Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments, Part 9 of 9 (Year 2022)
This is a continuation of the Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments thread (part 8 of 9).
Part 1 covers up until 26 May 2015. Part 2 is from 27 May 2015 to 1 January 2016. Part 3 is 1 January – 31 December 2016. Part 4 is 1 January – 31 December 2017. Part 5 is 1 January – 31 December 2018. Part 6 is 1 January – 31 December 2019. Part 7 is 1 January – 31 December 2020.
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.
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 bilaterial 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.
Articles from earlier in 2018 are in the Media and Blog Articles 2022 Archive. Links to previous years’ archives are also at that link.
This fellow claims to be able to help people secure renunciations if they are willing to travel. https://moodysprivateclient.com/the-guardian-renunciation-article-response/
Moodys are well known to this forum.
For the right amount of money, Moody’s can help with just about anything – whether you need that help or not.
@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.
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
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.
@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.
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.
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
A handy collection of CBC’s articles about FATCA and the FATCA lawsuit over the years, all on one page. Turns out they’ve done 35 of them.
https://www.cbc.ca/search?q=FATCA§ion=all&sortOrder=relevance&media=all
Another Evan Edinger video on taxation-based citizenship:
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.