Amazing!! Amazing!! Amazing!!
Florida won't require Canadians to have international drivers license http://t.co/WZbj3Ovl – Earth to Florida!!! Are you nuts??
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) February 15, 2013
Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
Changes in law, follow changes in society: Cornell Law School introduces course on “Whistle Blowers”
Changes in law always follow either actual or desired changes in society. The concept of “Homeland Security” is one result of 911. Cooley Law School (one of the biggest law schools in the United States) is developing an LL.M. program in Homeland Security. If the U.S. is successful in imposing FATCA Harmony on the world, I expect to see a proliferation of LL.M. programs in FATCA. After all, the legal profession and legal academics see FATCA as the “Gift that keeps on giving“.
Treasury, Switzerland Sign ‘so called” Bilateral Agreement (IGA) to Improve Tax Compliance, Combat International Tax Evasion and Implement FATCA
Hot off the Treasury web site. Switzerland capitulated! Canada next?
Feb 14, 1:33pm Auckland time: Updated with James Jatras posting below:
2/14/2013
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced today that it has signed a bilateral agreement with Switzerland to facilitate the implementation of the information reporting and withholding tax provisions commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Continue reading
FATCA Overreach Will Sabotage American Global Competitiveness by Andrew Quinlan
If Congress set out right now to craft a law to sabotage the global competitiveness of the US economy, they’d have trouble coming up with one better than what they passed in 2010 in the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The law is ostensibly aimed at combating tax evasion and requires every foreign institution in the world to act at their own tremendous expense as deputy US tax collectors. FATCA will instead turn the US into an economic pariah and Americans citizens into toxic assets.
The many burdens created by FATCA have been well covered here and elsewhere. As I previously discussed, it will divert untold billions of dollars per year away from productive activities in order to pay lawyers to comply with a law optimistically expected to raise less than $800 million in tax revenues per year. I also recently explained how the US government is looking to saddle our own domestic banks with the same costly requirements, making a crazy and destructive law even worse.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney Explains How Free Trade Necessitated Tax Reform – Lesson for U.S.?
On Tuesday February 12, 2013 Brian Mulroney spoke at Toronto’s Rotman school of business. It was interesting, engaging and a reminder of why he was so much fun to listen to, from 1984 – 1993 when he was Prime Minister of Canada.
The topic of the discussion was the Canada U.S. Free Trade Agreement. Fascinating history. This took place during the Reagan years. The audience was treated to stories about: Ronald Reagan, James Baker, George Bush, Peter Murphy, Derek Burney, Simon Reisman and others. (How many of these people do you remember?)
We are dead!!
The following comment was stated in response to the Swiss government’s approval of FATCA
Wir sind tot!!
Frau Widmer Schlumpf, wann werde ich mit meiner Familie verkauft, damit Sie den USA unser Vermögen übermitteln können dass wir in der Schweiz erwirtschaftet haben. Bin Doppelbürger, habe aber noch nie in der USA gelebt. Sie haben uns faktisch umgebracht, ist Ihnen das klar.
Translation:
We are dead!!
Mrs. Widmer Schlumpf, when am I going to be sold with my family, so that you can submit my Swiss-earned assets to the US government. I am a dual citizen and never lived in America. You have factually murdered us, is this clear to you?Source (comments section)
Free Movement for U.S. Goods But Not for U.S. Citizens?
Well it seems that the big headline today in U.S. international commerce is a new proposed free trade deal between the U.S. and the evil socialist European states. I don’t understand though how America cannot see that its desire for more free trade is inconsistent with FATCA.
Why should U.S. goods be able to move freely around the world while U.S. persons and their capital are forbidden to leave the homeland. And if they should have the temerity to leave anyway then they are punished for doing so. More importantly is it possible for U.S. goods to move around the world if U.S. persons aren’t allowed to accompany them?
Too Big to Prosecute? The unfinished business of Wall Street prosecutions. The Untouchables.
One of the mysteries for me is why the world’s financial institutions are so anxious to do business in America that they lobby their governments to bail them out of the FATCA 30% withholding regime by signing up for an IGA. Is it really so important for them to have access to American financial products and Wall Street, so they can find themselves again at the receiving end of the next Wall Street fraudulent derivative scheme to sell them crap and then laugh about it?
I am reminded yet again tonight, about how many financial firms and people around the world have been harmed by the 2008 financial crisis brought to us by our Titans of Wall Street, who still, five years later have not paid any prosecution price for their greed and fraudulent behavior. And the FFIs want to be able to continue to access more of this? Go figure.
If you haven’t watched this excellent PBS Frontline Documentary, I strongly recommend it. The Untouchables.
CTV will be taping tommorow’s hearing on tax havens in Ottawa(Cockfield, Murphy, CBA, and others)
Here is your chance for Ottawa/Montreal based Brockers to talk to the big mainstream media.
Canada considers revoking Canadian citizenship
Kenney’s citizenship-stripping plan good politics but dodgy policy: Walkom http://t.co/VWWpzvgj – Huge ramifications!
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) February 13, 2013
Not only is this an interesting article, but it is sure to put (at least) the issue of dual citizenship in the spotlight. This would be a good place to post comments. Although citizenship is not particularly interesting from a tax perspective, it is interesting from a “terrorism perspective”.