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)”

  4. Laura Saunders’ recent WSJ article is open for comments. No registration is required. I wrote this comment:

    “The Johnny-come-lately DA research report is meant to create the illusion that the Democrats are sympathetic towards expats, when in reality they are not.

    The Democrats created FATCA — it is their baby. They also fully embrace Citizenship-Based Taxation aka Place of Birth Tax along with the recent practice of using FBAR penalties (50% of highest account balances for 6 years = 300%) as a means of punishing people for having unreported accounts outside the United States (ie. expats). Nobody ever heard of FBAR reports until that last couple of years.

    The end result? A rapidly growing number of expats are tossing their US passports in the bin. Many with US places of birth are formally renouncing/relinquishing US citizenship but others who have places of birth outside the US are just tossing their passports and quietly going underground.

    Expats have no representation in US congress and therefore no means to defend themselves from such oppressive legislation. The current situation for expats harks back to the days of colonial America with one major difference, the expats of today are in a far worse situation than the colonists were in 1776. That is:

    Taxation without Representation and without access to Public Goods or Government Services.

    This story will not end until the US abolishes Citizenship-based taxation and adopts Residency-based taxation like the rest of the world.”

  6. @Neill, do you think they will be concerned about the “tax reversion” when Boots starts paying tax in the US via Walgreens instead of paying tax in the UK?

  7. @Polly,

    US companies face worldwide taxation. In most countries companies pay only tax in the countries where they earn the money. So American countries by foreign countries to effectively convert themselves into foreign companies (called inversion).
    Treasury had said they could not legally do anything about this. Obama told them to look again and by a miracle they now think they can change the rules legally. They are upping ownership rules to require 80% of the deal to be foreign. This won’t stop foreign companies buying American ones achieving the same end.

    @George,
    They only care about money that gets away! That’s because really they think it’s there money.

  10. @Neill
    So that means that up till now, inversions were of small foreign companies and big american companies. And now it has to be the other way around? Now the foreign company needs to be bigger than the US company they were joining forces with? Thats the 80%?

  11. @Polly,

    The company has to be less that 20% American for it to become foreign. This is just about avoiding worldwide taxation. They still pay taxes to the US on US income.

  12. @Neill
    Yahoo now has a few articles on the new rules which apply since last Monday. Some guy they interviewed said the new rules addressed 3 out of 5 issues of inversions. Basically he said it would be a deterrent, but perhaps not 100%.

  13. More on TPP “secret talks” from Huffington Post:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/23/tpp-talks-stalled-doug-porter_n_5869254.html

    The controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement may be crucial for Canada’s economy, but it’s unlikely to close anytime soon, says one of Canada’s top economists.

    The multilateral talks — involving hundreds of negotiators from 12 countries over an agreement that would create one of the world’s largest free trade areas — have stalled. There have already been more than 20 rounds of negotiations, the details of which have been kept secret.

    Doug Porter, chief economist at Bank of Montreal believes the chances of talks settling outstanding issues are slim.

    “I’m not optimistic on those talks at least not over the next three years or so,” he said during a panel discussion for the Toronto Region Board of Trade.

    “The reality of the situation is unless the U.S. gets fast-track authority (for a free trade negotiation) it’s going nowhere … The multilateral nature of these talks means that if everybody isn’t cooperating then it’s not happening.”

    U.S. president Barack Obama has faced difficulty in getting Congress on board with the trade talks and has not been able to convince politicians to give the White House “fast-track authority,” which would allow Obama to sign the deal without a debate in Congress.

  14. @calgary411,

    Republicans won’t give Obama any new powers. They figure he will abuse them. The figure if they sign an immigration bill Obama will craft is own bill by essentially ignoring the things he doesn’t like. Obamacare would be an unbelievable train wreck if Obama hadn’t ignored a bunch of the legislation.
    Any reasonable person wants free trade and the XL pipeline.

  16. Sounds like anti FATCA has the attention of Republican Party mainstream :

    Sen. Mike Lee is preparing to tour Europe to engage Americans in a battle against the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act,

    Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/23/mike-lee-to-fight-us-tax-law-targeting-americans-a/#ixzz3EDMFG38r
    Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/23/mike-lee-to-fight-us-tax-law-targeting-americans-a/?page=all#pagebreak

  19. Just got this in mail. Don’t have a link yet. I can forward the mail to the site if you give me the address. It must be up on irs.gov somewhere:

    IRS Warns Financial Institutions of Scams Designed to Steal FATCA-Related Account Data
    WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued a fraud alert for international financial institutions complying with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Scam artists posing as the IRS have fraudulently solicited financial institutions seeking account holder identity and financial account information.

    The IRS does not require financial institutions to provide specific account holder identity information or financial account information over the phone or by fax or email. Further, the IRS does not solicit FATCA registration passwords or similar confidential account access information.
    “Tax scams using the IRS name can take many forms and they are not limited by national borders,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “People should always be cautious before sending sensitive information to anyone.”
    Financial institutions directly registered to comply with FATCA and those in jurisdictions that are treated as having in effect intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) to implement FATCA through intergovernmental cooperation have been approached by persons representing themselves as the IRS. The IRS has reports of incidents from multiple countries and continents.
    These fraudulent solicitations are known as “phishing” scams. These types of scams are typically carried out through the use of unsolicited emails and/or websites that pose as legitimate contacts in order to deceptively obtain personal or financial information.

    Financial institutions or their representatives that suspect they are the subject of a “phishing” scam should report the matter to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 800-366-4484, or through TIGTA’s secure website. Any suspicious emails that contain attachments or links in the message should not be opened, and the email should be forwarded to phishing@irs.gov.
    More information on prior alerts and scams can be found on IRS.gov.

  20. We need to ask what the dire consequence for those whose financial information is compromised even further by “foreign financial institutions” who reside in countries dumb enough to implement IGA’s for US FATCA. Seems like less and less protection for our private financial information.

  22. On huff about inversions and comments from Clinton. You get the clowns who say we should tax them like citizens because corporations are people:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/23/obama-bill-clinton-corporate-taxes_n_5870908.html

    >These same comments will find away to haunt Hillary Clinton in 2016. These corporations are people
    >and should be taxed like the people they claim they are. If I were to to become a citizen of a foreign
    >country but made most of my revenue/income here could I refuse to pay taxes here and pay overseas
    >because they had or offered a better tax rate. If so, please let me get dual citizenship soon!

    My response:

    Maybe you should understand the rules. As a US citizen (well in fact US person that includes somebody with an expired green card who can’t even work in the US) you’re required to pay US taxes even if you don’t set foot in the US for decades. Only two countries in the world do this and the US condemns the other for doing it (Eritrea).
    So if you want to have no American multi-nationals you can impose this on them.
    Since they know this would kill businesses they allow them to defer the income and bingo we have the mess we are in.
    Time to get rid of this crap and only tax money where it’s earned.

  25. @Tom Alciere

    Thank you for alerting me to this new article in The Guardian. It features the familiar story of dear Tricia Moon, but also some new stories I had not heard before.

    http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/sep/24/americans-chased-by-irs-give-up-citizenship-after-being-forced-out-of-bank-accounts

    Others, please go there, especially if you live in the UK and can share from experience. The quality of the comments and misunderstandings that people have about this subject is just unbelievable.

    I have made two replies and one new comment. You can upvote those if you like them. Even better, write your own comments.

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