Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments, Part 9 of 9 (2022-2024)

You can access all years at this link: Media and Blog Articles – Links for All Years

Media and Blog Articles

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. I’ll make a permanent list of links posted here and keep adding to it, but not deleting, so we’ll end up having sort of a “bibliography” of FATCA/CBT articles. [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.

Notes:

From JC: 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.

From Badger: On an important archival note, please use the Internet Archive Wayback machine https://archive.org/web/ (see bottom right ‘Save Page Now’ box to enter URLs of webpages you want saved for posterity, and try to save backup copies of articles and other items of interest in some other form – such as a datastick or external drive. Some important and very significant webpages and the fulltexts of articles are no longer available (although some can be retrieved if someone using the Wayback machine saved them).

Be sure to read the comment stream for this thread — there are often very recent articles mentioned since this list was updated.

2023.02.28

Supreme Court Rules in Taxpayer;s Favor on FBAR Penalties, Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes, US.

Bittner v. United States, Supreme Court of the United States, (decision referred to in above article).

2022.10.23

Kids stuck with $2000 bill each for KiwiSaver, Rob Stock, Stuff, New Zealand.

2022.08.26
American Expat Campaigners laying groundwork for citizenship-based tax challenge, Helen Burggraf, AmericanExpatFinance.
Next, the Supreme Court Decides How to Punish US Expats, Andreas Kluth, Washington Post, US.
2022.07.30
FATCA isn’t the problem, CBT is, Ross McGill, AmericanExpatFinance.
2022.04.22
TIGTA Report on IRS Effort to Enforce FATCA, Federal Tax Crimes, US.
2022.04.07
Additional Actions Are Needed to Address Non-Filing and Non-Reporting Compliance Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, Treasury Department, US.
2022.03.30
Long awaited ‘Gwen and Kazia’ FATCA appeal hearing in Canada takes place today, Helen Burggraf, American Expat Finance.
2022.03.25
A bilateral data-sharing deal with US better than status quo, James McCarran, Winnipeg Free Press (Canadian Press).
2022.03.23
Canada, US enter talks on deal to access, share data in criminal investigations, James McCarran, Orillia Matters (Canadian Press).
2022.03.22
United States and Canada Welcome Negotiations of a CLOUD Act Agreement, Department of Justice, US.
Responsibility Deflected, the CLOUD Act Passes, David Ruiz, Electronic Frontier Foundation, US.
2022.03.18
CLOUD Act, Department of Justice, Canada.
2022.03.04
Decades of Neglect Leave IRS in Tax Season Chaos, Alan Rappeport, New York Times, US.

2022.02.15
Can the Whistle be Blown Against Accidental Americans, Part II, Alan S. Lederman, Bloomberg Tax, US.

2022.02.11
Those in Kamila Valieva case may be prosecuted under new US law, Katie Wermus, Newsweek, US.

67 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments, Part 9 of 9 (2022-2024)”

  3. For the right amount of money, Moody’s can help with just about anything – whether you need that help or not.

  4. @Portland and RonHenderson Let’s just say, I reached out asking which embassies were conducting renunciations and I received the sales pitch with no answer to my original question. I think 99% of people who wish to renounce do not require such services and expensive consultants.

    I am very familiar with the ‘Nomad Capitalist’. The channel is great for libertarian types who want to explore internationalisation options, but the information is very superficial and takes advantages of Americans and Anglophone who really have no clue how the world outside their country works. He is also trying to upsell people to his various services.

    The common refrain from both people is to try to sell their extremely expensive services when a much cheaper solution is best for 99% of people. I will contact a few US consulates and embassies in the coming days and post the information on which locales are conducting renunciations.

  5. For those who are curious, here are the results from Day 1

    France: Renunciations suspended
    Germany: Renunciations suspended
    Austria: Only available for people residing in Austria with a waiting time of six months

    Waiting on feedback: Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland, and Czechia

  6. Someone (Birdperson?) posted a link to a Google docs spreadsheet maintained by a FB group that is tracking this. As of a few months ago, Europe was hopeless – either still shut, or long waits. Baku was extremely quick though.

  7. @RonHenderson: I remember seeing this document and I regret not having saved it somehow. I could not find it using the search function on the site. It would be great if the person with access to the Facebook group can provide it and update it with my most recent enquiries. At this stage, I will have contacted so many US embassies that whoever manages the document will be able to update the spreadsheet.

  8. Yes, it is BirdPerson. She’s a moderator with that FB group. Here’s her comment (you’ll have to skip ahead a few pages and scroll to 2012/12/30 at 3:45 pm) and a quick link to the chart.

  9. Another FATCA type US override of Canadian Charter rights – with the collusion of our government? Notice that it involves data privacy and crossborder access to data, will rely on ‘executive agreements’, is supposedly ‘reciprocal’, and involves ‘harmonization’ by Canada and other countries with US laws. What could go wrong?

    It was passed in an omnibus US spending bill;
    “…..It was never reviewed or marked up by any committee in either the House or the Senate. It never received a hearing. It was robbed of a stand-alone floor vote because Congressional leadership decided, behind closed doors, to attach this un-vetted, unrelated data bill to the $1.3 trillion government spending bill. Congress has a professional responsibility to listen to the American people’s concerns, to represent their constituents, and to debate the merits and concerns of this proposal amongst themselves, and this week, they failed….”….”..This bill has large privacy implications both in the U.S. and abroad. It was never given the attention it deserved in Congress.”
    https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/responsibility-deflected-cloud-act-passes

    “….The CLOUD Act, passed in 2018, created a “new paradigm,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice: “an efficient, privacy and civil liberties-protective approach to ensure effective access to electronic information through executive agreements between the United States and trusted foreign partners.” …..
    https://www.orilliamatters.com/national-news/canada-us-enter-talks-on-deal-to-access-share-data-in-criminal-investigations-5189004

    The US is all for it; https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-and-canada-welcome-negotiations-cloud-act-agreement

    The IAPP said;
    “……At a basic level, the new legislation simultaneously gives the government the right to access data even when stored abroad and also gives the CSP the right to quash the warrant if complying would be contradictory to local privacy laws.

