are being closed, their relationships with their non-American spouses are under strain, some Americans are being denied promotion or partnership in business because of FATCA reporting requirements and some are planning or contemplating renouncing their US citizenship.”

   The Republicans Abroad sponsored fatcalegalaction.com says that: “FATCA is a grave danger to every American living abroad.”

5. Garth Turner’s most recent blog entry, ‘Family Planning’, lauds the benefits of sharing financial accounts for Canadian couples. I made a comment there to try to educate those whose significant other is a ‘US person’ (see comment #47).

6. Glad you’re back! And you are educating GT again — good. Comment #47 gets a BOB (Best of Bunch). Has GT ever written about the vexations of US taxations?
   http://www.greaterfool.ca/2014/09/17/family-planning-3/#comments

7. @EmBee. No, never. And I have made many comments at his blog over several months, and sent him an email asking if he would do a post on the subject, but got no response. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that he used to be a Conservative MP.

8. In light of WhiteKat’s return I’m re-posting these youtube videos (put the colons back in).

   Me and the IRS — http //www.youtube.com/watch?v=07_bGSzHN54
   I Won’t Back Down — http //www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLTYMN8iD00
   Raise a Little Hell — https //www.youtube.com/watch?v=roqoA08QdbA

9. http://business.financialpost.com/2014/09/17/what-canadians-pay-for-florida-real-estate/

   I put a “Buyers Beware” comment there but others would be helpful — probably more so than mine.

10. @Neill
    The real problem is that the median family income is down to 1990 levels. In real terms, the middle class family is living on around 90% of its 2007 income. When the economy struggles, progressives have tended always to look for badly-behaved rich people or even badly-behaved poor people to blame because they assume that if everyone is behaving according to good, patriotic, middle-class values, everything should be o.k.. Things aren’t o.k, so they blame the unpatriotic corporations or others who aren’t pulling their weight.. Obama is hardly the first to espouse economic patriotism.

11. @Publius,

    Obama never blames those that don’t pull their weight. They just need a helping hand from the rich just paying a little bit more.
    They are suffering because they borrowed to buy stuff. They never invested in themselves. They wanted to put their hand out and Obama fill it with all kinds of great stuff. Well now they have what they wanted.

12. Anti FATCA article:
    http://www.compasscayman.com/cfr/2014/08/08/U-S–can%E2%80%99t-deliver-on-FATCA-promises/#.VBtgAvkRYVI.twitter

    French citizens who live in the U.S., or live in France, who are US citizens or green card holders are being impacted. Est 50,000 accounts in France will close because of FATCA and impact French citizens: (use Google translate if French is not a main language). Interesting letters from French citizens being impacted:

    http://www.frederic-lefebvre.org/fatca-frederic-lefebvre-defend-motion-dajournement-du-projet-dapprobation/

13. Factoring Security Into Data Governance (FATCA discussed)

    Jacob Gertel, senior project manager for legal and compliance data at SIX Financial Information, observed that to comply with US Fatca tax withholding and reporting law, and work with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) used for Fatca reporting, the data that financial intermediaries must deliver is based on data files from their customers. As a result, this data, with its relevance for regulatory compliance, has greater value than it might otherwise. And, Gertel says, SIX seeks ways to make the data available to users without having to set up all new structures for management and distribution.

    Fatca or CRS-relevant data is increasing in volume, and resembles the type of “big data” that Dan Crisp, managing director, EMEA, information risk management at BNY Mellon, says needs protection from cyber invasion. “We have gone to a super-abundant world of data,” he says. “Conceptualizing data, unless you are a deep subject matter expert, is quite challenging. We have data growing exponentially, bigger and bigger challenges with metadata and visualization—and getting that across to people who may not be familiar with the details.”

14. Perhaps someone should sign up for this free webinar to let them know why keeping so-called ‘offshore bank accounts and foreign assets’ is not for people who live abroad a complicated decision — these are our local, Canadian (and other country) bank accounts that we need to live our lives outside of the USA. The webinar will talk to those that FATCA should address and leave the rest of us alone!

    http://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/2014/09/18/webinar-helps-consumers-become-irs-compliant-with-off-shore-bank-accounts-a-556938.html#.VBuSPlewR1I

    Is the headache and stress worth having funds outside of the United States?
    There are many instances where it is advantageous to have foreign assets. FATCA is changing the degree of secrecy associated with foreign funds and banks have increased responsibility to verify that clients are correctly reporting their foreign funds in their US tax returns. Whether or not to keep offshore bank accounts and foreign assets is a complicated decision. Learn as Jeffrey S. Freeman tackles this perplexing question.

15. Yet another Berlin wall but this time an exit tax for corporations:

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/19/us-usa-inversion-congress-idUSKBN0HE1SS20140919

16. @Moderator/@All

    I think that this one is a good candidate for IBS feature:
    Thank you, FATCA, You’ve Just Busted My Marriage
    http://blogs.angloinfo.com/us-tax/2014/09/19/thank-you-fatca-youve-just-busted-my-marriage/

    This is an angle that should be developed. People may not be able to understand tax, or get immediately detached when the word “tax” comes up, yet they can understand “busting marriage.”

    This one has been picked up on Twitter with three separate people tweeting. I plan to join in. Yet I would like the argument further developed.

    Here are some angels:

    I thought that the Democrats were the party of compassion. With FATCA they are anti-family in regards to US citizens abroad.

    The whole anti-family concept would include FATCA and CBT. Other “anti” parts of it: Reduced marital exclusions for nonUS spouses in case of death. Difficulty/impossibility to do normal financial planning to save for one’s retirement and build financial security for one’s family.

17. @Moderator
    Another candidate for IBS feature. OAP says
    September 19, 2014 at 8:33 am

    Overseas Pensioner owes no tax to the U.K. but still owes to the U.S.

    Posted on the DA Research Feature Article:
    I’ve a number of thoughts concerning the difficulties associated with a US Person living long term abroad (with no intentions of returning to the US), but I’ll start with this simple example:

    If we consider a US Person, age 66, filing MFS (as most do), living in the UK with the following sources of income: £9,500 from UK State and company pensions, £1,000 from a cash ISA (tax free in the UK), £100 from the winter fuel allowance (tax free in the UK), and the £10 December bonus from the State (also tax free in the UK), do they owe US tax? This is really a basic subsistence income in the UK.

    In the UK the first £10,600 is tax free for this individual. Aside from the already tax free status of the ISA, WFA, and bonus, their pensions are also tax free since they are below the threshold. Thus, on the £10,610 income they owe no UK tax. If we translate that amount to US dollars at the 2013 IRS average rate it results in an income of $16,021.

    All the above income is unearned for IRS purposes and therefore only FTC’s can be used to offset the income. But, there are no FTC’s, nothing has been taxed by the UK. The US Standard Deduction ($7,300 for age 66) and the US exemption ($3,900) total $11,200. $16,021 US taxable income minus $11,200 US allowances leaves a US taxable amount of $4,821.

    Do they owe the US tax on the $4,821 difference? Of course they do. It may not be a huge amount to a US Lawmaker, but it is quite an important amount to this individual.

    Note: Do to unfortunate wording in the US/UK double tax treaty, it is agreed amongst UK/US tax professionals that the UK State Pension IS taxable by the US.

    My other thoughts centre around some basic issues. Foreign (non-US) governments each decide how they conduct internal investing for retirement in order to prevent an individual becoming a ward of the state in retirement. These schemes are generally tax free within the country to encourage investing for retirement, but are taxed by the US. A US Person living in that country can not secure an expected level of retirement investments if they are paying a part of the excepted assets for retirement as tax to the US.

    The one item that I find especially capricious is the exchange rate. Little is said about this issue since it can swing in either direction, but it is devastating for at least 50% of the time. It results in uncertainty of thresholds from year to year, taxable US income one year and perhaps not the next, and we are all aware of the issue of phantom gains. Suffer a year when the exchange rate is particularly unfavourable, and you’ll be subject to NIIT at an additional 3.8% (selling a home you’ve owned for 25 years?).

    Finally, there are the interpretations of any tax treaty. Even UK professional tax advisers are in disagreement as to whether a SIPP is US tax free or not, with most agreeing it is taxable. Who knows.

18. News from Australia: Australia will be a leading nation signing on to the automatic information exchange: GATCA. I just hope that there is one only one possible answer on the form: what country are you tax resident in.

    Speaking of FATCA and questions about new accounts. Picture this: under FATCA reciprocity would the U.S. force U.S. banks to ask Billy Bobb [fictitious] living in Alabama if he is a US citizen? He might just reply CSA or Confederate States of America. What happens then?

    Most all countries of the world are more integrated with others where the US is more insular, especially certain parts of the U.S.

19. @JC,

    I don’t see how the tax treaty wouldn’t protect pensions and the state pension from US tax if the pensioner was a resident of the UK. This is the one area where the savings clause does not remove the rights of a green card holder or a citizen.
    Can you explain your reasoning?
    I have only researched my side which is my UK pension is only taxable by the US.

20. @Neil a UK pension would be an “unqualified pension” under U.S. tax law.

21. @Neill, September 20, 2014 at 12:46 am

    Rather than clogging up this thread with what may be a longer post, I shall answer your question on the “Democrats Abroad Publishes FATCA Research – “FATCA: Affecting Everyday Americans Every Day” thread.

22. @Osgood
    That story seems to have been removed.
    @JC
    People say ‘Oh, if you don’t like FBAR/FATCA, just move to Puerto Rico’ are my least favourite people. It’s like they’re saying: we know you Americans abroad are a bunch of rootless people who can and will move to wherever the tax rates are lowest, so here’s a tax haven for you since you obviously like them so much.

23. @JC,
    >@Neil a UK pension would be an “unqualified pension” under U.S. tax law.

    This is not material. Qualified pensions are pensions in the US. IRA, Roth IRA, 401k, 403b etc. There are bunch of rules about moving stuff to and from qualified pensions. The UK pensions get their protection from the tax treaty. I think the treaty is clear that the state pension is protected for a resident of the UK from the IRS.

24. WSJ: Tax Crackdown Leads Foreign Banks to Dump American Expats

    http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/Foreign-banks-American-expats/2014/09/12/id/594332/

25. Robert Wood does more on FATCA:

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/09/22/armed-with-fatca-irs-hunts-offshore-tax-evaders-while-canada-eases-up/

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