This is a 15-part series which is designed to provide you with some basic education on:

How the U.S. S. 877A Exit Tax rules work; and
 
How they particularly affect Canadians with a U.S. birthplace, who lived most of their lives in Canada.
 

 
The 15 parts are:
 
Part 1 – April 1, 2015 – “Facts are stubborn things” – The results of the “Exit Tax”
 
Part 2 – April 2, 2015 –“How could this possibly happen? “Exit Taxes” in a system of residence based taxation vs. Exit Taxes in a system of “citizenship (place of birth) taxation”

 
Part 3 – April 3, 2015 – “The “Exit Tax” affects “covered expatriates” – what is a “covered expatriate”?”
 
Part 4 – April 4, 2015 – “You are a “covered expatriate” How the “Exit Tax” is actually calculated”
 
Part 5 – April 5, 2015 – “The “Exit Tax” in action – Five actual scenarios with 5 actual completed U.S. tax returns.”

Part 6 – April 6, 2015 – “Surely, expatriation is NOT worse than death! The two million asset test should be raised to the Estate Tax limitation – approximately five million dollars – It’s Time”
 
Part 7 – April 7, 2015 – Why 2015 is a good year for many #Americansabroad to relinquish US citizenship – It’s the “Exchange Rate”

Part 8 – April 8, 2015 – “The U.S. “Exit Tax vs. Canada’s Departure Tax – Understanding the difference between citizenship taxation and residence taxation”

Part 9 – April 9, 2015 – “Why understanding the U.S. “Exit Tax” teaches us all we need to know about “citizenship taxation”

Part 10 – April 10, 2015 – “The s-877a exit tax and possible treaty relief under the canada us tax treaty”

Part 11 – April 11, 2015 – “S. 2801 of the Internal Revenue Code is NOT a S. 877A “Exit Tax”, but a punishment for the “sins of the father (relinquishment)”

Part 12 – April 12, 2015 – “The two kinds of U.S. citizenship: Citizenship for “immigration and nationality” and citizenship for “taxation” – Are we taxed because we are citizens or are we citizens because we are taxed?”

Part 13 – April 13, 2015 – “I relinquished U.S. citizenship many years ago. Could I still have U.S. tax citizenship?”

Part 14 – April 14, 2015 – “Leaving the U.S. tax system – renounce or relinquish U.S. citizenship, What’s the difference?”

Part 15 – May 22, 2015 – “Interview with GordonTLong.com – “Citizenship taxation”, the S. 877A Exit Tax, PFICs and Americans abroad”

Continue reading →

We are living a crisis of morality in which leaders have difficulty distinguishing between what is right and wrong. Today, political leaders facing a legal obstacle to their agenda believe that all they have to do is change the law. So if the government stealing from people is illegal, all that one needs to do is change the law and call it “civil forfeiture“, and suddenly it becomes morally acceptable.

I recall reading a few years back a National Post article that brought up the question of lawmaking and morality came up.  Fortunately, Mark Steyn, cites the money quote from George Jonas:

Back in the Trudeaupian golden age, you may recall, the great man’s barnstorming transformation of Canada was momentarily halted by a storm about barns. It emerged that some overzealous officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had burned down barns belonging to Quebec separatists. The press was briefly exercised over this, but M. Trudeau gave one of his famous shrugs and airily remarked that, if people were so upset by the Mounties burning down barns illegally, perhaps he’d make the burning of barns by the Mounties legal. As the great George Jonas commented:

“It seemed not to occur to him that it isn’t wrong to burn down barns because it’s illegal, but it’s illegal to burn down barns because it’s wrong. Like other statist politicians, Mr. Trudeau seemed to think his ability to set out for his country what is legal and illegal also entitled him to set out for his citizens what is right and wrong. He either didn’t see, or resented, that right and wrong are only reflected by the laws, not determined by them.”

The Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, is a moral embarrassment. Before he forced the FATCA IGA into law, it was illegal for the government of Canada, based on national origin discrimination, to give the financial information of Canadian citizens to a foreign government. But it is still wrong to do so, and it doesn’t matter how many laws Harper forces through Parliament, it will remain wrong.

FATCA and GATCA implementation and its costs are primarily where the large percentage of the population puts their money: In low-bearing standard savings and checking accounts.

(Yes, it also controls investments and insurance industries which may hold larger asset values, but certainly the largest quantity of control is where the largest quantity of persons have accounts. (FATCA and GATCA costs are not greaer for the account that is $999,999 versus the account that is $50,000.00 . And the small quantity of $1+ million accounts is also irrelevant)

So, what is this revenue that FATCA and GATCA are chasing after? I mean, the FATCA programs that cost $18 to $40 per capita to implement.

Are they so broke that they need the taxes on all the bank accounts of the world that are yielding less than 0,25% interest?

What should we think–knowing that these accounts are all (82%), in high-tax countries, and are all (according to tax treaty) due tax only to the country where they reside?

(Sure, there is some money to be skimmed from investment accounts where a smaller quantity of people are currently making some money. But the quantity of these accounts and the percentage of FATCA/GATCA implementation costs for investment accounts is much lower).

Why are King David’s controllers controlling a huge population that isn’t making any money?

Do they want this money to repatriate itself, so that Merca can tax it at the typical 0.02% interest being gained at US savings institutions?

