Another interesting article by Michael Cohn at Accounting Today. We have a couple “Fair Share Acts” in play in the Senate and the House, that all of us should be keeping our eyes on. Continue reading
Yearly Archives: 2012
Chicken soup for the immigrant soul – Getting a good night sleep for less than $10,000
Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship
It’s no secret that U.S. Green Card holders and immigrants have been among the biggest victims of OVDP and OVDI. For countless immigrants, the “American Dream” has turned into the “American Nightmare”. Imagine coming to a country – let’s call it “Form Nation”. Imagine not being told about the tax and reporting laws of “Form Nation”. Imagine not knowing about Mr. FBAR and then being told that you were a criminal and that the only way out was to pay up. Imagine, being told that you were a criminal according to the laws of a country AND LIVING IN THAT COUNTRY. Imagine trying to seek help from the “cross border professionals” who told you that you must go into OVDI (and pay them lots of money for the privilege). U.S. tax compliance is very expensive. Understanding FBAR penalties is import in making the OVDI decision. As bad as the situation has been for U.S. citizens living abroad, I suspect that the situation is far worse for the immigrants. What are they do do? For the most part they want to be in the United States (although after hearing their story, I suspect fewer and fewer people will want to immigrate to the U.S.). Like U.S. citizens living abroad, the lives of Green Card holders are also being destroyed. Continue reading
Global business groups warn India over new tax plan – How about a push back over FATCA?
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – International trade groups representing more than 250,000 companies have told Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh in a letter that his government’s new retrospective tax proposals have led foreign businesses to reconsider their investments in the country.
India’s federal budget last month outlined a proposal to enable the tax authorities to make retroactive claims on overseas corporate deals and bring in new anti-avoidance measures, moves that have been criticized for further denting investor sentiment.
http://news.yahoo.com/global-business-groups-warn-india-over-tax-plan-080647693.html
Canada's Banks Under Fire
The cover story for the current issue of Canadian Business is “Canada’s Banks Under Fire.” Cover caption is “Why we’re about to pay for America’s mistakes.” Long story, pages 24-29. All about Volcker rule and Basel III.
Not one single word about FATCA. Not one single word about current attempts to harvest revenue from hundreds of thousands of tax-compliant Canadian residents.
One of the best bits is a quotation from Ian Lee of Sprott School of Business: “There’s a casual carelessness from American government officials about the impact of their decisions on people outside of their country. They just shrug their shoulders.”
Disproportionate Effort to Chase a Few
Estimated world population as of Oct. 31, 2011 7 billion
Estimated population of the U.S. for 2012 313,281,000
Estimated number of U.S. citizens living abroad 6 million
Estimated costs to administer FATCA and chase those 6 million- billions of dollars forever. Net benefit to be derived at the best is most likely zero but is more than likely to be negative because the taxes collected are not likely to ever exceed the cost of FATCA compliance. Of course we will never know because the U.S. very conveniently refuses to establish any criteria for costs calculation.
Foreign Earned Income Exclusion-killing "Budget For All" defeated
The Congressional Progressive Caucus’ “Budget for All”, which would have repealed the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, was voted down by 78–346 last week. It was formally proposed as Amendment 4 to H.Con.Res. 112; OpenCongress.org has the roll call. The House passed Paul Ryan (R-WI)’s budget instead. However, regardless of the failure of the “Budget For All”, Americans Abroad Caucus members who voted in favour of it still owe an explanation to U.S. persons abroad.
Tax Lawyer to the Stars Sees Problems with International Tax Enforcement
David Hryck, a tax lawyer for celebrities and billionaire businessmen, is concerned about the IRS’s recent efforts to crack down on international tax evaders.
“In many cases, from what I’ve seen so far, they’ve had numerous voluntary compliance programs, but it seems like the innocent people are getting penalized,” he said. “They might have somebody whose mother or grandmother is not a U.S. resident, and if the children happened to be a U.S. resident or citizen, they had no idea this account existed. Unfortunately those are many of the cases I see.”
Tax Lawyer to the Stars Sees Problems with International Tax Enforcement
FATCA freight train- It's taken two years but it seems its whistle is finally being heard.
Has anyone else noticed the uptick on the number of articles relating to FATCA from those in the finance industry? In his weekly bulletin “Mountain Vision”, Frank R Suess, with help from Bernarda Pesantez, does a great job explaining to his “mountaineers” the painful truth about FATCA. Don’t miss the news briefs at the end.
http://www.mountainvision.com/newsletter.php?view=a8baa56554
UVic Professor from US denied permanent residence because autistic child deemed too expensive to Canadian health system
Has anyone else here seen this story in the media? It seems like faulty reasoning for CIC to say that an autistic child would over-burden the health care system when so many other immigrants with health problems get into the country easily, or even sponsor their elderly parents who may have a host of health issues.
Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I feel like there is something else going on in the story that Immigration is not telling the public. What do you all think? Is there anyone out there who knows more details? Anyone care to offer up theories as to why this professor and his family were denied? I have a couple of my own, but I’d like to know more before saying anything…
There’s a bit more scope in this article here:
