Monthly Archives: April 2012

Just Me invited us to respond to Jack Townsend’s invitation to comment on an Open Forum; here is my comment awaiting approval:

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http://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/3916656-la-justice-suisse-affaiblit-l-accord-d-entraide-fiscale-avec-les-etats-unis.html$

The court said that mere tax evasion (not fraud) was not a reason for Switzerland to provide information to the IRS.

“Et le tribunal maintient que le fait de ne pas déclarer un compte ne constitue pas une fraude.” (The court maintains that not declaring an account does not constitute a fraud).

This is excellent news, I just hope that parliament doesn’t screw it up.

Here is the New Zurich Newspaper article on the same decision.  It goes into more specific details.  I don’t have time to do a manual translation from German so you’ll have to try Mr. Google. http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/wirtschaft/aktuell/amtshilfe-gestoppt_1.16381062.html

Also, here is the Bloomberg coverage for the same (in English): http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-11/swiss-court-rejects-disclosure-of-credit-suisse-client-s-data

http://www.thefloridanewsjournal.com/2012/04/10/miami-marlins-coach-ozzie-guillen-suspended-after-complementing-fidel-castro-and-saying-h

If this man or anyone in America loves Fidel Castro why isn’t he allowed to say so without there being an uproar? Doesn’t America believe in freedom of speech? Secondly why should anyone care about what is said about politics by a man whose life is coaching grown men to play a child’s game? What kind of an apology is it when it is given under duress? How is this any different then when a terrorist group forces a U.S. hostage to make a video denouncing America?

When you consider that America has diplomatic relations with many other governments that are ruled by more unsavory characters then it seems apparent that America’s obsession with destablizing Cuba is irrational and should be an embarrassment to the nation.

A couple of days ago in a reply to the thread about Shulman not accepting a second term as IRS Commissioner, Roger Conklin wrote this:

“Petros, Allow me to make one important clarification: I think you will find that the Expat community voted heavily in favor of Obama because during his campaign he comitted to “level the playling field” for US citizens living abroad. He was very clear in this. But once elected he promptly did nothing to keep this vote-getting commitment.  ACA leadership has made many attempts to follow him up on this commitment, but the response has been absolutey zero.  It is if this commitment had never been made.  His actions speak much louder than his words.  I suspect and sincerely hope that in this next election the vote will be very lopsided against him. To those of you who are expats, please keep this in mind.”

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Tough tax penalty raises fairness concerns
CBC – Mon, 9 Apr, 2012 5:16 AM EDT

Most people know that if they file their personal tax return after the deadline, they’ll be assessed a penalty – five per cent of the amount owing, along with one per cent a month in interest. If they don’t owe any tax, there’s no penalty. But each year, tens of thousands of Canadians are hit by something they may not have known even existed – the “repeated failure to report income” penalty.

Read the complete article.

Bank of Israel wants to negotiate tax deal on U.S. citizens with Israeli accounts – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

The next domino to fall?