While I know personally and I suspect many others here would like some stronger language I think the California Bar Assocation Tax Section raises some very pointed comment in their letter that discusses the issues we are facing here. I should further point out that the fact they bring up these issues is not for naught as the California Tax Section is one of the most influential groups of US Tax Lawyers. In particular I think they raise a very pointed question of the IRS Commmisioner which is the entire recent crackdown intended only solely to go after people living in the US with offshore assets or people residing outside the US with basic banking arrangements in their home countries. I also wanted to post this letter because two of the more prominent friends of the site(Steven Mopsick and Phil Hodgen) are members of the State Bar of California- Tax Section
Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
Russia will not enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the United States on the application of FATCA
Russian article, published in Russian:
http://www.klerk.ru/law/news/274541/
Anyone with Russian who might provide a good translation? Google translation, with the usual disclaimers, follows. It’s good enough to get the general drift:
According to the letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, Russia has no plans at the international level to harmonize the application in our country the law of the United States, which relates to the mandatory disclosure of payments to the persons subject to taxation in the United States. This May 4 at the conference “Compliance in Russia,” said Director of the Department advising on risk management and compliance at KPMG Dmitry Chistov. From the event: Klerk.ru correspondent Sergei Vasiliev.
Nordic banks push for Fatca reciprocity
Nordic banking associations open Fatca reciprocity talks
The push for reciprocity under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) is gaining pace, with banks in four Nordic countries now also urging their national governments to facilitate bilateral agreements with the US.
http://www.risk.net/operational-risk-and-regulation/news/2170830/nordic-banks-push-fatca-deal
A trip to the Center of the Universe….and shameless pimping on RRSPs
Thought you Canadians would be interested in this little Jello shot from Phil Hodgens…
He is off on a mission, to The Center of the Universe @ 1111 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington DC 20224.
New Zealand Government position on FATCA
Here it is:
http://bsmlegal.com/PDFs/NZ.pdf
They don’t know quite what they want other than they want KiwiSaver plans exempted. JustMe and Moby might want to call their NZ MPs and have a word with them. They also claim to have extensive information sharing between NZ IRD and US IRS.
Perhaps you might want to have a word with Danie Beukman, Second Secretary at the New Zealand Embassy in Washington.
Another group I suspect might be interested in this letter I suspect would be the NZ Greens and NZ Labour.
Update: Call Danie Beukman on Monday. Really he works pretty closely with the US House Ways and Means committee. He is pretty active on Twitter also.
Are you too poor to file US income tax? Apparently my husband and I are.
Mr Lewis’s assertion that all American’s who renounce are rich fatca-ts has got me wondering just how many non-resident US persons who neglect file do so because they can’t afford to pay an accountant to do it. Those of us required to file include seniors on fixed incomes, young people just starting out in life, the disabled, single parents, etc. I would think that the numbers could be as high as the hundreds of thousands if you consider everyone who should be filing. There was a time in my life as a single parent even if I had known about my obligation to file US income tax I would have been hard pressed to spend my Canadian child tax credit on filing US taxes.
For those who don't think we have enough tax information sharing between Canada and the US
This is the complete list of all the types of information the Canada Revenue Agency automatically sends to the IRS for US Residents receiving Canadian income. I would say we are hardly a tax haven. Additionally payors of these types of income are required by Canadian law to get a TIN from whoever the US resident recepient is.
Welcome to the United States: You now must pay your taxes to the USA
Snowbirds may become an extinct species, at least within the borders of the United States. Few outsiders know this but Canadians live in igloos year round. Snowbirds are Canadians who seek warmer climate, especially during their retirement years. They have been a significant boon to the real estate markets in Southern states, especially Florida, but one should not forget places like my Dad’s trailer park in San Benito where numerous Winter Texans can play year-round golf and outdoor tennis. Mostly, they spend their enormous retirement wealth that it took many years working in Canada to earn. Expect the snowbirds to start flying further south, to places like Cayman Islands, Mexico, or Costa Rica, anywhere outside the reach of the IRS taxman.
Al Lewis: Welcome to the Isaac Brock Hall of *Shame*/FAME (UPDATED)
Editors Note: Al Lewis has now written an excellent article telling the our side of the story. Thanks, Al (and welcome to the Isaac Brock Hall of Fame!).
Al Lewis tries to shame former Americans in this hit piece at marketwatch.com a subsidiary of the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps you should have spoke with at least one person who ever renounced his or her citizenship. Shame on YOU, Mr. Lewis and shame on your editor for allowing you to publish. That just makes you a bigot with a platform. It is to the shame of the brain-dead media that such pieces of journalistic refuse can even see the light of day. Please, next time you want to write a screed that punishes a class of people for their actions, do your homework, like the young, promising Reuter’s journalist, Atossa Abrahamian, who actually spoke with numerous people who had renounced or were planning to renounce their citizenship.
ACA has just issued the April 2012 News Update.
For those of you who are not members of ACA, and not on their email list, I wanted to alert you to the April edition of the ACA News Update for some interesting new information. The top item on the list is this: