As reported on April 9th, Democrats Abroad Canada held its annual general meeting on March 25th in Toronto. The minutes provided a very brief mention about DA’s FBAR/FATCA task force. Today, a new communiqué was released detailing the task force’s recent and upcoming activities. We are now heading into lobbying season, it appears, with both DA and ACA poised to make their annual pilgrimages to D.C. to plead our case – particularly interesting in an election year. Continue reading
Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
A Message to VP Joe: Global minimum tax (whatever that means) – Making it a reality
Gotta love that Joe Biden. Well, at least he’s honest. Barack and Joe believe that they can tax the world into prosperity. What a novel idea? A “Global Tax”. I can’t figure out what he means, but he seems to be talking about it in the context of corporations. That said, I’m quite certain that Biden doesn’t know what he means either. Continue reading
My Story (Em): The IRS thinks I am a "US person" but I know I am Canadian
A frequent contributor, Em, e-mailed her story to me.
I am Canadian (born in Canada). My husband is American (born in the USA) and became a Permanent Resident of Canada in 1996. We lived in the USA for 12 years after we got married in 1982. I was issued a green card that year which I never used — did not earn any wages in the USA — did not access any USA benefits — did not pay into Social Security and will not therefore be claiming it for myself in retirement. We came to Canada to visit my parents in the spring of 1994. My mother was taken to the hospital just hours before we arrived. Several weeks later she passed away but my father was not able to take care of himself and his home so I stayed to help.
Continue reading
Barclays Bank pays tribute to United States: Chairman's United States tax bill
When an American citizen lives and works in another country and pays taxes in the United States, that taxes is a form of tribute that the United States extracts from that foreign country’s wealth. It goes into the coffers of the United States which is currently having a hard time being honest and prudent in its management of the Federal expenditures. In the case of a public corporation, the extra taxes to the United States that one of their employee’s must pay can anger rightly shareholders. Such is the case of Bob Diamond, who is the chairman of Barclays Bank based in the UK.
One of our readers, John, points out the following article and commented:
Another expatriation driven by U.S. tax complexity and the time it takes – Expatriation is on the rise!
Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship
https://twitter.com/#!/renounceus/status/190234812341170177
https://twitter.com/#!/renounceus/status/190232537283571712
https://twitter.com/#!/renounceus/status/190469167219097600
https://twitter.com/#!/renounceus/status/190575102419681281
An interesting post appeared today on Phil Hodgen’s blog. It appears that expatriation is on the rise. (Who could have known?) Note that the reasons have nothing to do with the payment of tax. They have everything to do with the the inability to live a normal productive life as a U.S. person living outside the United States. Continue reading
October to March: US government borrows 53 cents on every dollar in "budget"
From Zerohedge, US Posts Biggest March Budget Deficit In History:
News from 30-year IRS vet: IRS will track expats using Form 1099R
Steven J. Mopsick asked me to share this blog with our readers:
The U.S. government and the Constitution: Fifth amendment continued
https://twitter.com/#!/peterdahlen/status/190152712661385217
In an earlier life, Barack Obama was a student at Harvard Law School and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago law school. There is evidence that Obama taught a course in Constitutional law. Apparently Obama once said:
“I was a Constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution.”
While a candidate for President, Obama had accused President Bush of not respecting the Constitution. Continue reading
My response on Jack Townsend's Open Forum Comments to Congress and IRS Regarding Tax Administration for Offshore Accounts (4/9/12)
Just Me invited us to respond to Jack Townsend’s invitation to comment on an Open Forum; here is my comment awaiting approval:
Swiss Federal Administrative Court Seems to be on Our Side
The court said that mere tax evasion (not fraud) was not a reason for Switzerland to provide information to the IRS.
“Et le tribunal maintient que le fait de ne pas déclarer un compte ne constitue pas une fraude.” (The court maintains that not declaring an account does not constitute a fraud).
This is excellent news, I just hope that parliament doesn’t screw it up.
Here is the New Zurich Newspaper article on the same decision. It goes into more specific details. I don’t have time to do a manual translation from German so you’ll have to try Mr. Google. http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/wirtschaft/aktuell/amtshilfe-gestoppt_1.16381062.html
Also, here is the Bloomberg coverage for the same (in English): http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-11/swiss-court-rejects-disclosure-of-credit-suisse-client-s-data