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.
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.
@Calgary411
This may be worthy of IBS feature:
Thank You, Mayor Boris Johnson,For Speaking for Many
Jackie Bugnion and Roland Crim
Directors
American Citizens Abroad,Inc.
Nov. 23, 2014
http://citizenshipsolutions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Bugnion-Crim.pdf
Small mention of FATCA. Looks like naturalization in Switzerland is strange:
http://www.thelocal.ch/20141201/to-be-or-not-to-be-swiss
A UK investment business crowing about it’s growth because of the shrunken provider market caused by FATCA:
http://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/feeding-on-fatca-london-and-capital-us-family-office-aum-surges-226/a787153
Clearly reduced competition will mean higher fees for the services as well as the extra costs of complying. People who go to the firms that jettisoned US persons will get lower costs as well since those companies don’t do all the US bullshit.
Listen to my comments on Free Talk Live at 30:14
http://www.freetalklive.com/content/podcast_2014_12_01
Well done, Tom. One of the interviewers was pretty up to speed on FATCA.
Make sure as a listener you stay tuned into the conversation after Tom left.
I take issue with this:
>Making the agency more efficient and allowing taxpayers to address problems early in the process would
> be a win for everyone. Increased taxpayer compliance, the Commissioner notes, is a primary goal of the
> agency. “This image that we just love banging on doors and assigning penalties,” he says, “it’s not us.”
It’s clear from the OVDP dump that they do just want to assign penalties and as many as they can.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/12/01/irs-commissioner-on-the-agencys-biggest-challenge-its-a-serious-problem/
If anyone wants to go to this NDP “one question survey” and add “FATCA” into the “other” field, perhaps we will get some further action. ALL brockers put the word FATCA in and let’s see what happens with the NDP agenda:
http://www.ndp.ca/action-survey?&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newdemocrats&utm_content=10+-+httpwwwndpcaactionsurvey&utm_campaign=20141202_EGMSURVEY1_JP_EN_RD&source=20141202_EGMSURVEY1_JP_EN_RD
@ GwEvil
Done! Now let’s see other Brockers remind the NDP that we’re still here and we still care about this issue.
Thanks EmBee!
Done! Do the Liberals have a similar survey?
Done, GwEvil 🙂
GwEvil and EmBee,
Done and cc’d to Murray Rankin, Nathan Cullen, Mike Sullivan, Guy Caron. Thanks!
Done, GwEvil. Hopefully every little bit will count.
Awesome everyone! 🙂
@Charl – no idea about the Libs…most likely not >:(
Some things this guys says makes sense. I don’t agree with the ‘it’s the law’ rubbish as Boris was just really on born there.
http://wealthmanagement.com/estate-planning/better-not-pout-it-or-not-us-citizens-owe-us-taxes
The guy thinks the worse case mismatch in taxes is primary residence. Maybe I should register and introduce the guy to sec 1291.
Calgary411—How about this development in the US, reported today? Will there be a thought to extending the idea to Americans abroad? (Rhetorical question, of course.)
Dec. 2 — A bill that would make tax-free savings accounts available to people with disabilities is set to move to the House floor Dec. 3.
Although the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act (H.R. 647, S. 313) enjoys bipartisan support, lawmakers Dec. 2 said they were concerned about the bill’s use of Medicare offsets.
The ABLE Act was introduced in 2013 by Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) and has 380 co-sponsors in the House and 74 in the Senate. It would make tax-free savings accounts available for people with disabilities and their caretakers to cover qualified expenses such as education, housing and transportation.
@Neill:
Naturalization may be “strange” in Switzerland but the immigrants keep coming. The OECD reported this week that for 2012, the most recent year, Switzerland received 1.6% of its existing population as immigrants, the highest in the industrialized world. Immigration rankings 2 and 3 go to Norway and Australia at 1.2% and 1.1%, respectively, far ahead of the US at 0.3% of its existing population.
American immigrants to Switzerland for 2012 were nr. 7, amounting to 3% of the inflow of immigrants, or about 4,300. This ranking is in some ways surprising when considering the everyday banking difficulties/ discrimination that Americans face here, although much of that began in earnest in 2013. No other nationality resident in Switzerland faces banking discrimination:
http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/social-issues-migration-health/international-migration-outlook-2014_migr_outlook-2014-en#page305
@Innocente,
I wasn’t saying people don’t want to go to Switzerland. The article just made it seem that naturalization was strange and they had data saying not many people did it.
@Neill
Thank you for those. I went to a free London & Capital event, since it was the only way I could think of at that time to find out what I needed to know as a citizen abroad. Since only alumni from the better private universities get invited, the audience was hardly typical. I have to laugh that the Freedman thinks that all Americans in the UK pal around with each other. That may be true of ivy-league educated Americans living in South Ken, who seemed to be the main client base of that firm, but it is not true of the Americans I know from work. The U.S. born population is very thinly spread across the U.K., with clusters in London and around the military bases in the east. He should stick to financial planning and leave the demography to others.
Boris would have benefited from better financial advice, but how was he even suppose to know that he even needed it? Even wealthy Americans abroad were allegedly given bad advice by financial professionals in the 1990s, such as being told to opt out of their employer’s pension and sign up to a self-invested pension filled, of course, with PFICs.
@Publius,
We don’t hang out with other Brits in the US. There are plenty around but we need to talk about the old country or anything like that. We do know a lot of other immigrants though. The area I live in has very large numbers driven by high tech.
Recently an Indian asked a question about Indian mutual funds his brother had invested in. The brothers tax advisor told him that he had only just realized they should be filling form 8621. So this tax provider had been filling Schedule D with normal gains and losses for PFICs. A very costly mistake for this guy and we are talking a lot of money. Without 8621 they can take the money going back to something like 2006 since the statue doesn’t run without. 2006 was the earliest data affected.
From this my take away is that the most important thing to consider when choosing a tax preparer is what insurance they have. The rules have gotten so complex that you can’t possibly select a tax pro who you can be sure won’t do the wrong thing.
@Neill
Re: http://m.wealthmanagement.com/estate-planning/better-not-pout-it-or-not-us-citizens-owe-us-taxes
Articles like that from compliance condors just BOIL MY BLOOD. On one hand they say expats should be paying to keep the lights burning in the homeland, and on the other say they can reduce that burden to nothing (of course for a hefty fee that may exceed the actual tax owed without their help).
You know it’s SOB’s like them who’ll be throwing the most political and financial resources at stopping any move to RBT. VULTURES.
IBS gets a mention here:
http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/columns/casey-research/5234/obama-watch-fatca-on-tour-5234.html
@Bubblebustin,
Did you like my comment?
Victoria posted a comment recently with a link to a survey Democrats were conducting in the run-up to the mid-terms. Because the survey included a box to make comments, she suggested Brockers should have at them. I did.
Well, Democrats are at it again. Use the comments box to tell them about CBT and FATCA.
http://action.dccc.org/2016-Priorities-Survey