I have been in contact with an Indian Immigrant living on U.S. shores who has had the unfortunate experience of joining the OVDP to correct past form filing errors. I have been asked to solicit help from any Tax Practitioner or OVDP graduate. She is looking for examples from previous OVDP victims where funds have been excluded from the penalty base. This is to help bolster her argument that the OVDP penalty does not fit the benign failure.
Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
National Post opines: American expats feeling less free as draconian tax law kicks in
Here’s an excellent article from the National Post.
27/09/13 5:23 American expats feeling less free as draconian tax law kicks in
“US monster law also applies to the industry”
This is another side of the story which is less discussed. I don’t have any time to translate right now, so here is the google translation:
Much effort for corporations
Each group now has to analyze hundreds of worldwide Group companies in order to clarify exactly how it is affected by the FATCA. Companies such as ABB, Holcim, Nestlé and Novartis Check this moment. According to Novartis tax expert Roxana Leske to be seen not least affected by the U.S. rules Due to the necessary clarifications and additional information to be specified obligations to document many companies.
For groups of companies from the industry’s activities are affected by the FATCA, according to expert estimates, less than 1%. The affected companies have until mid-2014, time to register these units in the U.S. tax authorities. A failure can be costly: A withholding tax of 30% is due, and it threatens even buses when was violate local laws.However, the Group’s internal review is still necessary for any other reason. Because the corporations want to invest in U.S. securities, they must specify their FATCA status at the bank, which in turn is under the FATCA.
Even smaller companies
About their banking relationship even small companies can be acquired without financial activities, if they are owned by Americans. For U.S. citizens must also be reported by the bank, if the company is a majority-passive activities. This is to prevent U.S. citizens hide their money from the treasury by companies are interposed. For the U.S. tax authorities of the marginal benefit in getting wider fight against tax evasion takes Although source, however, doubt the network is rather too far ejected and thus includes companies that are the authorities perhaps never report in practice a U.S. taxpayer. The U.S. system is to suppress all just kind of possible workarounds, so that as no tax evaders more falls through the cracks.
Via @BBCNewsMagazine, Why are Americans Giving Up Their Citizenship? Simple Answer: #FATCA
The number of Americans giving up their citizenship has rocketed this year – partly, it’s thought, because of a new tax law that has frustrated many ex-pats.
Goodbye, US passport.
That’s not a concept that Americans contemplate lightly. But it’s one that many of them seem to be considering – and acting on.
Victoria Ferauge, 47, is married to a Frenchman and has lived abroad for nearly 20 years, primarily in France. If her adopted country finally agrees to Fatca then she wonders what the implications will be…..
I don’t know any Americans abroad who aren’t thinking about giving it up but what I say to myself is that I will fight as long and as hard as I can.
The #FBAR Fundraiser and the Penalty Jackpot
This post appeared on the RenounceUScitizenship blog. It is a continuation of an earlier post on FBAR and the 8th amendment. Mr. Zwerner may well be on his way to being discussed in a law school constitutional law class.
Zwerner Answers DoJ Efforts To Collect Multiple 50 Percent Civil FBAR Penalties http://t.co/JApqfDpNwp – More damage to @BarackObama #IRS
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) September 26, 2013
Those interested in the saga of Carl Zwerner – the 86 year old Florida resident – who was assessed multiple year willful FBAR penalties, AFTER having made a traditional voluntary disclosure at a time before OVDP was available – need to read this post by Charles Rettig. Mr. Rettig does a nice job of laying out the chronology. Leaving aside the specifics (I encourage you to read his post) he summarizes the main point as follows:
Putin was wrong: The exceptionalism of the United States is alive and real
Barack Obama, 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, on why the US should bomb Syria:
But when would modest effort and risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act. That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional.
Hong Kong retirement plan administrators don’t expect FATCA IGA negotiations will bear fruit for industry
As we previously discussed, China and the U.S. decided during their annual Strategic & Economic Dialogue in June to hold another round of discussions on FATCA “as early as practicable this summer”. Well, the autumn equinox has come and gone, but we haven’t heard any more rumours about how an Intergovernmental Agreement is “imminent”. Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily News has been keeping up with local financial institutions’ FATCA preparations, earlier reporting on Standard Chartered’s updated account opening procedures requiring new customers to declare whether or not they are U.S. citizens. After the jump I’ve translated their latest article from Monday about FATCA’s impact on local retirement plans.
