FCPA as a profit center? I have been in Africa (Ivory Coast) and grease payments are de rigeur if one wants to “stay alive”.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t1#/video/business/2012/04/12/pkg-taylor-fcpa.cnn
Ireland joins FATCA talks
The Irish tax authority has officially entered the debate on US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) with the US Treasury, according to a spokesperson for the Irish authority, joining a host of European countries in search of a common approach.
Full article: http://www.hfmweek.com/news/1712348/ireland-joins-eu-fatca-talks.thtml
WSJ Column on US Citizenship Renouncement
Here it is:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303592404577362050670738024.html
My first observations are the comments left are for the most part not at all negative towards those who do so.
Hiding money from your spouse can be a federal crime, if in a foreign account
Jack Townsend writes on the recent conviction of Aristotle, “Rick” R. Matsa on 22 counts of fraud and obstruction of justice related offenses, including witness tampering and making a false statement.” Jack highlights the part about FBAR charges in the government summary:
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Two small English-speaking countries with very different reactions to FATCA
In non-Anglophone countries, a lot of the coverage of FATCA is driven by cross-border tax consulting firms — the only organisations with the resources to translate huge volumes of FATCA news into the local language, and the connections to push their version of the story to local journalists on a regular basis. These companies, despite their crocodile tears, are very happy about all the new business that FATCA is going to generate for them in helping customers navigate complex new requirements, and get no benefit by promoting opposition to it.
In Anglophone countries, however, the local journalists have no excuse for not getting their FATCA coverage right anymore; there is a huge amount of material out there about the potential negative effects of the U.S.’ new fiscal imperialism. So it’s interesting to see the sharply differing coverage of FATCA in Ireland — a country with a high presence of cross-border tax sandwich-makers — and Jamaica, where such companies are far less active.
Canadian Medical Association position on FATCA and FBAR(Must Read)
I have no idea how the Canadian Medical Association got involved with issue but apparently they did sending a letter to Jim Flaherty and receiving a response back both of which I have linked to below:
Perhaps we need to get other “professional” organization outside of banking and finance to take a stand on this issue.
Letter from MP Denise Savoie to President Obama
I don’t how I missed this gem of a letter but apparently in the fall MP Denise Savoie of Victoria sent a letter to US President Obama on the subject of FATCA, OVDI, FBAR etc. I have linked to it below.
http://denisesavoie.ca/download/1467/letter_to_president_obama.pdf
MP Savoie also has a section of her website devoted to US tax issues(although it hasn’t been updated since December) in which she continues to indicate her opposition to FATCA.
http://denisesavoie.ca/us-tax-information
I am also trying to get together all of the official responses we have received and obtained for submission to Deloitte’s FATCA comments page. I don’t know whether Deloitte will publish them but there are all very much authentic.
If anyone wants to helpful post a link to any previously published letters here at Isaac Brock Society.
Shulman's successor
According to Charles S. Clark, (article in Government Executive, April 11, 2012), the IRS is likely to get a temporary successor. Due to the fact that IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman’s term ends the same month as the elections, it is highly unlikely that Obama will appoint a successor in the event he does not win the election.
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South Korean finance minister sells his country's sovereignty to the IRS, surrenders to FATCA
South Korean tax industry publication Josei Ilbo is reporting that Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan met with Timothy Geithner at the G20/IMF/World Bank meeting this weekend and came to an agreement on the implementation of FATCA in South Korea. Their journalist has written a shoddy and clueless article which makes no mention of the potential effects on Korean Americans, returned South Korean expatriates still holding on to their green cards, Americans working in South Korea, South Korean privacy laws, or anything else — just the usual cross-border services firm propaganda on “minimising the burdens of financial institutions”. Translation after the jump.
"Pre-Crime Prevention" Technology at the US Border
Check this article out:
The US Department of Homeland Security wants to implement scanning technology at airports which will attempt to determine if you pose a security risk by analysing “behavourial and physiological cues” . The author of the article above argues that it won’t be likely to work, but I’m more concerned with the fact that the US government thinks that it can work and is likely to implement it anyways, warts and all.
By the way, following the best of cheesy US Government acronyms, this one is called FAST (“Future Attribute Screening Technology”)
Is the US trying to everything that it possibly can to make it the least desirable country to visit possible…?
