Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

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)”

  3. Apologies – using PC instead of phone, picked up old email address.

    I was just wondering if the Bopp law firm was continuing to represent RO in the FATCA suit.

  4. Now That The GOP Tax Bill Is Approved, The IRS Gets Busy
    https://www.npr.org/2017/12/21/572326998/now-that-the-gop-tax-bill-is-approved-the-irs-gets-busy

    “Republicans in Congress are promising that their tax bill will create jobs. One place where we know it’s going to create a lot of work is at the IRS.

    That agency will have to figure out how to interpret and implement the hundreds of pages of changes to the tax code that were just passed, at a time when it is already struggling with budget cuts and staff reductions.
    …
    “In 2018, [tax accountant] expects much confusion with the new law. “I think a lot of people are going to have a misunderstanding and think its going to affect their filing of 2017 tax returns.”

    If the tax bill isn’t going to affect the filing of 2017 tax returns, perhaps owners of small businesses should just file for 2017 as if transition tax not applicable.

    Rearrange assets to avoid covered status, renounce during 2018, file 2018 dual-status plus 8854, and it’s goodbye to the US of A.

  5. New tax bill probably opens me up for nice Child Tax Credit. I should save it for the kids’ renunciations… but they have a non-US birthplace thank goodness. Will offset cost of tax prep anyway. Thanks, USA.

  6. The tax bill shows that if US citizenship is unvavoidable, it’s better to be a USC outside America, where the refunds still get paid and hte IRS can seldom collect, than to be a USC inside America, where collection is automatic and taxpayer rights are non-existent except for the super-rich.

    The picture has changed a lot since FATCA and the IGAs were first implemented. Thanks in no small part to websites like IBS, it has become clear that US citizens living outside the US don’t have to live in fear of the IRS; aren’t being systematically tracked down by FATCA, don’t have to enter the US tax system in order to renounce, and don’t have to allow the US to confiscate their retirement in order to be allowed to renounce.

    The DoS sells CLNs. Treasury sells “good standing”, bundled with USC privileges (passport, entry, etc). Buy the preferred product, or if workable and preferred, don’t buy either.

    The bank access problems caused by FATCA/IGA/CRS in combination with CBT have of course not gone away. Workarounds and solutions are better understood, but FATCA is inherently discriminatory, and has transmitted its discriminatory approach to CRS, so that a US birthplace = bank access problems by definition. Eventually, the other rich OECD countries might be obliged to address this discrimination.

    On the whole (it sppears to me), things are a lot less scary than they seemed a few years ago. Thanks to the owners of the IBS site for helping to bring this about.

    Happy xmas all. Nolite te IRS bastardes carborundorum.

  7. Let me join Plaxy wishing a very happy, healthy and peaceful stress free holiday to all the organizers and contributes of our Brock family.
    Scientia Vinci.

  13. “…file for 2017 as if transition tax not applicable.

    Rearrange assets to avoid covered status, renounce during 2018, file 2018 dual-status plus 8854, and it’s goodbye to the US of A.”

    Alternatively, just renounce. Pay the fee, hand over the passport, renounce. Await CLN. End of story.

    Or carry on filing and assume the transition tax doesn’t apply.

    There’s no need to let KPMG determine your future.

  18. Be of good cheer – seasonal tales of IRS woes:

    Millions of workers have filed W-4 tax forms telling their employers how much in federal taxes they need to withhold. But that form will not be applicable under the new law, Isberg said.

    “Therefore, every W-4 on file, all 164 million of them, won’t be valid starting next month,” he said. “We believe every working person is going to need a new W-4.”

    The IRS may have to design an entirely new W-4 form, which could take months, Isberg said. To complicate matters further, some states have separate W-4 forms that may also have to be changed, he said. “We need guidance as soon as possible,” he said.

    https://www.denverpost.com/2017/12/20/taxpayers-changes/

  19. BB – “Some people can’t renounce right away, or even in the next couple of years.”

    Can’t renounce, or can’t exit the US tax system in accordance with tax-citizenship law?

  20. @BB
    Am I missing something?
    Some have never filed and never will and renounced
    Some have back filed 5yrs and renounced.

  21. BB: cool! Democrats holding R’s feet to the fire on taxation of Americans Abroad. There is hope!

    Plaxy: cool! indeed, as my parents told me from all their wisdom (and I won’t even begin to relate family tax issues; suffice to say my grandfather had the habit of slipping the tax bill under the tablecloth and forgetting about it until my grandmother found it), best to do nothing, or a little as possible in these matters. I only partially listened and starting filing again, but truly it has brought me nothing (OK, not nothing, some child tax credits once, and hopefully next year 😀 ). You are right: this forum is cathartic and takes the edge off. It has allowed me to relax and not worry any more. And it has allowed me to dissuade a nice innocent family of USP friends, foreign born no less, from plunging into IRS hell. They had been quoted quite a price by the neighborhood condor.

  22. Fred – “allowed me to relax and not worry any more. And it has allowed me to dissuade a nice innocent family of USP friends, foreign born no less, from plunging into IRS hell. They had been quoted quite a price by the neighborhood condor.”

    A good deed well done! And no doubt they’ll spread the word. 🙂

  23. @FredB
    BB: cool! Democrats holding R’s feet to the fire on taxation of Americans Abroad. There is hope!
    There was hope when Trudeau said
    “A Canadian , is a Canadian, is a Canadian”
    There was hope when the republicans included RBT in their election platform.
    There are 4 out of 5 Americans I know in my village hiding like mice, the 5th has renounced.
    Surely enough is enough, Sauve qui peut.

  25. @BB
    Yes, there is hope but there is also self preservation. I was not born in the US, so perhaps never did value American citizenship as others here do. Hopefully we are all of us still free to make our own choices.
    Merry Christmas.

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: