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. @Neil,

   I will add just this about the conference call discussion with the RNC Chair, attorney Jim Bopp, and other Republicans:

   — I continue to very impressed with Bopp — he is very aggressive and will move quickly when Republicans Overseas receives the necessary funds (which they will) to get started on the FATCA lawsuit.

   — Re Citizenship-based taxation discussion: The point in the discussion was not the constitutionality of CBT but my request that the Republicans should introduce some legislation during the next two years to kill all or part of CBT. I know of course that this will be very difficult for a variety of reasons, but you heard me make my pitch (which I will make again) and I had hoped that others on the call would have supported this — or explained, as I tried to, the urgency in moving quickly.

   Money: Yes, they want more money for the FATCA lawsuit.

   Neil, ADCS wants your donations too!

2. @Stephen Kish,
   On donations and CBT. Immigrants like me are often omitted from any discussion. Many here for example focus on CBT and expect that will solve everything if they get it. While a big part of the picture we actually need better tax treaties (protection given to many account types in both directions and protection of earning and accounts from unreasonable reporting burdens, gotcha penalties and unreasonable taxes). Without this you can’t come back home without turning your finances upside down. I expect I will never return to the UK but it might be nice if I wasn’t exiled by having money and ETFs!
   I have paid all my penalties (the Obama tax). I am compliant and I think until I get quite old I can stay up with what these guys do. At least as long as it takes to empty my remaining UK pension accounts.
   So for me the worth of the Canadian and US lawsuits is that it sooths some of the anger and the US one might ease my compliance burden. My burden isn’t that large anymore as we closed almost all we can close. I expect that no matter what happens I will never get the money back I lost. So the fact that I gave $1k to ADCS (and somebody attacked my post because of the jokes it contained on the subject) and $2k to Bopp is a lot for anger management. The $2k might be tax deductible but then Obama took away my deductions with the Pease amendment.

3. Pretty positive Barrons article:

   http://online.barrons.com/articles/taxing-new-rules-make-hiding-cash-harder-1418282349?mod=rss_barrons_most_viewed_month

   I will be able to read it in the print edition on Saturday I guess!

4. @Neill

   U are not in the boat by yourself… my family are in the same boat… we are also immigrants… some by choice… some by holding the GC for too long… some of the seniors in my family moved to other countries… spent a month or 2 between US & Canada, & the rest in their new country… so basically the US wants to a chunk of their hard earned money… They pay taxes to 3 countries on what is made there… except the US wants the whole pie instead what is made in the US only

   Any time these topics come up… immigrants are ignored… we are the ones being robbed without any rights or representation… who the heck speaks for us.. not one bloody person… illegal immigrants seems to have more rights then legal immigrants…

5. @US_Foreign_Person,

   I think your position is much more unfair than mine. I live in the US so the current taxation is reasonable (though excessive). The traps are unfair and the exit tax etc are unfair.
   To have this stuff on you when you haven’t lived in the states for ages is really bad if you only have a GC. One good think is that it’s hard for the banks to know you have a green card.

6. @Neill

   Yes, it would be easy for the banks & etc not to know if u have a GC… but that is not a safe bet either… we cross the borders often with deep anxiety… but we have no choice… we have family in the US we help take care of… we can’t just cut them off, no matter how much we want to. Immigrants/naturalized citizens are in the worse position… yrs ago… professionals told the elders… keep everything separate & pay the taxes where its made… don’t worry about it since u are not rich… they were wrong…

7. @Neil You say that the Republicans and presume this means http://www.fatcalegalaction.com are about have way to their funding goals. Their goal was $500k. So are they $250K there? And, why doesn’t their thermometer reflect this. They should have more activity apparent on their site.

8. @JC

   Problem with republicans… lot of air moving… ain’t seeing no action yet… splash in regarding the announcement they made… but then a little splash… here & there… nothing since… now they seem to be doing another lawsuit about something else… how many lawsuit will be funded before anything will be done… US persons hunt have already started… nothing seems to be stopping it… we are 2nd class citizens everywhere with no rights or privacy… In other countries… they are asking for things they have no rights to have… if u don’t know your rights… u are screwed worse… so read & understand before u sign….

9. Found some articles that were interesting reads… Only 1 article deals with Fatca in the Cayman… the other 2 were eye opening… Didn’t know where to put them….

   http://www.mahanyertl.com/mahanyertl/2014/will-cayman-islands-honor-fatca/

   http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/11/postal-service-turns-spy-how-much-will-you-pay-for-privacy/

   http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/07/border-agent-called-out-on-unlawful-search-us-citizen/

10. @JC,

    I think it was half of $250k.

11. According to KPMG they have changed the 8938 reporting requirements for some foreign residents.
    Most people here I think would be unaffected. It’s for visa holders that return. The case appears for people who the tax treaty would say were only tax residents of a foreign country but they still have to report via 8938 and of course get penalties.

    http://www.kpmg.com/global/en/issuesandinsights/articlespublications/taxnewsflash/pages/ies-flash-alerts-2014/flash-alert-2014-116.aspx

    I looks like they have clarified the negative asset problem as well. Man these guys are quick. I remember people talking about this a couple of years ago.

12. Another interesting read:

    http://www.expatbriefing.com/expat-features/The-Great-US-Expat-Banking-LockOut-572249.html

13. Jonathan Tepper opinion piece discussed at Bloomberg:

    http://mobile.bloomberg.com/video/why-i-m-giving-up-my-passport-jonathan-tepper-vg7oe1shT8WZg_14XI2lxQ.html

14. @BC_Doc your link did not work for me.

    I Googled: bloomberg tepper citizenship This link looks the same as yours:

    http://www.bloomberg.com/video/why-i-m-giving-up-my-passport-jonathan-tepper-vg7oe1shT8WZg_14XI2lxQ.html

15. “Accidental American” Boris Johnson denounces FATCA

    http://www.capx.co/accidental-american-boris-johnson-denounces-fatca/

    This got sent across Twitter. Would be great, if true. Yet references Nigel Green’s article of a few days ago.

16. @BC_Doc,
    I thought the video was very good. That GC holder should have talked more about how bad it is for a GC holder though.

17. Oh boy, JC (eyes rolling). Classic case of “broken telephone”, but if the error increases awareness, it can’t be all that bad. I guess if Boris refuses to talk about it anymore, anyone can say anything about his now infamous words on NPR.

18. @Bubblebustin
    His word “outrageous” was heard nonetheless, and I suspect that normal people with logical thinking intact can only agree with him. I think it was important for somebody with such celebrity to be heard saying so.

19. @Polly

    Agreed, but Nigel Green has still taken Boris Johnson’s words out of context.

    Johnson’s words won’t amount to a hill of beans if he ends up complying. All eyes on Johnson, especially mine since I was in virtually the same position as he is now tax-wise when I found out about any tax filing obligations the US said with them.

20. @Bubblebustin
    Either he has some political clout or not – because as far as I have read, if he doesn’t pay up, the consequences will raise the price dramatically. I agree – if he complies then the message will be: even Johnson has to submit. But he can make a huge fuss about it and perhaps raise more voices who consider this “outrageous”.

21. @Polly

    Right now Boris isn’t saying a thing. Which is not a good sign to those of us who wish he’d resist. He must know that to continue making a fuss would dig himself deeper into the willful category. If he’s going to comply then I hope he does it with the intention of renouncing, as the message would be that people will pay anything to not be American, as oppose to the opposite – that being American is worth any price.

22. JC and bubblebustin,

    I placed a comment at http://www.cityam.com/1418246339/support-boris-johnson-us-s-imperialistic-foreign-tax-law-helps-no-one, saying FATCA is the enabler to ferret out persons who can be defined *US* for the consequences of US citizenship-based taxation. (I borrowed from badger and from MuzzledNoMore in what they have pointed out.) My comment, though, is still in moderation.

    FATCA and the enabling of that US law in other countries by legislating IGAs is an added layer to absurd US citizenship-based taxation law that is designed to ferret out those US-defined US Citizens / Persons who have absolutely no connection with the US — it makes banks and the tax agencies of other countries arms of the IRS — or US sanctions upon “foreign financial institutions” shall prevail.

    “Accidental Americans” like Boris Johnson who were born in the US to OTHER-COUNTRY parents but who left the US with their parents to their parents’ own country when they were infants or MINOR children OR children born to US parent(s) IN OTHER COUNTRIES, again MINOR children with no say in where or to whom they were born, are unwitting victims of unfair US tax law. If there is a law with all the consequences of such, including expense of actual compliance or draconian penalties for erring with the complexity of citizenship-based taxation of the US, it should never come with such absurd and unfair ramifications to these “Accidental Americans”.

    Those who are “Accidental Americans” don’t have / didn’t have the choices that I had and I made by becoming a Canadian citizen in 1975 (and being told at that time that I would be losing my US citizenship in doing so) and then in 2012 having to formally renounce my US citizenship to finally obtain a Certificate of Loss of Nationality to prove to my local Canadian “foreign financial institution” (as the policy of the US changed but was not effectively communicated) that I am only a Canadian.

    I maintain that with US citizenship-based taxation law, all “Accidental Americans” should absolutely have a choice — a claim. Until *CLAIMED* as an adult with ‘requisite mental capacity’, it should be THE SAME AS NOTHING! To entrap “Accidental Americans” into having to comply with US CBT law (and entrap even more deeply those without the mental capacity, unable to renounce their US-defined US citizenship and all the ongoing consequences of that fact) is not something any country should be proud of. If there is such a thing as citizenship-based taxation (when the rest of the world, save Eritrea) practices residence-based taxation, then that US law should not be such that it would entrap one such person into a US-defined US citizenship. The US needs to get in step with the countries of the rest of the world who practice residence-based taxation.

    Something is very wrong with such consequences.

    From the U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7: Consular Affairs:

    “It is a generally recognized rule, often REGARDED AS A RULE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, that when a person who is a dual national is residing in either of the countries of nationality, the person owes paramount allegiance to that country, and that country has the right to assert its claim without interference from the other country.”

    It was demanded that “Accidental American” Boris Johnson use only a US passport when he was travelling through the US with his family (and then henceforth to do the same). It is a law (which until recent times largely a blind eye was turned to at the border) that those the US defines as a US citizen (with all consequences of such citizenship even if one has no connection with the US) must only use a US passport (not the one of their own country in which they reside) to enter (or leave!) the US. The US then prevents these same persons forced into getting that US passport from relinquishing the US citizenship they just confirmed by obtaining a US passport.

    The hypocrisy is staggering. Boris Johnson has certainly, though, brought awareness to the many “Accidental Americans” in the same position.

23. @Bubblebustin
    Also true. But still, I am waiting for people to understand how “outrageous” the law is.

24. @Calgary
    Were the parents of Boris american? I thought they were british and just in NYC to work for a while.

25. OOOOOOOOoooooooo, JC, do you think we can get Boris to donate to ADCS in the “colonies”????? LOL

Comments are closed.