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. Compare this:

   http://thehill.com/policy/finance/225421-irs-bonuses-available-to-staffers-with-tax-debts

   >“It’s important to remember that not everyone at the IRS is a tax expert — some work in non-tax
   >specific areas in occupations ranging from IT programmers, administrative professionals to human
   > capital specialists,” the IRS told The Hill in a statement this week. “Where employees have been found
   > to have made unintentional tax mistakes, they would generally still be eligible to receive performance
   > awards they have earned.”

   How warm and fussy. Our people don’t know all the complicated tax rules and might have made a mistake. We don’t penalize them for it.
   Compare with what we saw in the OVDP FOIA dump where pretty much it’s:
   ‘Hey, ordinary people will have made these mistakes because they don’t know the rules. Go nail them on it.’

2. Yes, Neill, like many you were burned. The 5% non-wilful FBAR penalty for US residents is grossly unfair, especially when it is applied to the balance plus interest your accounts had before you emigrated to America. Those who lobby for an exit tax to have US emigrants ‘repay’ what the US has provided to them should have this inequity pointed out to them.

3. @Neill

   Robbery, yes, but the IRS can move a tax year to a more recent year when the passage of time has disallowed a failure to file penalty to be refunded on a specific year, when the taxpayer has moved from OVDI to Streamilned.

4. @Bubblebustin,

   I had to pay a 27.5% balance penalty.

5. It’s a good job the US is never going to give tax data to the Canadians.

   http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/canada-revenue-agency-leaks-its-own-data-hands-journalist-private-tax-details/

6. Good grief, Neill, I’m sorry. Pardon me if you’ve already explained, but would you have qualified for today’s domestic Streamlined, and if so, aren’t like taxpayers supposed to receive like treatment? Some of those who were in the 2009 OVDP were able to have their penalties reduced for that reason:

   “Subsequently in 2011, the IRS announced the second OVDP. This time, the highest penalty was 25%. But there were also two lower slabs – 5% penalty and 12.5% penalty, if the taxpayer fulfilled certain conditions. Since these slabs were not offered in the 2009 OVDP, the IRS decided to refund penalties to those individuals who, in 2009, would have been eligible for the lower penalty structures……The IRS is essentially saying that its policy on tracking offshore income is in place. By abating the penalty, the IRS is recognizing that it had been a bit more rigorous than required and that it is willing to accept genuine circumstances. At the same time, the IRS is saying that it is willing to work with you if you are willing to come forward and make disclosures on your offshore income and assets,”

   Or have you already said that you don’t want to reopen that can of worms?

   http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-05-24/news/31827561_1_ovdp-offshore-accounts-irs

7. @Bubblebustin,

   Streamlined didn’t exists at the point we closed. I had a difficult choice to make. Opt out with a pretty good case but I have money and my returns show it. My RA was incredibly picky and I worried I would get the same treatment. I could afford to pay the bill and I was done with the whole thing.
   I had got some victories by shifting to sec 1291. This avoided our denied refund problem and eliminated our biggest account from the balance penalty. I did my own sec 1291 calcs using tax law by attorney missed. My RA said my numbers were wrong and corrected them. We sent her the law and they said I was right. They couldn’t do the calculations with the additional rule. They did back of the envelope calcs and they were close to mine. So they ditched their stuff and took mine.
   They tried one last trick by demanding the actual returns with the form 8621 but I had already written c# code to fill in 400+ form 8621’s from the spreadsheets and insert them into the returns. We dumped the lot on the agent and exited. Probably the only person to self prepare in the OVDP.
   If you closed they don’t let you take the better deal even though my tax pro said they would never do that.

8. @Neill

   Good thing u know more then they did… that is the biggest problem… I am a numbers idiot… we interviewed people who we thought who could help… they knew even less then we did… we thought our education would help us understand… nope… university did not prepare us for this mess… we always thought a professional would do a better job… but u prove them wrong… thanks for sharing your experience

9. @US_Foreign_Person,
   My initial tax returns were done by a tax pro costing me $8k for the 8 years. This turned out to be useless because the turkeys (my tax pro and my tax attorney) had not realized we would generate a loss in 2008 and the IRS would deny the refund but still demanded tax from 2003-2007 and 2009-2010. I didn’t know enough and like I said above even asking questions cost me money. That $8k doesn’t include the money I paid the attorney. In total I paid about $18k in fees.
   So I took control and poured over the IRS code in question. Do the same. You will be a numbers guy after you do this. I purchased Lacerte for $400 (this is the top level product Intuit sells to pros, like their turbotax but more advanced). This was a total gamble but it paid off big time. Boy that was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I did 10 years of tax returns in my spare time at night over a week. I realized under sec 1291 our biggest account was tax compliant over the 8 years. Most of the income was fake generated by the modified mark to market offered by OVDP. This is what my tax pros should have told me but didn’t. I was in OVDP for two years so I had plenty of time to study.
   I can give you help on PFICs default sec 1291 taxation if you want it.

10. @Neill

    Very impressive that you stick handled your a lot of your own way through OVDI. What an ordeal. You must be smart and thick-skinned. Bet you never have to go through that again though! This stuff ages you fast.

