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)”

  2. What worries me about this story is that it’s going to make it look like FATCA is soooo great at “catching tax cheats” which it is NOT!

  3. @GwEvil
    Thats exactly what I meant when I said FATCA didn’t catch them- somebody revealed them to the authorities.

  4. I see that our old pal, and sympathizer, ‘Tom Hunter’ is back. You gotta wonder why he is so pro-FATCA. At the recent WallStreet article, ‘IRS Faulted on Tax collection from Ex-pats’, http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/10/01/irs-faulted-on-tax-collection-from-expats/ Tom Hunter writes:

    That the IRS is failing to collect taxes across the board is not an accident–it is by design.
    If you read “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and StickYou with the Bill)” and “Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else”, both by Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnson, you will understand that both parties in Congress–but especially the Republicans–have purposely starved the IRS of the funds it needs to do its job. For that reason, the IRS has a hard time performing the audits on the complex tax returns of rich Americans. The phenomenon happening with expats is just another manifestation of this problem.

    FATCA, which came into effect in July of 2014, is a hugely important step in the right direction. It is effective because it puts the onus for enforcement on foreign banks. Its effectiveness is one reason that FATCA is so unpopular with tax-evading expats. It’s just a good start.

  5. Just in case ‘Tom Hunter’ checks back in to see how many bears he poked, WhiteKat wrote:

    @TomHunter,

    Did you know that few homeland Americans even realize that USA is alone in the developed world with its bizarre, and until recently, unenforced, tax laws that equate, ‘US personhood’ (a broad definition including ex-green card holders, and children born overseas to American parents) with US taxpayer status?

    Most people I talk to (fellow Canadians, as well as homeland Americans) regarding this immoral law referred to as ‘citizenship based taxation’, either do not believe me, or are shocked. Of the 6-7 million so-called ‘US persons’ living permanently OUTSIDE USA, only a few hundred thousand have been filing US tax returns. Even fewer have heard of FBARS. Are they all US tax cheats in your mind? Have most people who left USA, morphed into a tax cheat since then?

    The REASON they have not been filing is typically because they did not realize USA had such a unique to the world view as to who is a taxpayer. This is perfectly understandable given the unintuitive nature of such a law, and that it was unpublicized (government did not bother to educate the public or expats) and was also unenforced.until FATCA. In effect, until FATCA, USA was operating just like ALL OTHER COUNTRIES (except that one dictatorship) which practice residence based taxation.

    All of a sudden, YOUR country, not mine (I left as a baby having been born to Canadian parents), is broke and expects to steal money from the life savings of people like me, who even IF I had been filing US tax returns would owe little if anything. However, USA is going to cash in big time with its draconian FBAR penalties, that effectively will wipe out my life savings already earned and taxed (highly I might add) in Canada where I live and where my so-called ‘foreign bank accounts’ are.

    Of course, all of this will just go in one ear and out the other, because for some reason, known only to you, you must keep repeating the mime about ‘catching US tax cheats’.

  8. In truth, FATCA isn’t even about collecting “taxes”. It is a machine to collect exorbitant penalties. Similar to the 2350$ hike in renunciation fees which are now 422% higher than before for very flimsy reasoning, FATCA is also flimsy reasoning for extortion of funds that any homelander would march on Washington about if it was done to them. Imagine somebody from Kenia who lives in America as an american citizen being put upon by the Kenian own government to pay 30% of their retirement fund to them, as opposed to say maybe 1000$ in back taxes. Its so absurd. If it was just about collecting “taxes”, the outrage would be much smaller. FATCA is about collecting the penalties, not taxes.

  9. Opportunities to introduce issues relevant to those deemed US citizens outside the US here:
    “….part of an ongoing conversation exploring the meaning of citizenship in America today”
    http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-citizenship-part-1-20141005-story.html#page=2

    The editorial does not mention US citizens abroad at all – as if they don’t exist, nor the issues of twinning citizenship and taxation. Nor the lack of any substantive representation in the US political process, or the lack of registration and voting ability in over half of US states in order to vote from abroad, etc.

    Good opportunity to mention Carolyn Maloney’s Bill http://maloney.house.gov/issues/overseas-americans and the lack of support for those deemed US citizens for life, yet denied a voice – unlike the political representation that France maintains for its expats http://www.frederic-lefebvre.org/fatca-getting-us-persons-involved-the-association-of-americans-resident-overseas/

  10. @LM
    As far as I can tell, there is only one American involved in running the scam and he splits his time between the U.S. and Belize. It is not clear where the beneficiaries live.

