I have no idea who put these on YouTube but they are pretty good. I know the first one was posted on January 3rd before I started posting here and has information that was not being commonly discussed at that time(IBS was just getting started although at the point Expat Forum, where I never posted but did read from was ongoing)
badger
@all, the article below just appeared in the Hamilton Spectator re ‘voluntary disclosures’ . with a glancing mention of FATCA. The authors are from KPMG.
http://www.thespec.com/news/business/article/694426–americans-in-canada-beware-of-irs-bloodhounds
Tue Mar 27 2012
by Jeffrey Brown and Elena Hanson
(“Jeffrey Brown is a partner and Elena Hanson is a senior manager with KPMG’s US and Cross-Border Tax Group in Hamilton.”)
“Americans in Canada beware of IRS bloodhounds”
“Whether they know it or not, most of the roughly one million “United States persons” who reside in Canada remain subject to US income tax. US persons include US citizens, green card holders and even some “accidental Americans” who don’t realize they are subject to US tax. Non-compliance with US tax laws among US persons in Canada remains widespread, according to analysis by accounting firm KPMG, and has recently become subject to intense enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). While the time has come for US persons to “get back into the US tax system”, there are alternative approaches to remedy past non-compliance……………” Continue reading
I found an interesting article on FATCA at Financial News this morning that for an “industry” publication is the first I get some sense that they are getting it. A couple of interesting quotes:
“Once countries have got the structure in place to comply with US Fatca, their governments won’t just say, ‘we’ll bear the costs of helping the US gather its tax and leave it at that’. Something will happen.”
That “something” will not be a repeal of US Fatca, Fleming said. The realistic options, he said, are either that every country develops its own version of Fatca, or that a “global Fatca” is developed, where every country has to disclose the assets of every other countries’ citizens under a common framework. He said: “There will have to be a ‘global Fatca framework’ – the alternative is even worse. We couldn’t operate on the basis of 27 Fatcas in the Europe Union, say.”
The significance is enormous, he said: “It will be a global tax system. It is impossible to comprehend how you maintain national tax integrity under such a system; how you get to a global Fatca is an immense challenge.”
A few points they seem to be making:
Many in the financial industry are increasingly taking the view that FATCA and any copy cat legislation is going to be an overriding issue for the rest of the decade.
In closing the authors state that they in fact think the US is playing a “long game” of trying to determine the world’s taxation model.
Unfortunately this article now seems to be pay-walled, but you can sign up for a free four week trial.
http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2012-03-27/fund-managers-predict-global-fatca
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, one of the larger Democratic Party caucuses, has proposed to end the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion in their 2013 “Budget For All”, details of which were revealed yesterday following a vague press release last week. As U.S. persons abroad have already learned, when American homelanders use words like “all” and “us”, we are decidedly not included, except when they want money from us. Indeed, with this latest budget proposal, even members of the Americans Abroad Caucus have come out in support of eliminating the FEIE.
Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship
The IRS has proudly trumpeted OVDP and OVDI as successes. Both programs were understood to be attempts to go after “big time tax evaders”, “whales”, U.S. residents who were using “offshore bank accounts” and entities to hide income from the U.S. Treasury. That has been the conventional wisdom up until now. Of course, these programs also have had “well known” and “well documented” side effects. Specifically the “collateral damage” suffered by U.S. Green Card holders and U.S. citizens living abroad. But, of course as good Americans, we understand that this “collateral damage” is understandable, completely appropriate, and a necessary incident of good citizenship. To put it simply: A good American citizen or Proud U.S. Green Card Holder, should be prepared to suffer this “collateral damage”. Your “collateral damage” is your “Contribution to America”. Continue reading
“Just because Canadians have money in a foreign bank doesn’t mean they aren’t paying taxes on it.”
Come to think of it, just because U.S. citizens living abroad have foreign bank accounts, it doesn’t mean they are avoiding the payment of taxes!
You will have to click on the link to see the video:
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20120325/canadians-taxes-liechenstein-120325
In a Greek classic, Physionomics, belatedly assigned to Aristotle, the author states that no animal ever had the physical aspect of one species and the personality of another. I would maintain that it is unreasonable for us to expect the beast of the United States to change from one thing to another, such as from a hawk to a dove. Our task really is to determine what sort of beast we are dealing with and adjust our behaviour accordingly.
Again, for those francophones amoung our readership, here is an interesting article. http://www.lematin.ch/suisse/Des-Suisses-de-l-etranger-sont-discrimines-par-les-banques/story/12732075
Translation of the byline: The Council of Swiss Citizens Abroad is preparing a resolution to denounce certain Swiss banking practices. The text, which shall be submitted this Saturday to a vote of the Council’s 140 delegates, asks that Swiss Citizens domiciled outside of Switzerland (approximately 700,000 people) are treated in the same way as other Swiss persons by Swiss bank establishements.
The Q&A goes on to discuss Swiss banks who have refused to open accounts for, or closed the accounts of, persons living in the US, and mentions that there is cross-contamination of the problem to Swiss living in non-US jurisdictions.
“Le Conseil des Suisses de l’étranger prépare une résolution pour dénoncer certaines pratiques bancaires helvétiques. Le texte, qui sera soumis ce samedi au vote des 140 délégués, demande que les citoyens établis hors de nos frontières (quelque 700000 personnes) bénéficient du même traitement que les autres Suisses dans les établissements du pays.”
A lot of people here in Canada have lately not viewed the UK favorably on many of the issues we discussed here. However, I wanted to post an article that recently went up the Independent’s website about some UK politicans complaining about the US trying it impose its infamous no-fly list on British Airways flights between the UK and Canada including flights from London to Calgary and Edmonton that don’t even touch or get near US airspace. The US is also insisting on seeing all the passenger details of UK flights to the Carribean and Cuba. I am somewhat familiar with past issues regarding Canada and the no-fly list so I welcome any comments.
Ottawa MP Paul Dewar (NDP Foreign Affairs Critic) is hosting a FATCA information session at Tom Brown Arena, 141 Bayview, Ottawa, Monday, 26 March, 7 pm. Other speakers include the NDP National Revenue Critic, the NDP Finance Critic, an accountant, and a lawyer. Full details on Mr. Dewar’s website. Thanks to Schubert for bringing this to our attention.