    I knew that you were too early for Streamlined in OVDI, as I was too. Just thought you could maybe get the difference between 5% and what you paid in penalties back, but sometimes it’s not worth the effort after contorting yourself to get to where you are now.

    We’ve been told our case is closed (still awaiting paper on that) and the cheque’s in the mail. After almost 3 years to the day, I’ll believe it when I see it! The good news is that the Canadian dollar’s low, so we benefit from the exchange rate for a change 🙂

11. @Neill

    Many thanks for your kind offer… I will probably have questions… u have been generous in sharing your experience and info thus far with all… we are still trying to sort out things… our problem is the paperwork… we moved around alot so paper work was lost…

12. From Allison a Christians. Questions on the Canada-US FATCA Agreement:

    MP Ted Hsu has presented an order paper question (OPQ 816) on the topic of the unusual process surrounding Canada’s adoption of an intergovernmental agreement on FATCA.

    http://taxpol.blogspot.ca/2014/11/questions-on-canada-us-fatca-agreement.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

    Could the long-anticipated Liberal Party policy statement on the FATCA IGA a few of us worked on and submitted to them on soon follow?

13. @ Bubblebustin
    Thanks for spotting this so quickly. Q 121 and now OPQ 816. Dr. Hsu is very good at compiling really valid questions and it’s great to know he has not stopped gnawing at this big FATCA bone of contention. Fingers crossed on that Liberal policy statement and it will be fascinating to see what Allison Christians puts together too.

    To read the entire question search for Q-816 here:
    http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Pub=NoticeOrder&Mode=1&Language=E&Parl=41&Ses=2&File=9

    It was obvious to all of us right from the beginning that this legislation should never, ever have been included in that damn omnibus bill.

14. @Bubblebustin,

    They have explicitly said that if you have closed you can’t get anything back via streamlined. They want to keep that money.

15. @Calgary411
    Yes, you can be a resident of a U.S. state as a U.S. citizen, but foreign countries don’t count. Perhaps German rock group Rammstein’s “We’re all living in America” should be a Brocker theme tune. You don’t have to know German to get the song’s basic message. The lines about everyone having to dance to the U.S.’s tune is all too true.
    @Neill
    Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving in spite of it all. I am sure lots of the more American Americans abroad will be having some very interesting conversations and OMG moments about FATCA over the turkey over the next few days.
    @US Person Foreigner
    I will keep on looking why this happened, but a lot of these decisions are not transparent at all.

16. Thanks for this, bubblebustin for Allison’s link, other Brockers who have had input, EmBee for the government link — and Mr. Hsu and other Canadian Liberals who have worked on this (including *perhaps* my riding’s Liberal MP candidate, Matt Grant).

    I’ve attempted to put it in a little more readable format: Q-8162 — November 24, 2014 — Mr. Hsu (Kingston and the Islands)

17. @EmBee @Calgary411

    Comes from having nothing better to do than watch the Twitter feed 🙂

    @Neill

    Hardly seems fair, as the closing agreement should really only be to the benefit of the taxpayer (I say should, but I know that will never be the reality) We were warned about leaving OVDI and entering the 2012 Streamlined with no closing agreement, but we deserved to have the penalties refunded due to reasonable cause. I’m sure they’re happy to put our case behind them. Incidentally, if Boris can make a case to skate on his capital gains (not likely), we might be even happier we did!

18. @ Neill – RE “I had to pay a 27.5% balance penalty.”

    OUCH and YIKES, Neill, that REALLY sucks!!!

19. Here’s an Anti-FATCA article that needs one clarification. It’s all great until they say:

    “Truly strange times we live in. So many want to come to the United States and can’t get here and stay here legally, while at the same time, so many are trying to get out and Uncle Sam won’t let them (and their money) go. All because the government can’t control its voracious spending habits and is hoping to soak the rich abroad.”

    http://www.birchgold.com/dollar/fatca-fallout-inflation

    Some Brocker comments would be good on there 🙂

20. Thanks for the link, GwEvil. It also says, which is correct and links the two phenomenons well (though still using the *all expats are rich* meme / brainwash):

    FATCA and immigration reform are both about the same thing: Increasing the base of U.S. taxpayers, whether they are citizens, residents, use any services or not.

21. To all the Tweeters out there: .@Canada’s now on Twitter, eh!
    What an opportunity to let the world know that Canada is the 1st and so far only country to have a FATCA constitutional challenge (and other important information)!!!
    GO FORTH AND TWITTER (NOW AND OFTEN!!!!!) 🙂

    https://twitter.com/Canada?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theweathernetwork.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2Fcanada-finally-joins-twitter-says-hello-to-the-world%2F40882%2F&tw_i=537649992325136386&tw_p=tweetembed

22. @LM I sent a tweet over there. @Canada’s get lots of tweets.

23. Thanks for this, LM and JC.

24. http://parsherald.com/fatca-boris-wont-pay-us-taxes/4233/#comment-250503

25. http://www.caymanreporter.com/2014/11/27/cayman-uk-government-work-implement-shared-vision/#comment-5759

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