    @Whitekat
    I did some searching and believe that the Tom Hunter in question is an author living in Indianapolis. He is no stranger to the world outside the U.S., having served as a foreign correspondent in Russia. That is a job that can easily get you killed, so maybe he doesn’t realize that there are nice, sensible countries like Canada that don’t murder journalists for asking questions. Maybe he thinks that the whole world is that corrupt? That would explain a lot.

  11. @ WhiteKat
    Thanks for taking on the Hunter. When he appeared to be phishing (guess that’s a form of hunting) I stopped responding to him. I’m not sure if he ever figured out my situation and I doubt that he would have cared even if he had because it’s all about socking it to those cheating, conniving, traitorous, fatcat sub-Americans living la dolce vita in those dad-burned foreign countries, as far as he’s concerned.

    @ Publius
    If I was being forced to relocate to my choice of two corrupt countries and a language barrier did not exist I would pick Russia over the USA. However, I’d apply for refuge status in Iceland to try escape the relocation. Corruption is a worldwide problem these days and perhaps always has been. It has many flavours and varying degrees but it’s there — everywhere. I would put every FATCA IGA signing country, Canada especially, down many pegs on the corruption scale for colluding with the USA and succumbing to extortion.

  13. A Swiss newspaper, Schweiz am Sonntag, published an interview with the US Ambassador to Switzerland, Suzi LeVine. Following is a translation of a relevant section:

    Journalist: “Many of your fellow citizens are suffering under the hard tax policies of their own government. Many of them have even renounced their citizenship. That must cause you concern.”

    LeVine: “The majority renounce because they do not have a deep connection to the USA, and only their parents lived there. For others it is, however, a very difficult step. We look at their reasons and try to resolve the problems, together with the US tax authorities, the US Justice Department and also the Swiss Bankers Association. My predecessor, Donald Beyer, participated in many meetings of Americans abroad and listened to them.”

    Journalist: “You also?”

    LeVine: “I have met some, but I am profiting from his prior work. I understand the problems of Americans abroad very well and am trying to help them. Next week I will fly to Washington D.C. I will speak with important people there about the situation of our citizens in Switzerland. If we can continue the progress regarding the tax conflict with the Swiss banks, I am certain that the situation of Americans abroad will also improve.”

    Journalist: “Until then additional Americans will be forced to renounce their citizenship.”

    LeVine: “I regret that. Because I would like that they remain Americans. To be an American is the greatest without comparison. We can be proud of the many things that our country does nationally and internationally. But there will always be people who renounce because the personal connection to the country is missing.”

    http://www.schweizamsonntag.ch/ressort/nachrichten/es_ist_gut_dass_die_gefahr_sichtbar_ist/

  14. Ambassador LeVine:

    Bullsh!t. The US through its actions is driving a wedge between its citizens and any attachment they have with the US.

  18. @someone @bubblebustin Below are the RTS Swiss French interviews with LeVine and Darius Rochebin (Swiss French equivalent of Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, or Tom Brokaw).

    But before that, let me say that what really pissed me off several months ago about her is that when she was questionned about surveillance of people, she said something like “we abide by Swiss Law”.

    What a joke, and your people were listening to Angela Merkel (German Chancellor) phone without her consent and using extortion to coerce Swiss officials to “agree” to FATCA.

    Art. 181 Swiss Penal Code–
    Any person who, by the use of force or the threat of serious detriment
    or other restriction of another’s freedom to act compels another to
    carry out an act, to fail to carry out an act or to tolerate an act, is liable
    to a custodial sentence not exceeding three years or to a monetary
    penalty.

    Source:http://www.admin.ch/ch/e/rs/3/311.0.en.pdf

    Abiding by Swiss Law my a**.

    http://www.rts.ch/video/emissions/pardonnez-moi/5985438-suzi-levine.html

    http://www.rts.ch/video/info/journal-continu/5982415-les-relations-americano-suisse-vues-par-l-ambassadrice-suzi-levine.html

    http://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/5573966-les-etats-unis-nomment-leur-nouvelle-ambassadrice-en-suisse.html

  20. @noone
    The Indian reporting has been odd. It consistently suggests that FATCA applies only to Indian citizens in the U.S., but it never mentions that greencard holders and U.S. citizens in India are also covered. Unless India has negotiated residency based taxation (doubtful), I think they are overlooking something really important.

    @EmBee
    Fortunately, we don’t have to live in either country, since both are more corrupt than Canada or the UK, but Russia is seriously bad. I knew a journalist who was killed in Russia for asking too may questions.

    @Someone
    Really interesting. She clearly doesn’t get it.

  22. @ Publius
    True journalists (few and far between) in the USA occasionally meet their fate in “accidents”. It’s just different strokes for different spokes of the corruption wheel.

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