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. @Tom

   Has your comment disappeared from Treasury Insider or have I gone insane?

2. Contrast Robert Wood’s claim about the only choices being Streamlined or OVD with this quoted from Taax Notes Today. Ultimately it would be best to read the whole Tax Notes Today article (probably available via Lexis-Nexis database if you can visit/access a university library – sometimes database access is available to the general public on a guest pass if you are not staff, student or prof there.)
   Otherwise, see http://federaltaxandformcrimes.blogspot.ca/2014/11/irs-on-quiet-filings-for-offshore.html
   “IRS on Quiet Filings for Offshore Account Delinquencies or Underreporting
   Tax Notes Today reports the following on quiet disclosures (Amy S. Elliott, IRS Working With SSA on Offshore Streamlined Filing Requirement, 2014 TNT 216-3 (11/7/14)

   Regarding so-called quiet disclosures — when taxpayers file amended returns and delinquent foreign bank account reports without coming in through the offshore voluntary disclosure program or the streamlined program — Best [senior adviser to the deputy commissioner (international), IRS Large Business and International Division] said, “The IRS recognizes that a quiet filing is a choice that the taxpayer has.”

   But Best added, “We would prefer that taxpayers come in through one of our programs so that we have tracking mechanisms, information gathering mechanisms set up, but ultimately it’s up to the taxpayer.””………..

3. @Badger, I note that it now appears that Jack Townsend no longer is accepting posts unless ‘you’re a member of his blog’….

4. Looks like Robert Wood is writing with Dr. Jekyll’s pen today and replying to comments with his Mr. Hyde pen. Wish he’d stop playing the two-faced boogie. With him it’s resistance is futile but oh-my-oh-my you are so right that this sucks but too bad, so sad you’ll have to hand over your life savings to the IRS otherwise the banks will suffer. Got to say it’s wearing thin with me.

5. Oops, I reversed my Jekyll and Hyde. Mr. Hyde is the scary one. Should be:
   Looks like Robert Wood is writing with Mr. Hyde’s pen today and replying to comments with his Dr. Jekyll pen.
   Could someone fix please and delete this?

6. I was wondering if you’d maybe found a new angle on Mr Wood, EmBee, lol!

7. The Canadian government has come out with their Statement of Defence to ADCS’s Statement of Claim”
   I don’t see this on IBS. Tricia says: Once we have reviewed it, a more detailed post will be made.

   http://adcsovereignty.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/the-government-of-canadas-statement-of-defence-to-adcss-statement-of-claim/

8. Stephen Kish also refers and has links in his update at: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/10/22/97975-more-needed-to-make-the-february-1-2015-payment-for-canadian-fatca-iga-lawsuit-il-nous-reste-97-975-a-ramasser-pour-notre-poursuite-judiciaire/, with comments coming in there.

   Comments can be kept together / not buried if they go to this dedicated post: http://adcsovereignty.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/the-government-of-canadas-statement-of-defence-to-adcss-statement-of-claim/

9. I dont understand the legal lingo very well- but from what I can take from it, it is saying that US persons in Canada owe taxes to America anyway. Basically it boils down to the legality of CBT? And this has been the very point of contention all along.

10. 28 Kuwaitis renounce US citizenship (28 more myths for Robert Stack)

    http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/kuwait/28-kuwaitis-renounce-us-citizenship-1.1407489

    “Banking sources in Kuwait said that 28 Kuwaitis with dual nationalities have informed the competent authorities they wanted to renounce their US citizenship.”

    “The move was attributed to their wish to avoid paying taxes as required by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) that targets tax non-compliance by US citizens with foreign accounts.”

11. For those of you who commented on this Examiner article:
    http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-drives-record-10-000-wealthy-u-s-taxpayers-to-renounce-citizenship

    John Gaver (author) has posted his replies to many of our comments.

12. Thanks, Em.

    …and a thick head has Mr. Gaver.

13. http://www.federaltaxgroup.co/will-republicans-repeal-fatca/
    Will the Republicans Repeal FATCA?
    An interesting read. You can’t comment directly on this article but an e-mail address is provided (info@federaltaxgroup.co) for feedback.