What about those large investors that actually have negative interest? Does FATCA and GATCA want the proceeds from that too?

How many trillions of lost tax money must be needed to get the $870 million when FATCA’s profit is only 0.02% ?

Envy knows no bounds.

Just asking. It’s Sunday morning,

Can move this discussion further, after the little interesting budget thing in the Senate:

badger says

[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 25, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1901-S1956]
From the Congressional Record Online |through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]

TEXT OF AMENDMENTS

SA 621. Mr. WICKER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 11, setting forth the
congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year
2016 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal
years 2017 through 2025; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. ___. DEFICIT-NEUTRAL RESERVE FUND TO REPEAL THE FOREIGN
ACCOUNT TAX COMPLIANCE ACT.

The Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate
may revise the allocations of a committee or committees,
aggregates, and other appropriate levels in this resolution
for one or more bills, joint resolutions, amendments,
amendments between the Houses, motions, or conference reports
relating to fairness of United States taxpayers, which may
include the repeal of the provisions commonly known as the
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, by the amounts provided
in such legislation for that purpose, provided that such
legislation would not increase the deficit over either the
period of the total of fiscal years 2016 through 2020 or the
period of the total of fiscal years 2016 through 2025.

Hat Tip to Tim

Cross-posting from MapleSandbox.ca: FATCA Letter to Leaders and MPs.  Thanks for posting, Lynne!

IRS to Move on “US Persons” in Toronto, Canada.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40623.pdf was found by JC and placed in a comment.

It is a recent release which I haven’t seen discussed elsewhere.

Tax Havens: International Tax Avoidance and Evasion
Jane G. Gravelle Senior Specialist in Economic Policy
January 15, 2015
Congressional Research Service

It has quite a history of tax proposals which are claimed as having originated from the Obama administration.

Plus a history of the dastardly ones we know of (Ex Patriot Act, MAP 21, etc)

Lots of unconstitutional solutions upon 7.6  million US citizens and 10’s of millions of immigrants, in order to chase after a small quantity of bad guys.

This one pulls its own unfootnoted number for total tax evasion out its whazoo.

Don’t get bogged down by the corporate discussions.  The individual discussions come in the last pages.

You’ll learn about the history of the attack on expats and that the dastardly proposals have not gone away.

Options to Address Individual Evasion …………………………………………………………………………….. 34

Information Reporting ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 34

Multilateral Information Sharing or Withholding; International Cooperation ……………… 34

Expanding Bilateral Information Exchange ……………………………………………………………. 35

Unilateral Approaches: Withholding/Refund Approach; Increased Information Reporting Requirements……………………………………………………………………………………. 35

Other Measures That Might Improve Compliance ………………………………………………………… 35

Incentives/Sanctions for Tax Havens …………………………………………………………………….. 35
Tax Havens: International Tax Avoidance and Evasion
Congressional Research Service
Revise and Strengthen the Qualified Intermediary Program ……………………………………… 36

Place the Burden of Proof on the Taxpayer …………………………………………………………….. 36

Treat Shell Corporations as U.S. Firms ………………………………………………………………….. 36

Extend the Statute of Limitations ………………………………………………………………………….. 36

Greater Resources for the Internal Revenue Service to Focus on Offshore …………………. 37

Make Civil Cases Public as a Deterrent …………………………………………………………………. 37

37 Strengthening of Penalties ……………………………………………………………………………………. 37

Address Tax Shelters …………………………………………………………………………………………… 38

Regulate the Rules Used by States to Permit Incorporation ………………………………………. 38

Make Suspicious Activity Reports Available to Civil Side of IRS……………………………… 38

Summary of Enacted Legislation in 2011 ………………………………………………………………………….. 38

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act  (P.L. 111-147): FATCA ………… 38

Reporting on Foreign Accounts …………………………………………………………………………….. 39

Deduction of Interest for Bearer (Nonregistered) Bonds ………………………………………….. 39

Additional Information Reported on Tax Returns ……………………………………………………. 39 Penalties ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 39

Statute of Limitations ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 39

Reporting on Foreign Passive Investment Companies ……………………………………………… 39

Electronic Filing …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 40 Trusts ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 40

Treat Equity Swaps as Dividends ………………………………………………………………………….. 40

Summary of Legislative Proposals …………………………………………………………………………………… 44

American Jobs and Closing Loopholes Act (H.R. 4213, 111th Congress) …………………………. 44

President Obama’s International Tax Proposals ……………………………………………………………. 45

Provisions Affecting Multinational Corporations and Other Tax Law Changes …………… 45

Provisions Relating to Individual Tax Evasion, Not Enacted in the HIRE Act …………….. 49

The Wyden-Gregg and Wyden-Coats Tax Reform Bills ………………………………………………… 49

Chairman Camp’s Territorial Tax Proposal (Included in H.R. 1, 113th Congress) and Senator Enzi’s Bill (S. 2091, 112th Congress) ……………………………………………………………. 50

Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act ………………………………………………………………………………………… 51

111th Congress (S. 506 and H.R. 1245) ………………………………………………………………….. 51

112th Congress (S. 1346 and H.R. 2669) ………………………………………………………………… 52

113th Congress (H.R. 1554, S. 1533, and H.R. 3666) ……………………………………………….. 53

114th Congress ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 53

Finance Committee Proposal, 111th Congress ………………………………………………………………. 54