Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

This post is from the RenounceUScitizenship blog.

https://twitter.com/peterdahlen/status/307876203480633344

https://twitter.com/peterdahlen/status/307955985341874176

This post is a “follow up” to an earlier post called: “Why are we so cruel to U.S. citizens living abroad.” That post also referenced the above Twitter Exchange. That post included the following poll:

The preceding twitter exchange identified at least part of the reason for citizenship-based taxation as “Congressional ignorance”. The exchange also referenced the need to get the message to the Ways and Means Committee. With the help of the advocacy of American Citizens Abroad and others Congress received many submissions on the topic of citizenship based taxation. Thanks to AbusedExpat for taking the time to transcribe excerpts from the submissions in comments starting here.

As Patrick Henry notes the comment from Jackie Bugnion of ACA rated a 10 on the “emotion scale” and was a true “Declaration of Independence” for Americans Abroad. Patrick Henry comments that:

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Times are changing.

US banker proud to become Chinese national:  “I am very proud to say I have become Chinese,” says Marshall Nicholson, a veteran American investment banker in Hong Kong

The rise of China has not only transformed the global landscape of the financial industry, but it has also changed an American banker’s nationality.

Some in Hong Kong’s financial community were surprised by an e-mail from one of the most veteran investment bankers in the city on Tuesday night. Marshall Nicholson, a managing director in charge of investment banking in Hong Kong for China International Capital Corporation (CICC) told his colleagues and friends that he had officially renounced his United States citizenship and would soon receive a HKSAR passport.

“I am very proud to say I have become Chinese,” said Nicholson in the e-mail, which was seen by the South China Morning Post and spread quickly in the local banking world on Tuesday night.

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The Centre for Freedom and Prosperity (CF&P), a US-based organisation which seeks to “promote economic prosperity by advocating competitive markets and limited government” is one of the high-profile critics of America’s soon-to-be implemented Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).  This controversial new piece of legislation, say its opponents, will be financially detrimental to the vast majority US citizens living abroad.

Here  the President of the CF&P, Andrew F. Quinlan, shares his FATCA concerns in an exclusive interview with iexpats.com.

You, and the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, have been vocal opponents of FATCA. Why do you feel this new piece of legislation, which aims to catch tax evaders, ought to be repealed? Why are you lending your support for the anti-FATCA campaign?

First and foremost, the law simply doesn’t do what it is purported to do. Rather than target actual tax cheats, it burdens all Americans living and working abroad as if that were tantamount to criminality. As a result of FATCA’s sweeping new burdens, American expats are now toxic assets. Unwanted by foreign banks and financial institutions, and hounded by a government that has scapegoated them for problems created by the profligate spending of politicians, it’s not a good time to be making a living as an American abroad.

Overall, FATCA is just an affront to the principles and mission of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity. It violates the fundamental financial privacy of millions of Americans, eviscerates the most basic and long standing concepts of national sovereignty, and seeks to limit tax competition by controlling the free flow of capital. Furthermore, the economic harm to the US in terms of lost investment, and just to the world economy as a whole, may far outstrip the minimal “revenues” expected to be collected by the government.

Simply put, it is not properly the responsibility of the entire world to chase down every last potential dollar for US politicians to waste, all the while footing the bill for the pleasure.

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Patrick W. Martin, Partner – Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, LLP
Lara Banjanin, Attorney Advisor – Office of Associate Chief Counsel – International (IRS)
Michael Welters, Partner – Bull, Housser & Tupper

Lara Banjamin is like ice woman however it is interesting to the Canadian lawyer next to see her discuss the legal obligations or lack thereof a Canadian lawyer has to the IRS. In Michael Welters seems to imply that under Canadian law a lawyer who happens to practice under circular 230 should recuse him or herself under certain circumstances

Mark Mathews, Steve Toscher, and Richard Harvey talk OVDI in second video below.(Two different videos)

Must watch, Must Watch, Must Watch

Provide for reciprocal reporting of information in connection with the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).—

In many cases, foreign law would prevent foreign financial institutions from complying with the FATCA provisions of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 2010 by reporting to the IRS information about U.S. accounts.

Such legal impediments can be addressed through intergovernmental agreements under which the foreign government agrees to provide the information required by FATCA to the IRS. Requiring U.S. financial institutions to report similar information to the IRS with respect to nonresident accounts would facilitate such intergovernmental cooperation by enabling the IRS to reciprocate in appropriate circumstances by exchanging similar information with cooperative foreign governments to support their efforts to address tax evasion by their residents. The proposal would provide the Secretary of the Treasury with authority to prescribe regulations that would require reporting of information with respect to nonresident alien individuals, entities that are not U.S. persons, and certain U.S. entities held in substantial part by non-U.S. owners, including information regarding account balances and payments made with respect to accounts held by such persons and entities.

This was found buried on page 202 of the Analytical perspectives of the President’s budget.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2014/assets/spec.pdf 

Additionally this request was NOT found in the Treasury Green Book where normally requests of this nature are made.

The Bitcoin: Bubble or Bank — CBC The Current, April 11, 2013

If the Bitcoin becomes sometime in the near future the new “virtual?” currency as some think, will FATCA keep up?  Will any of us keep up?  Or, will it fail?  I’m trying to understand it all.