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The Isaac Brock Society

Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 4 of 11 (Year 2017)

You can access all years at this link: Media and Blog Articles – Links for All Years

 If clicking on a comment link brings you to the wrong comment, click here  to get on the most recent page of comments.(alternatively, to reach the most recent comment page, go to  the url in the bar at the top of your browser and delete everything after http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments-part-4-of-4)

Media and Blog Articles

EmBee suggested that it would be good if there was a thread for new articles, so that people would be aware of where to comment.   So, I created this permanent page.   I’ll make a permanent list of links posted here and keep adding to it,  but not deleting, so we’ll end up having sort of a  “bibliography” of FATCA/CBT articles.  [Note:  Some articles are not open for comments]

For more articles on FATCA, enter FATCA into Google then click on the link “more news for fatca” just below the most recent featured article.

Notes:

From JC:   To see #FATCA on Twitter for latest breaking news.  JC finds that is quite a good source and there even are some international articles that one may read using Google Translate.   Others may help certain tweets and articles remain in elevated position by retweeting them.

From Badger:   On an important archival note, please use the Internet Archive Wayback machine https://archive.org/web/ (see bottom right ‘Save Page Now’ box to enter URLs of webpages you want saved for posterity, and try to save backup copies of articles and other items of interest in some other form – such as a datastick or external drive. Some important and very significant webpages and the fulltexts of articles are no longer available (although some can be retrieved if someone using the Wayback machine saved them).

Be sure to read the comment stream for this thread — there are usually very recent articles mentioned there that aren’t on this list yet.

2017.12.28
It’s time to address the double standard about tax havens, Angela Wrights, Macleans, Canada.
The US Is Becoming the World’s New Tax Haven, The Editors, Bloomberg View, US.
2017.12.21
Rep. Dina Titus Supports Americans Abroad Tax Reform, Democrats Abroad, US. 
Now That The GOP Tax Bill Is Approved, The IRS Gets Busy, Brian Naylor, NPR, US.
2017.12.20
Taxpayers will have to wait to find out how they fare under new legislation , Renae Merle and Aaron Gregg, Denver Post (reprint from Washington Post), US.
U.S. Shareholders –Take Action by December 31, KPMG.
2017.12.18
Have You Ever Felt Sorry for the I.R.S? Now Might Be the Time, Patricia Cohen, New York Times, US.
2017.12.12
EU finance ministers issue warning to Trump over tax reforms, RTÉ, Ireland.
2017.12.11
Banque: les consequences étonnantes de l’accord FATCA, Edouard Lederer, Les Echos, France.
2017.12.10
As Australia ousts MPs with dual citizenship, Canada’s Parliament embraces many in its ranks, Kathleen Harris, Canada. (mentions MP who “assumed his U.S. citizenship was automatically rescinded because he did not meet several requirements for continued citizenship. [But when travelling to Washington] was told he was ineligible to enter the U.S. on a Canadian passport because he was a U.S. citizen. He was . . . allowed in on a one-time basis . . . it cost him $3,000 to later sort out the administrative requirements.”)
2017.12.09
The American Diaspora: Outreach and Organization, Victoria Ferauge, The Franco-American Flophouse, Japan.
2017.12.08
Foreign-owned banks to be hit by US tax rules, Financial Times, UK.
Trump Tax Plan Worries Europe, Christian Reiermann, Der Spiegel, Germany.

For articles earlier in 2017, click here.

1,720 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 4 of 11 (Year 2017)”

  1. This is more of a soft power thing than a tax grab, isn’t it? Much controversy recently about Confucius Institutes, and not only in Canada. They’re spending billions apparently. Like America used to do till it ran out of money.

  3. The FT says: “The dangerous question for the rest of the world is at what point China will feel it has reached peak rejuvenation and what that will look like for everyone who is not included in the great family of the Chinese race.”
    https://www.ft.com/content/360afba4-55d1-11e7-9fed-c19e2700005f

    But I wonder where the FT was when America was busy turning everything not American into the other. America always seems to get a free pass.

  7. Mark Levine pointed out that Manafort is not actually being changed with tax evasion. The way this has been reported it seems like there was some tax evasion going on but why wasn’t than charge made?

  8. @Neill

    Don’t take Mark Levin’s misleading suggestions as gospel. Search the 31 page indictment for “tax” and find out for yourself that it’s clear the Grand Jury thinks there was tax evasion. It’s at https://www.justice.gov/file/1007271/download

    The charges don’t specify amounts of tax evaded on hidden income. Instead of complex audits to find the amounts of tax evaded, it’s easier to find amounts in unreported bank accounts and impose heavy penalties when the account holder’s failure to report was willful.

  12. I am not a fan of Manafort or the US State Department but in all fairness must challenge the suggestion that having three US passports is a result of bribery or incompetence. The US State Department will issue more than one passport to a person if there’s a valid reason for it. For example if you have to travel overseas while your first passport is held by a foreign consulate while they are slowly processing a visa application, you may be allowed to have a second US passport. A third is very rare, but who’s to say that there would never be a valid reason for having one.

  13. Well now that is an interesting damned point, fn0. In all fairness, is the American-born America-resident Manafort entitled to be presumed innocent until proven guilty? While I, also American-born, but not America-resident, am not?

  14. @plaxy
    I am guessing that the different treatments between Manafort and yourself are not due to different residences but because of the difference between criminal law (entitled to be presumed innocent until proven guilty) and administratively imposed penalties (presumed guilty unless you appeal and can prove otherwise). Are you thinking that the criminal process is fairer than the civil one? Maybe it could be in certain circumstances, but the chances of escaping penalties are slim either way. It would be nigh impossible to contest failure to file, but it is possible that challenging whether the failure was wilful could more easily succeed in court. But then the penalties are likely to be higher with the criminal process versus the civil process, and it’s more expensive to fight, so it might be better not to be in the criminal process. Or would Manafort be subject to a combination of criminal and administrative penalties? I have no legal expertise on this and don’t know your circumstances but we will see what happens to Manafort in due course.

  15. You’re going to need to explain this to me. Are you saying that it’s ok for my country and America to deny me the presumption of innocence, because that’s an administrative matter, whereas Manafort remains entitled to the presumption of innocence because he’s a crook?

  16. “who’s to say that there would never be a valid reason for having three US passports.”

    Who’s to say that there would never be a valid reason for a person born in America having a bank account in another country.

  17. I did not say and am not saying that he is entitled to the presumption of innocence because he’s a crook; he’s entitled to that presumption because he is facing criminal charges. You just don’t get a presumption of innocence for taxes, interest and civil penalties levied outside of the criminal system. I did not say and am not saying that the law is OK; it is what it is, and how it works.

  18. Re: Who’s to say that there would never be a valid reason for a person born in America having a bank account in another country.

    I don’t follow – is someone saying that?

  19. FATCA?

    My bank account is treated as suspicious because I was born in America but the bank account is not in America. There is no presumption of innocence.

  20. “I did not say and am not saying that he is entitled to the presumption of innocence because he’s a crook; he’s entitled to that presumption because he is facing criminal charges.”

    OK. He’s entitled to the presumption of innocence because they have actual evidence sufficient to bring criminal charges against him. Whereas I’m not entitled to the presumption of innocence because there is no evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on my part.

    The fact is, everyone ought to be presumed innocent by the state if they haven’t done anything wrong. Manafort gets that protection. People born in America who live outside America do not. It’s not fair. Don’t tell me to be fair to Manafort – Manafort has hired the guy who helped bring FATCA down on the rest of us. He’ll be fine.

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