@badger posted a comment about a YahooNews story with a slightly different approach to the same subject that Jamie Golombek wrote about in the Financial Post. I thought I would pull it out for some wider visibility, as it only has 3 comments so far, and deserves a little attention.
The title is:
“New tax to fund Obamacare could leave American expats in Canada owing Uncle Sam”
The article begins:
What is the most feared government agency in the United States? The FBI, the DEA, the CIA, deadly special-ops soldiers like Seal Team Six?
No, it’s the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), whose long arms stretch around the world and deep into the pockets of Americans living abroad.
Now a new law gives expats a fresh reason to hate the Yankee revenuers.
And Ends:
“There really is a perfect storm gathering for Americans living outside the U.S.,” said Peter Megoudis, a partner with Deloitte & Touche in Toronto.
There’s no easy answer to the problem. Even dual citizens who renounce their American citizenship have to prove they’re square with the IRS and wealthier citizens are subject to a hefty “exit tax.”
You can read the middle.
Reminds me of a joke: An IRS agent and a CIA agent were arguing about who had the most power. The IRS agent then said, “Say, I notice you haven’t been audited lately.” The CIA agent says in reply, “Say, I notice you haven’t been assassinated lately.”
*Petros, Your Joke reminded me of a Joke..
A man about to have a heart transplant was offered the choice of
either a 26 year-old marathon runner’s heart or the heart of a 62 year-old IRS
agent. He picked the agent’s heart because he said it had never been used.
*
@Just Me,
Loved the cartoon. So apt!
Might also be good relabelled, without that title, the second panel has the chair entitled “OVDI”, or maybe even “FBAR”
@badger
It was cute, but also a bit of a caricature of what Americans think of Corporations generally, or anyone offshore, I probably should try to modify it, as you suggest… Will see what I can do.
@badger, Just Me,
or even FATCA, highlighting the latest indignity to US Persons abroad.
And, on the serious side, there is awful truth that some will absolutely think this the only way out of the US absurdity. Then, the situations such suicides leave to their families to clean up with the immoral US IRS.
American FATCA punishes law-abiding Canadians
@Just Me,
That’s a super article!
The author, Erich Jacoby-Hawkins of the Green Party, attended the FATCA Fact Finding Forum in Toronto in December.
@calgary, yes, I was thinking that. It is very sad when we look at a cartoon and worry if it will turn out to be either too close to reality, or prescriptive.
@Just Me, I wasn’t suggesting you change it, the other possibilities just ran through my head when I saw it – because of the hypocrisy of the US holding panels to consider corporate lobbyists when they present on the topic of taxing on a territorial basis, but yet individuals get told to roll over and accept (thanks Joe Green – Democrats Abroad) that the compliance complexities and cost and burden is just the price we have to pay for the ‘privilege’ of living outside the US. @Shadow Raider had posted a link to a long video clip of Prof Avi-Yonah and others testifying before a US gov. committee (Ways and Means?) where corporations – like Cargill got to present their pitch. One of the academics was just about to mention individuals abroad – when the questioning went on to another topic – and back to talk about how/whether to allow US corporations with ‘offshore’ operations, to be taxed territorially.
*http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/rejoice-fatca-overreaching-us-tax-law-in-trouble-1055877-1.html
Another good article here. There is hope!
I can appreciate the motive for JustMe posting the same item to five threads. That said, such practice amounts to spewing data trash. WordPress is not suited to “forum” activity or livestream thread. This kind of spamming makes Brock less usable and less respectable. I don’t care much about that hypothesized respectability, but the crew that loves to install a volunteer invisible cop-for-content should care a lot more about form and functionality. The 1600+ comments under Relinquishment and Renunciation are pure datatrocity, and longer term may manage to break WordPress. Bad foundations lead to toppled buildings. This stuff is ugly and offensive. Not to just complain, here are a few data architecture suggestions: (1) Have a new daily open thread for chitchat (2) Be rigorous about directing chitchat and non-thread-header items to that one single thread (3) Move or delete comment that attempts to willy-nilly agglomerate onto whatever thread seems latest or handiest. (4) Allow no more than a specified number of comments to an ongoing page (say 50) without opening up a new chronological sub-page: eg 2013 January. Brock wallows pitifully in a morass that depends far too much on individual memories (example: who had a US passport and still relinquished).
@usxcanada
You make some good points and I take them to heart. I sometimes don’t know where to place something that is related to many different threads that may or may not get lost or no one see. I know nothing about the functionality of Word Press and would not want to contribute to problems with the foundations. I have suggested before that we have one thread devoted to news stories, for posting new content that is coming out. I have been using the FATCA Question thread for misc FATCA related stories. With the increase in media attention, or so it seems, this might or might not be workable.
Anyway, thanks for pointing out the problem of what you call “spewing data trash”. I would not call it that, rather new information sharing, but I take your point.
You are right about individual memories problems! I often have a hard time remembering where something was posted, although I do find the google search function pretty good at finding the comments I am looking for, and the archive on the top bar is very good for using the Find Function to search out a topic.