NZ To Negotiate FATCA Agreement With US
by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong
29 October 2012
The New Zealand government has announced its intention to negotiate a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) tax information agreement with the US.
More at:
http://www.tax-news.com/news/NZ_To_Negotiate_FATCA_Agreement_With_US____58009.html
As you folks know, the IRS decided that since I didn’t fill the first part of my Form 2555 out correctly, that I must owe them a bunch of taxes. And so they sent me a federal tax bill to my Canadian address, disallowing my Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE). Today, at last, after several tries at sending them the properly filled out form, the IRS has decided that I don’t owe them anything after all. I’ve only had to deal with this 2009 tax issue for quite awhile now–readers can retrace the multiple threatening letters and bills that I received from the IRS just by clicking the above link and the links in that link, and the links in those links. The IRS has wasted its time with me. I’ve been wasting my time. I owed no tax. Zero zip nada. I am not a rich tax evader but a Canadian taxpayer and I renounced my US citizenship because I hate the hassles, the threats, and the intimidation that comes part and parcel with being an US person.
I have been keeping an eye on Canadians for Tax Fairness for a long time as they are closely tied and connected to several pro FATCA NGO Groups in the US such as Tax Justice Network, Global Witness, Task Force for Global Transparency and Integrity etc. One of the key people in Tax Justice Network whom Canadians for Tax Fairness is associated with is one Richard Murphy of the UK. Murphy is a highly religous and militant Quaker who has called for all US Citizens outside of the US non compliant with US tax law to be sent to jail and that non compliance by overseas US Persons is a violation on their part of the fundamental laws of nature and in the Quacker religion they will all go to hell basically.
Now, who are Canadians for Tax Fairness? Well they are basically a front group bankrolled by the major unions in Canada such as PSAC, OPSEU, CAW, NUPGE, and CUPE. (On the flip side for those who accuse me of being partisan the Frasier Institute is a front group too mostly for small and medium size oil, gas, and mining companies). On their management board are included several people we have discussed in the past such as Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks however, I will note one of the top people is someone named Murray Dobbin who is an NDP activist who basically left the party after Mulcair’s ascension to the leadership (I wonder what type of influence they expect in Mulcair’s NDP). Overall the board of directors is a lot of prominent people in the labor movement Ken Lewenza, Erin Weir, “Smoky” Thomas etc. Now CTF has had very little to say about FATCA however I will note they have launched a new website linked to below.
Again no mention of FATCA however the website was clearly developed at some expense I suspect using union member dues. Take note Brockers who are/were members of the unions financing CTF.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you will want to read the recent opinion piece at the Huffington Post. Another application for the Isaac Brock Hall of Shame. 🙂
In this piece, the author, David Macaray, cites a June New York Post article as his sole basis to rail against the “Ultra Rich” that are renouncing their citizenship. You almost wonder if it is worth trying to educate this guy about the issues via comments like we did successfully with Al Lewis and Peter Dunn. They too went down the unpatriotic renunication rabbit hole on a misdirected invective against those that give up citizenship. However, came around to a more nuanced understanding when presented with new information. Here are links to their original misguided perceptions. Al Lewis, Peter Dunn
I see David is responding to some well written comments, so he is paying attention, although I am sure he is somewhat surprised by what he is reading. You are welcome to join in.
It seems that 3.6 million precious Social Security numbers have been obtained by some enterprising group of people. Data storage devices are nothing more than “mother lodes” of riches and the U.S. government seems to be incapable of closing off access.
From Financial News, a DowJones news website:
October 26, 2012
Sophie Baker, “Fatca faces delay after bilateral disagreements”
The Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act, or Fatca, was due to be introduced from next year but, according to a notice published on the IRS website on Wednesday, the deadlines have been pushed back. The original 2013 deadline for financial institutions to put compliance procedures in place has been delayed until January 2014.
More:
I missed this story on Wednesday, and have not commented on it yet. It was broadcast on NPR stations, by MarketPlace Radio.
It’s an oft-told political joke: “If things don’t go my way, I’m moving to Canada.” You hear it every election, but do people actually mean it when they say it?
There’s a chance Hannah Frame might be one of those people. She’ll be watching the upcoming election very closely from her dorm at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, as the outcome could have major ramifications for the rest of her life.
I thought some of you Canadians might want to use this opportunity to inform Market Place Radio about the “other” realities they did not mention. I notice, yet again, there is not a FATCA in the story or anything related to the issues of US Citizenship taxation. It is written from the perspective of difficulties with Canadian immigration, the legal issues and associated expenses of those hurtles. So, a one sided and narrow perspective. That said, here is the opportunity to educate a wider audience of the other difficulties Hannah Frame has never considered.
This reminds me of the t-shirt that I used to wear as a kid to protest the war in Iraq. It had all of the flags of the world with the US flag crossed out. Not much has changed since, apparently. But, what more can one expect from a two-party system?
Robert W. Wood
10/25/2012 @ 11:05PM |141 views
It’s cute to see movie portrayals of clumsy but good-natured Americans not fitting into some über sophisticated situation. But hearing big banks say thanks but no thanks to opening a checking, savings or investment account? Not cute. Being turned down for a mortgage because you’re American? That’s even worse. See Wary Swiss Banks Shun Yanks.
Sure, we might think a South American drug lord who is turned down is getting his just desserts. But these days, anyone but Americans seems likely to be welcomed into foreign banks. Welcome to FATCA, the global U.S. law that applies in earnest in 2013. Americans everywhere are facing ostracism and some are voting with their feet…
Read more Forbes
Show your support to the contributor and comment away. The article currently only has one comment from American abroad:
It is unbelievable that Americans living and working overseas are now being refused bank accounts and even mortgages, all over the world. The US system of citizenship taxation is completely wrong and has extremely negative effects, not only on Americans living overseas but on the US economy itself.
Imagine if California taxed every person ever born in the state of California, even those who had long ago moved to New York, Louisiana or Texas. That’s citizenship-based taxation.
And if California made every bank in every state of the whole country report directly to the California authorities the names and addresses of any client of that bank who had been born in California. That’s FATCA.
And if California imposed heavy fines and penalties on anyone who they discovered had NOT been reporting their income and their bank accounts to California, even if that person didn’t owe any taxes to California because they were paying hefty taxes to, say, New York. That’s the FBAR scandal.FATCA should be repealed as quickly as possible before it blows up the world financial sector and even worse, has an extremely negative impact on the US economy overall, as foreigners pull out of US ventures and investments and take their money elsewhere.
The next IRS overreach will be closer scrutiny of bartering and precious metals. Lauren Lyster interviews David Selig, who argues that the IRS wants to know what you are doing with your gold in the same way that it has brought your foreign bank accounts under closer scrutiny. Also, expats–are you reporting your bartering with 1099B? David Selig says that you must. Did you trade something worth $100 for something worth $2000? That’s a taxable event, potentially a criminal event if left unreported.
Hat tip: Daily Reckoning
Or watch the video at Youtube.
