Contrary to the expectations of Isaac Brock Society voters, the “name and shame” list for the first quarter of 2012 showed up in Monday’s edition of the ever-fascinating Federal Register; you can view it here. It contains 460 names, more than in last quarter’s list which had 360, but fewer than in the Q1 2011 list which had 499 (see our discussion of last year’s statistics here). Thanks to Rick for letting us know. I guess we won’t have to arrest Timothy Geithner. Or will we? Several names which were expected to turn up in this quarter’s list are missing, including Belizean politician Yolanda Schakron who renounced in February, South Korean politician Nam Moon-key who renounced last September but still hasn’t shown up in any list, and our very own Peter Dunn. Continue reading
Yearly Archives: 2012
Carl Levin, Roger Conklin, FATCA, hitchhikers, and the Trojan Horse
Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship – updated from October 2011.
Hitching A Ride – Is A “Trojan Horse” Provision Legitimate?
https://twitter.com/#!/renounceus/status/196371219136790529
Attention: OVDI penalty may be collectable in Canada
Please note the following comment by Michael J. Miller:
3. Re: collection in Canada, I’m not sure what would possess a person to sign a closing agreement with the IRS if s/he did not intend to pay, so I’m not sure when it would be relevant. Having said that, if you signed a closing agreement providing for a 20% or 25% (or other) miscellaneous penalty, ostensibly under Title 26, then in my view it would be reasonable for the US to ask (and for Canada to agree) to treat it as a tax penalty.
If you ask me, our government has done a lot to assure Canadians and residents of Canada protection from FBAR penalties. But to enter an OVDI program and agree to penalties voluntarily is perhaps something that the Canadian government won’t or can’t protect you from. Please do not enter an OVDI program without taking into consider the possibility that the government of Canada will not protect you from the penalties. Credit goes to RenounceUScitizenship for pointing this possible problem. Thanks.
What if FATCA is just too illegal and no FFI signs up for it?
In rereading the letter written by the Institute for International Finance on January 25, 2012 to the G20 Ministers and Governors there is one sentence that stood out. Emphasis is mine.
Furthermore, if the data privacy issue and inability to legally withhold ‘passthru’ payments prohibit financial institutions from entering into FATCA agreements with the IRS the objective of FATCA to combat tax evasion is not likely to be met.
Cut Off/Left Adrift
As of the latest figures there are deemed to be 196 countries in the world. Now because of U.S. based taxation and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, U.S. citizens will be unable to live and work in all but one of those countries the U.S.
It is forbidden by the U.S. government that it’s non-resident citizens be allowed to live the same lives as those of their compatriots. How this cannot be seen as a violation of the Human Rights of U.S. citizens by the U.S. government is hard to fathom. When restrictions on your life abroad are so onerous as to discourage you from seeking to live outside of the jurisdiction of the land of your birth then surely you are the victim of oppression.
Guilty until proven innocent at the border
Someone related to me the other day an interesting discussion they had with a European who had run a business in Canada for some years. He owned a Canadian business and held a Canadian residence permit. He had clients to visit in the US. At the US border, he was told that he must be a Canadian citizen or have a visa to visit the clients. He said that he was only visiting the clients of his company; he was not going to take up employment in the US. The answer of the border guard was that he “could” be entering the US to break the law by taking up employment. After 6 hours they sent him back with no explanation of what laws he had “broken”. Guilty until proven innocent?
Canadian Charitable donations may be claimed on USA taxes
For those in doubt about whether they may claim Canadian charitable gifts on their US taxes, there can be no doubt that the answer is a resound: “Yes!” Thanks to the generosity of my wife, I have been able to zero out my 2010 tax liability in the United States with our donations to my church and other Canadian registered charities.
No one can serve two tax masters: How I zeroed out my 2010 US tax return using TaxAct (UPDATED)
I finally figured out how to zero out my taxes using TaxAct. I consider doing a tax return a game that expensive accountants and their clients play in order to create either a zero tax return or even better, to get a refund. I figured that I just needed to continue playing with TaxAct until I owed zero tax. That way I could just send my 2010 and 2011 retunrs with the completed Form 8854 and be done with the IRS, once and for all time. My problem is that nearly half of my income is unearned, passive income that is not counted in the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE).
Poll: will notorious tax cheat Timmy Geithner violate Internal Revenue Code 6039G(d) for the eighth time?
Treasury Secretary Timothy Franz Geithner has just one business day left to avoid breaking the nation’s tax laws for the eighth time since taking office. (And that’s just counting the times for which there’s publicly-available evidence.) Continue reading
Breaking Ranks
Beautiful Souls is the main title of a new book that I’ve just finished reading. The subtitle lets you know more of what the book is about: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times.