Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Tag Archives: Laura Saunders

About @MayorOfLondon Boris Johnson by Laura Saunders @Saunderswsj features familiar names

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 25 Comments

This article is behind a paywall – perhaps somebody can provide a direct link. It apparently will be in the print edition tomorrow so it would be good to get comments up today. The text of the article is here.

The article includes:

Now he has a new claim to fame: as a poster boy for millions of U.S. “tax cheats” living abroad.

Recently, the 50-year-old Mr. Johnson, who holds dual U.S./U.K. citizenship, complained that the U.S. is “trying to hit” him for taxes on the sale of his London home, even though he hasn’t lived in the States since he was five.

In an interview with NPR about Churchill, Mr. Johnson called his U.S. tax bill “absolutely outrageous,” after a listener asked about his citizenship status. When pressed as to whether he would pay, Mr. Johnson said, “No is the answer…why should I?…I pay my taxes to the full in the United Kingdom, where I live and work.” These taxes are often at higher rates than in the U.S., he added.

Mr. Johnson’s spokesman says he has no further comment on the matter. The Telegraph, a British newspaper, has reported that he and his wife bought a London house for GBP470,000 (about $750,000) in 1999 and sold it for GBP1.2 million (about $1.9 million) in 2009. The Internal Revenue Service is prohibited by law from commenting on issues involving individual taxpayers.

Mr. Johnson’s case is a perfect illustration of the dilemmas faced by many of the 7.6 million U.S. citizens living abroad as a result of U.S. authorities’ five-year campaign against secret offshore accounts. It began after disclosures that Americans were being encouraged to hide money in Switzerland.

Most of these expats have never had a numbered Swiss account, but many of them, like Mr. Johnson, are finding they haven’t complied with U.S. tax laws that seem to them highly unfair. “It’s a clear example of the harm befalling citizens caught in the maw of multiple tax systems–a status imposed on every American citizen abroad,” says Jackie Bugnion, a director of American Citizens Abroad, an expat group.

The root cause, experts say, is that both the U.S.’s definition of citizenship and its tax system are broad.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/london-mayor-is-poster-boy-for-expat-tax-woes-20141204-00782#ixzz3KxFIzjmS

From @WSJperfinance and @SaundersWSJ report renunciations continue at record pace

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 34 Comments

The article includes:

Unlike other developed nations, the U.S. taxes citizens on income they earn anywhere in the world. The rule dates to the Civil War. U.S. tax liabilities can also cover children born to Americans abroad, extending the reach of the Internal Revenue Service across generations as well as oceans.  There are only partial offsets for double taxation for people who owe taxes both to the U.S. and a foreign country, and the reporting rules are onerous, experts say.

For decades these laws were rarely enforced. Now, scrutiny of Americans abroad is intensifying because of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or Fatca, which Congress passed in 2010. The law’s main provisions, which took effect in July, will require foreign financial institutions to report income of their U.S. customers to the IRS.

Comments are open, at least for now.

 

 

 

What are the benefits of the coming into U.S. tax compliance through the Streamlined program?

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 34 Comments

Updated November 3, 2014 – Readers are strongly encouraged to read the comments as well. One must remember that Streamlined and OVDP are programs which have been invented by the IRS. They are not found in the Internal Revenue Code. Consequently this post should be read in the context of the following comment to this post:

Commentary on the ‘clarifying rules’:

http://tax-expatriation.com/2014/10/14/irs-releases-clarifying-rules-for-u-s-citizens-living-outside-the-u-s-re-streamlined-filing-guidance/

“……..FAQs are all the rage these days with the IRS, as the government does not take the time or spend the resources to follow the Administrative Procedures Act or similar requirements which are required in order to issue binding rules and regulations. See a previous post regarding these requirements, specifically regarding those who renounce U.S. citizenship or abandon LPR status and have not complied with IRS Notice 2009-85. See,Does IRS Notice 2009-85 regarding expatriation have the “force of law”? Posted on April 14, 2014

Hence, these SFCP are not legally binding on the IRS and they can pick cases as they choose for audit, review and penalty assessment in any manner they think is consistent with the law. Sometimes they do it in a manner that is not consistent with the law.”………….

Americans abroad are getting special attention from the IRS

 

 

During the last week the IRS has been paying special attention to Americans abroad. First we have the new bulletin which relieves Canadians of the need to file the Form 8891 in order to “legitimize” their RRSPs and RRIFs. This was the subject of considerable discussion at the Isaac Brock Society. As noted in a insightful post by Roy Berg, many Canadians will NOT be eligible for the “8891 Relief”. The “effective date” of the RRSP announcement is December 31, 2014. Some Canadians had been using the “Streamlined Compliance” program to fix the “problem of having used an RRSP for retirement planning in Canada” (talk about “tax evasion”). Brave Canadians had “come clean” about their RRSPs in OVDI or either Streamlined Compliance 1 (September 1, 2012 – July 1, 2014) or Streamlined Compliance 2 (July 1, 2014 and continuing). Streamlined 2 appeared to be a “good faith” attempt by the IRS to relieve Americans abroad from penalties on information returns that they didn’t know they had to file. This appeared to be a “step forward” by the IRS. It even appeared to be an attempt to reverse some of the “ill will” generated by “IRS Penalty Abuse” in OVDI and OVDP. As Robert Wood notes, the relationship between the IRS and Canadians is NOT good. It looks like the relationship is about to go from bad to worse. For new readers, it’s important to note that the “clarifications” announced by the IRS in October of 2012, must be understood in the context of the evolution of the so called “IRS Amnesty” programs that began in 2009. As a reminder to all, here is the progression and evolution of these programs:

Continue reading →

More from Laura Saunders @WSJ – Overseas Americans: Time to Say ‘Bye’ to Uncle Sam?

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 93 Comments

The good news is that renunciations of U.S. citizenship are getting publicity.

The bad news is that the article does not recognize the needless suffering, desperation, and fear of Americans Abroad.

That said, it is better than most articles coming out of the Homeland.

Here is a comment that seems to me to be “right on”:

Continue reading →

Israel to establish governmental committee on FATCA compliance

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 44 Comments

So reports a new article in The Jerusalem Post. Compared to some of his fellow journalists, Nadav Shemer (Twitter: @NadavShemer82) could easily win an Olympic gold medal in translation for this article; instead of parroting Treasury’s Orcish-language press releases about “US taxpayers” and claiming that’s just a mirror image of “Israeli taxpayers”, Shemer gets to the crux of the matter right in the subhead, in plain English:

A committee to establish how Israeli institutions can conform to the US foreign tax act will be headed; will force US citizens abroad to pay tax … FATCA, passed in 2010, requires all foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to become compliant by June 30, 2013. It will give the United States more power than ever to force American citizens and green-card holders residing abroad, including an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 in Israel, to become tax-compliant … At least one bank has confirmed to [CPA Philip L.] Stein that it will begin asking new customers about where they hold citizenship.

Of course, he misses out on the exact scope of that tax: not just an ordinary Form 1040 like everyone else in the country, but Form 1116 and 2555 at minimum, plus a six-page Form 3520 for your “foreign” retirement account, another six-page Form 8621 for your “foreign” ETFs, a seven-page Form 8865 for your “foreign” business, etc.

Incidentally, in a new blog post over at the WSJ, Laura Saunders notes that one of the names in this quarter’s freedom list was that of Israeli Supreme Court justice Daphne Barak-Erez.

189 names in Federal Register name-and-shame list for second quarter of 2012

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 35 Comments

Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner has RENOUNCED! Renounced the evil ways of his earlier life of sin, that is. He has sworn off those wicked days of yore in which he repeatedly flouted the Homeland’s tax laws, and has been walking the straight and narrow path, rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.

And today, Caesar demanded a list of names. Yes, for the second quarter in a row, Mr. Secretary has brought us — in a timely fashion — the Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen To Expatriate, as Required by Section 6039G. This list contains names of former citizens and green card holders who are on Chuck Schumer’s hit list no longer U.S. Persons. (To be clear, Geithner’s name is not one of them). He still hasn’t fixed the superfluous comma in the title, or the misspelling of HIPPOPOTAMUS, but hey, no one’s perfect, right?

However, even though Treasury Timmy met his publication deadline, it remains an open question whether he has published the names of all of the individuals with respect to whom he received information in the preceding quarter or quarters. The number of names in this quarter’s list is much smaller than in previous quarters. Furthermore, absent from the list are a number of people known to have given up U.S. citizenship in 2011 and early 2012, including Belizean anti-crime activist Yolanda Schakron, Jamaica’s former Commissioner of Customs Danville Walker, and notorious Canadian terrorist Peter Dunn of Isaac Brock’s Army.

Continue reading →

Laura Saunders weighs in: Should you renounce your U.S. citizenship

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 64 Comments

If this has already been posted, sorry for the duplication. This whole issue is starting to get traction. More than 200 comments so far. Looks like a good article.