[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB3RBxnn98g]
Emilio Largo: Stop it you fools! He’s got you shooting at each other – James Bond Thunderball
A long time ago, in the midst of another heated debates, that had it origins in the doctrine of political correctness, I suggested that:
What unite us is far greater than what divides us.
I think that might we worth remembering. Although we may not always agree, we are united in in opposition to: Continue reading
August 3, 2012
Bergen, NorwayI was sitting across from an impossibly blonde account executive this afternoon when I heard three words I never thought I’d hear at a foreign bank.
“Are you Greek,” she asked me with a bit of a smile…
me: “Uh, no. I have a US passport, among others…”
she: “OK good, as long as you’re not Greek.”
Some folks here, especially Steven J. Mopsick, our beloved former litigator for the IRS who has now turned advocate for fairness and justice for Americans abroad, have really wanted to stop the Isaac Brock Society from going off the deep tangent of drawing analogies between the United States and Nazi Germany. Finally, as an editor and administrator here at Isaac Brock Society, I have to agree: Everybody, please stop it!
That felt good. It is always good when you feel that you are in control and can order people around!
The Bahamian debate about how to respond to FATCA is well underway. An article published yesterday in The Bahamas Tribune discusses some of the objections to the idea of an inter-governmental agreement. Former Attorney-General John Delaney points out that the implementation of such an agreement would fall to the already-overworked Ministry of Finance, requiring it to design and set up a completely new system for information collection. In contrast, Annie Chinafat of KPMG (who is also a member of the Bahamas Financial Services Board) is more optimistic, describing the IGA as “a starting point”.
But there’s one humourous aspect of this situation which the article doesn’t mention: Minister of Finance Ryan Pinder used to be a U.S. citizen. Continue reading
Given that some individuals here may some day be heading for the Supreme Court of Canada I thought it might be interesting to post a video showing what oral pleading in front of the court are like for an attorney doing it for the first time.(In all deference to lower courts in Canada I suspect “FATCA” related legal issues will only be decided in their finality by the SCOC). It might also take off some of the “heat” after the recent controversies we have had here on the site.
By popular request, I am making a separate post on the second of a two part effort by Stephen Mopsick to focus attention on tax justice for U.S. Persons. His first related to American Citizens abroad, and was a posted here.
On his blog, which he just posted yesterday, is his call for tax justice for immigrants as related to FBAR penalties. I know that there are many immigrant who read here but do not comment, and would be interested in seeing this commentary. They might not have been following the references to this post in other threads, so pulling it out for attention. In it he writes:
The Plight of Recent Immigrants to the US: On top of all this, we are seeing an increasingly large number of a new class of people who are wondering how to be compliant with their taxes: recent immigrants to the United States who are otherwise squeaky clean tax compliant citizens who are only now learning that that bank account back home on which they have signing authority, may now be putting them at risk for confiscatory FBAR penalties.
Note: I have not received Steven’s permission to post his commentary in its entirety, so will just provide the link here. I highly recommend it contents for your attention.
There has been some controversy lately on the Isaac Brock Society with some people posting and making comments that some others find just go too far. I’ve struggled with this myself, as I personally don’t agree with some of the parallels drawn, some of the wording used, and I am frankly uncomfortable with some of the thoughts expressed.
From what I understand, the Isaac Brock Society was formed as place of support and resources for US persons affected by the United States government, particularly as it pertains to the travails of the US model of citizenship-based taxation. And that certainly seemed to be the focus when I first found this site back in February. In the words of the founder, Petros,“The Isaac Brock Society started as an informal group of Canadians who began meeting in person and through email to discuss their US tax and citizenship problems.”
Scrolling back through all of the posts, past or present, I find they do manage a tie-in to either the plight of US persons abroad, or the issue of citizenship-based taxation. Over the last couple of months, in my opinion, the focus has become fuzzy, with some of the later posts using what I consider pretty specious reasoning in linking back to the original issues.
For several months, after I first found the site, I think I was almost addicted, visiting many, many times every day. Checking for updates was the first thing I did in the morning, and the last thing I did at night. Part of that was likely because I was still in shock and was in vacuum cleaner mode, hoovering up all the information I could find, and part of it was the relief in finding out that I wasn’t alone, and that there was a large group out there that understood, were empathetic and had much more information than I did. I will never forget what this site did for me in the first few months of finding out that the US probably still considers me a US citizen.
I haven’t been quite so engaged the last couple of months.
Breitbartby Mike Flynn 2 Aug 2012
President Barack Obama, along with many Democrats, likes to say that, while they may disagree with the GOP on many issues related to national security, they absolutely share their admiration and dedication to members of our armed forces. Obama, in particular, enjoys being seen visiting troops and having photos taken with members of our military. So, why is his campaign and the Democrat party suing to restrict their ability to vote in the upcoming election?…WKSU News August 3, 2012
Obama campaign sues Ohio over military voting
Fifteen military groups are opposing a federal lawsuit in Ohio brought by President Barack Obama’s campaign because they say it could threaten voter protections afforded to service members. Obama’s campaign and Democrats argue the law unfairly ends in-person voting for most Ohioans three days earlier than it does for military and overseas voters. They say such disparate treatment is unconstitutional, and all voters should be able to vote on those days. Organizations including AMVETS asked a judge late Wednesday to dismiss the lawsuit. They say federal and state law recognizes military voters need extra time. They fear a court could find that service members shouldn’t be treated differently. Most Ohioans have until Friday evening before Election Day to cast a ballot in person. Military voters have until Monday.
Hey Obama, what about “equal treatment” with day care, medicare, unemployment benefits, income taxes, property or even retirement savings? Maybe this explains why certain interests don’t want for expats to be able to easily vote at their local base or consulate. Under the concept of “equality”, why can’t all voters have the option of voting “in person”?
Q Canada opposes the planned U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) aimed at American tax evaders in this country. Explain your concerns?
A FATCA is the poster child for the problem of extra-territoriality. One can understand the rationale. They want to cut down on tax evasion. Fine. We understand that and are sympathetic to that. It’s the way they have chosen to go about doing it which is a real problem. It’s hugely unworkable. It extends U.S. territoriality into Canada. It threatens to erode Canadian sovereignty. Ultimately … FATCA would have turned individual banks, individual financial institutions, into arms of the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] in the United States. If FATCA came through in its current form, before a Canadian citizen could open up a bank account at a Canadian bank, you would have to prove you were not an American citizen.
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.