    These rights have naturally spawned heated debate between law enforcement and privacy advocates over international security and personal privacy. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, for example, considers the lack of judicial review within the CLOUD Act to be a massive overreach on the part of the U.S. government that contravenes the norms of international law……..”..
    https://iapp.org/news/a/how-the-cloud-act-will-affect-the-way-cloud-providers-serve-their-customers/

    Our Canadian privacy commissioner doesn’t have the power to force the government to ensure that Canadian Charter and other rights are protected (just as his office did not protect us from the FATCA IGA abuses of our Charter rights), but advised;
    “…Canada’s privacy watchdog wants the federal government to ensure any bilateral data-sharing agreement with the United States includes “explicit safeguards” to protect the rights of Canadians.

    The two countries agreed this week to pursue a reciprocal deal that would better streamline cross-border criminal investigations, which in the U.S. are often impeded by Canada’s stringent privacy protections.

    While acknowledging the need for modernized legal procedures in the digital age, privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien is urging the two sides — Canada in particular — to proceed with the utmost caution.. “….
    https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/a-bilateral-data-sharing-deal-with-us-better-than-status-quo-says-privacy-watchdog-576330072.html

    Some questions about implications for Canada;
    https://www.mccarthy.ca/en/insights/blogs/techlex/uk-us-data-sharing-agreement-implications-canada
    https://blog.privacylawyer.ca/2019/10/what-cloud-act-agreement-will-look-like.html
    https://www.torys.com/Our%20Latest%20Thinking/Publications//2018/04/cloud-act-will-streamline-data-sharing-but-raises-privacy-questions/

    Notice that there are several redactions in this Government of Canada webpage re the CLOUD Act, and precious little other information that I could find. Including opportunities for public consultation.
    Home Transparency Briefing documents: Public Safety Canada Briefing Book for the Minister of Public Safety Canada – 2019-11-20CLOUD Act
    https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/trnsprnc/brfng-mtrls/trnstn-bndrs/20191120/034/index-en.aspx

  12. If I weren’t so completely allergic to YouTube title screens with photos of idiots looking stunned – perhaps it’s a generational thing – then I might watch the video. On the other hand, I’m not a US expat.

  14. For all the good work done at AmericanExpatFinance, nobody there has the balls to come out and state the obvious: you don’t need to file US taxes if you don’t want to. I have traded correspondence with the editor, they exist in the expat bubble where people shell out thousands every year to file zero-owing returns for their university student children born outside the US. It’s baffling…

  15. Because saying that people can and should ignore this can get you banned from various sites left right and centre. Not just the fronts for the US tax compliance industry either, I include some of the most unlikely places such as the Facebook page of a well known person who is fighting to get this system fixed.

    Then again I see the conflict, “you can simply ignore this” does conflict with “we must get this changed”.

    And some people are simply compliance people, they simply cannot ignore the demands made on them. This would include the people doing exactly as you say. Presumably they also are a group that has money to burn or perhaps have US financial lives?

    Regardless, it’s perfectly clear that many feel they have no option but to comply. The examples in that infamous Dutch TV program to be found on YouTube are a good example and note who is leading them by the nose – the US tax compliance industry.

  18. @Pacifica-

    I suggest the American Expat Finance article for a Brock feature. Also as part of that could be referenced/linked the article by Andreas Kluth

    Word is that CBT legal action is funded so they are not seeking donations.

  20. Thanks for this information, JC, and I’ve taken your suggestion and created a post for this topic.

  22. Go bombard the editors of the Tax Connections blog after this misleading piece of self-promotion was posted last week. Here’s my comment:

    Regarding this blog post: https://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/guide-to-renunciation-of-u-s-citizenship-abroad/

    The following information is 100 percent wrong:

    “We will not speak about the tax side of the renunciation process (reminder, you need to be tax compliant for 5 years in order to renounce your citizenship).”

    Needless to say, the next sentence is as follow:

    “If you haven’t a US tax return in while, we offer a Renunciation Package that will bring you into compliance with US tax law without risking any penalties, and it all can be done in 2 weeks!”

    You are allowing tax “professionals” to use your blog to peddle blatant misinformation for advertising purposes. Do you not have editorial standards?

    As you should well know, there is no requirement to be in tax compliance prior to renunciation of US citizenship. The State Department issues a CLN without consulting the IRS. (I have direct recent personal experience of this.) If one chooses, there is a separate and clearly optional procedure to make a formal exit from the US tax system and determine a possible exit tax (if deemed a covered expatriate). This procedure requires completing Form 8854 and certifying 5 years’ past compliance. As we know from a recent Treasury audit, 40 percent of those who renounce US citizenship do not file Form 8854, and the IRS makes no effort to contact those former citizens who fail to do so.

    Please correct this purposeful misinformation that is serving as a sales pitch for your contributor.

  25. Moodys won’t ever give this up. Too much money to be made. It’s basically one guy, Alex Marino, and he’s very good at his sales pitch.

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