TAS is looking to use video conferencing in order to better facilitate examiners and taxpayers during the examination process and to reach “underserved” taxpayers. Highlights Tampa as an area where underserved taxpayers are concentrated, but no mention of the lonely expat. Get audited in the comfort of your own home, just make sure they can’t see your Lear jet through the window.
http://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/Blog/virtual-face-to-face-audits
Under a simplified “territorial” system, governments would see gains that would offset most, if not all, short-term reductions to tax revenue. Moreover, the long-term gains caused by increased economic activity and decreased compliance costs would dwarf any immediate losses.
Major Russian business newspaper Kommersant reported in an article yesterday that the Russian government, egged on by Association of Russian Banks (of whom we’ve written previously), is looking into the possibility of signing an inter-governmental agreement for the exchange of bank account information, along the lines of the European deal announced in February. The journalist writes as if such a deal were a foregone conclusion, stating that the Russian government is not looking into “whether” but instead “how” to sell out their sovereignty to the IRS. I’ve translated the article below.
I just listened to this great podcast on This American Life which ran on NPR stations this weekend.
It is called Take the Money and Run for Office.
I highly recommend it to you. Continue reading
I know this is off topic but it was too much fun to pass up. Canadian politics are never this exciting.
Judges order Justice Department to clarify following Obama remarks on health law case
A federal appeals court is striking back after President Obama cautioned the Supreme Court against overturning the health care overhaul and warned that such an act would be “unprecedented.”
Guilty by association, even when the association is allegedly created by the government itself:
Someone You Love: Coming to a Gulag Near You
Merryn Somerset Webb has just posted a big-picture piece at Money Week – Why every bank will soon be a tax collector for every government everywhere. Bottom line? Financial repression is a government tool to force a broad population to hold debt that loses them money in real terms. This is outlined as the context for FATCA.
US regulators sue RBC. “You’re constantly doing things that in hindsight someone can come along and conclude differently,” says one bank analyst.
Found this Workopolis ad today. More evidence that Canadian banks are moving full steam ahead with FATCA compliance plans. The fat lady is warming up in the wings.
From Workopolis:
Senior Manager, FATCA
TD BANK GROUP
Toronto, ON, CANADA
2012-03-27
Senior Manager, FATCA
Another interesting article by Michael Cohn at Accounting Today. We have a couple “Fair Share Acts” in play in the Senate and the House, that all of us should be keeping our eyes on. Continue reading
