https://twitter.com/#!/GreenbackTax/status/195117530128465921
I request that you watch the video described in the above tweet from Greenback Expat Tax Services. Makes me wonder if U.S. citizens abroad have more reason to fear the “cross border professionals” than the IRS. Would be very interested in your comments.
They have posted the same video on YouTube:
If you agree with me, the next question is: Continue reading
This story was published in Taiwan’s Apple Daily last summer; a friend of mine forwarded it to me recently. It recounts the relinquishment experience of Ms. Chi Cheng, an Olympic medalist and Cal Poly Pomona graduate who gave up her U.S. citizenship in 2009 to take up a policy-level advisory job with the government in Taipei under Ma Ying-jeou. (According to Article 28(2) of their Civil Service Employment Act, civil servants are not permitted to hold foreign citizenship.) Translation and my comments after the jump. Continue reading
USxCanada can vouch for the reliability of the following reporter, personally known for over three decades. This report of no-fee relinquishment in Hong Kong, authorized for release to Brock, is cut-and-pasted from a just-received email. This case provides further evidence that residents of Canada are suffering execrable treatment by the country from which they seek release.
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Numerous times here on the Isaac Brock Society, one or another of us has talked about the physical size of the US Tax Code. The figure I remember is on the order of 73,000 pages. Today Chris Edwards at the Cato Institute responds to a critic of his recent article on the size and complexity of the US tax code. The critic calls Edwards a liar, informing us that the Tax Code is a featherweight 5500 pages and takes up a paltry 18 inches of bookshelf space, not the nine feet claimed by Edwards. In response, Edwards defends his claim by distinguishing between the standard edition of the US Tax Code itself, which is the smaller version, versus the Standard Federal Tax Reporter published by CCH which includes the Tax Code, plus the tax regulations from the Treasury Department, plus rules and commentary from tax case law, and which is the document that tax practitioners must work from. This latter document is indeed over 73,000 pages.
The metric of shelf space, nine feet and counting, comes from the Taxpayer Advocate Service as a means of illustrating the burden of tax complexity for the taxpayer. CCH has a nice historical visual of this burden. In 1913, the 1040 form was one page, with two pages of instruction. The 1040 is still only two pages , but this year the instruction book for the 1040 is 189 pages long. And anyone who’s filled one out lately is aware of how many other forms, with their own interminable instructions, can be spun off from this deceptively short document.
Outside of the IBS I am a regular commenter at a blog called Worthwhile Canadian Initiative. I have always wanted this subject to come up there and it appears tonight my wish has been granted. If you go the link below you see my comments at the very end after someone else brought up the virtues of citizenship based taxation(The person in question is a self identified NDP supporter so I had to remind him the NDP OPPOSES citizenship based taxation)
http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2012/04/breakfast.html#comments
Feel free if interested to jump in if interested(Over my history of commentating at the site I am actually quite friendly with the commenter Determinant who made the comments in favor of citizenship based taxation). The people who run the blog are several influential professors who have a lot of ties to the Department of Finance so this is another way of getting are voices heard in Ottawa. Be respectful though.
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
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
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.
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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