Though the article doesn’t directly mention those ongoing Beijing–Washington negotiations nor their effect on Hong Kong, the implication is that they’re not going too well; apparently, most plan administrators aren’t expecting the success of the Hong Kong government’s efforts for the system to gain a FATCA “deemed compliance” exemption either through an amendment to the regulations or through a hypothetical IGA, and they’re making preparations to report the information required by FATCA themselves. However, there remain legal difficulties with that approach as well, and I’ve seen no evidence that the Hong Kong government plans to ameliorate those either.
Quote of the Day
Personal data of citizens was intercepted indiscriminately. Corporate information – often of high economic and even strategic value – was at the center of espionage activity. Also, Brazilian diplomatic missions, among them the permanent mission to the UN and the office of the president of the republic itself, had their communications intercepted… Tampering in such a manner in the affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and is an affront of the principles that must guide the relations among them, especially among friendly nations. A sovereign nation can never establish itself to the detriment of another sovereign nation. The right to safety of citizens of one country can never be guaranteed by violating fundamental human rights of citizens of another country, …
– Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, unloading on the US government’s NSA program, just before president Obama’s speech to the UN today.
President Obama, who spoke after President Rousseff, and had this to say:
Just as we reviewed how we deploy our extraordinary military capabilities in a way that lives up to our ideals, we have begun to review the way that we gather intelligence, so as to properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies, with the privacy concerns that all people share.
Regardless of the odds of success in reversing the FATCA roll out in the coming year, and in spite of those who ridicule and nay-say, the truth, apparently, still has some power – even over the United States of America. Who would have thought that?
@ABAesq Program – Citizenship in the Global Era – Live Webcasts – Free
Citizenship in the Global Era
October 3-5, 2013 ● Atlanta, GAJoin us for webcast sessions:
Live from the Carter Center!
Global Citizens in Action
Thursday, October 3, 6:45-7:45 p.m. EDT
John Stremlau, Director of Peace Programs, The Carter Center
Citizenship in the Global Era
Friday, October 4, 8:30-9:50 a.m. EDT
Rogers Smith, University of Pennsylvania; Stephen Knadler, Spelman College; Peter Spiro,
Temple University College of Law; Elizabeth Cohen, Syracuse University
Immigration: Dreams, Conflicts, and Realities
Saturday, October 5, 10:20 a.m.-12:15 p.m. EDT
Deborah Richardson, National Center for Civil and Human Rights; Natsu Taylor Saito,
Georgia State University College of Law; Azedah Shahshahani, American Civil Liberties
Union of Georgia; Chris Taylor, Taylor, Lee & Associates; Paul Bridges, City of Uvalda, Georgia
Stay tuned for the 2013 Starr Award for Excellence in Law-Related
Education presentation following the Immigration webcast.
Hey Canadian Americans, Are You Attempting to Hide in a Crowd?
Hiding in a crowd? With FATCA, we know that our U.S. Masters are designing the tools so they can say, “No more ” in relation to our financial accounts.
As an example of how evolving technology is making it difficult to remain hidden or unobserved, I recently saw this picture of a crowd in the Vancouver Canucks Fan Zone along Georgia St. for Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final . It was taken with a camera of 70,000 by 30,000 pixels, or 2100 MegaPixels. It can identify a face in a multitude. This camera is not yet sold to the public, but it might be coming to an IPhone in the future? With our technological trends, all things are possible.
Click on this link…
Place your cursor in the multitude of people and left double click a couple times. It will continue to show the people much closer and closer and closer and CLOSER. Are you there?
Is this a corollary on how FATCA is evolving on the way to a global GATCA? No place to hide? You be the judge.
A few years ago, a 3 megapixel camera was a wonder. That is all they have on the Curiosity Rover on Mars, but you may have 15 megapixels on your phone now as technology races past NASA. One thing I can guarantee you, all government agencies will want a lot of these cameras! Easier to find you!
Here is an explanation on how these types of cameras are created for Argus. Assume it is something similar or simpler for this combined mega mega picture.