    The push needs to be a full repeal of citizenship based taxation. The real issue is the fact that we have Americans overseas, who are citizens by birth and do not choose to live in the U.S., don’t vote in the U.S., don’t receive services from the U.S., who are still taxed on their worldwide income, solely as a matter of birthright. Unfortunately, the international compliance operations of the IRS have been extremely lucrative in the last few years since the Swiss bank UBS went down on criminal charges and FATCA was enacted. As a “homelander,” a military combat veteran and a dual US/Canadian citizen, this author is particularly saddened to see that a U.S. passport is no longer a boon but instead a nuisance or worse around the globe. Ultimately, only time will tell what happens to both FATCA and CBT, and until then, Americans abroad are having to make some tough choices.

14. @Pastbeyond60 Valiant effort to try to get Robert Wood to entitle an article: Is FATCA a Berlin Wall, financial but equally effective, being built around the United States of America?

    I sent him an e-mail directly trying to suggest to him to fit in the Berlin Wall part into an article. One may imagine he might do such article yet perhaps also we may try elsewhere.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/11/10/fatca-letters-promise-disclosure-to-irs-what-to-do/

    I tried to suggest through Twitter to Greg Palkot Fox reporter – who wrote two articles on the fall of the Berlin Wall – that he should draw attention to the US Financial Berlin Wall and the US attempts to keep its citizens in an punish those who live overseas.

    @PalkotLondon

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/11/09/reporter-notebook-at-fall-berlin-wall-25-years-ago/?cmpid=cmty_twitter_fn

15. “Winning the War on Tax Evasion, One College Student at a Time.”

    http://thefranco-americanflophouse.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-flophouse-get-fatcaed.html

16. @ charl (aka pastbeyond60)
    You’ve been putting in a valiant effort in so many places (not just Forbes). Kudos and thank yous galore! 🙂
    http://www.treasuryinsider.com/2014/11/10/fatca-costs-spiral-beyond-expectations/

17. @JC
    Did you notice the ploy he tried to scupper me with stating he has already written about the Berlin Wall? All I can say he must think I am a complete IDIOT, thatI wouldn’t check it out? (He even gave me the reference…man, I don’t know what to think about him. Either he is insane or I am.) Foolishly that really made me angry and my next post was most unfortunate. Reminder to self: Never press send when you are pounding on the keys! I don’t even think I was coherent at that point. I definitely need to start drinking more…as my kids say: chillax!

18. @EmBee
    Thanks, just my wee bit to try and help the brigade. I just don’t know why it does’t make be feel better. The more I type the angrier I get.

    @JC
    Thanks for the support over at Forbes. I start sounding like a crackpot when I’m dangling out there all alone. At the moment I must close my computer and eat a pound of chocolate….did you see his last response to me? The “system is the system”….my brain just exploded, for once I am speechless. I need to go chainsaw something. You deal with him please………

19. @Charl,
    Try not to get upset about the Wood. I was wondering why he does not have the same infuriating affect on me, as he does on you, and am thinking it might be because he is mostly an indifferent tax lawyer, with no real agenda, other than to make money luring in visitors to his online articles. He is apathetic and boring.

20. @Charl, at least the trolls have passion (misdirected thought it is).

21. oops, ‘though’ not ‘thought’.

22. oops, ‘effect’, not ‘affect’?

    Does ANYONE actually know the difference? Can’t either be a verb or a noun?

23. @WhiteKat

    I mess up affect & effect all the time… so u are not alone…. at least u don’t roll your eyes & suck your teeth at me… like my dang evil spawns… lol…

24. @Calgary411 @EmBee

    I nominate this comment from @Charl for IBS feature:

    There are many issues that remain incomprehensible to the average mind. Why are non-US banks suffering the compliance costs to become arms of the IRS? The IRS should pay its own damn bills. If extortion is the reason then charge the US in the international court system. If all countries refuse to comply with FATCA what exactly can the US do? Withhold on all of them? What could go wrong?….

    Are nations not realizing the game here…you pay big time to track ALL US deemed citizens around the world, have your countries assets stolen via draconian penalties imposed on your citizens, to support their, against all universal norms, citizen based taxation rules. In return the US can become a tax avoidance haven for all other countries if they refuse to sign onto GATCA. The most difficult thing to comprehend….they are actually pulling this off.

    http://www.treasuryinsider.com/2014/11/10/fatca-costs-spiral-beyond-expectations/

25. @ JC
    Yes, yes! I see I had already up-arrowed it — wish I could give it more. Charl “brocks” at in-your-face, straight-shootin’ commenting. Somebody referred to Brock commenters as mosquitoes awhile back but I think hornets might be more apt, in many instances. There’s a time to tip-toe and a time to blow the trumpet and charge. Whatever works is warranted.

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