Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 8 of 8 (Year 2021)
This is a continuation of the Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments thread (part 7 of 8).
Part 1 covers up until 26 May 2015. Part 2 is from 27 May 2015 to 1 January 2016. Part 3 is 1 January – 31 December 2016. Part 4 is 1 January – 31 December 2017. Part 5 is 1 January – 31 December 2018. Part 6 is 1 January – 31 December 2019. Part 7 is 1 January – 31 December 2020.
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 often very recent articles mentioned since this list was updated.
How the IRS Prioritizes Compliance Work on High Income Non-Filers Through National and International Enforcement, IRS, Tax Connections.
2020.12.02
Constitutional lawyer Joseph Arvay remembered as tireless defender of the underdog, Bethany Lindsay, CBC, Canada. (Mr. Arvay was lead counsel for the ADCS constitutional challenge of the FATCA IGA legislation at Federal Court (Trial Division), 2014-2019.
ic], Cristian Angeloni, International Adviser.
Geld aus den USA fur viele Pensionisten, ORF, Austria.
Michael Rubin doubles down on his claim that the US tax system and its enforcement can’t possibly be as bad as Eritrea, this despite much input from regarding his last article regarding preventing Eritrea taxing US residents.
Instead he continues to claim this is a double tax issue and “bad policy” rather than a practise that makes Eritrea look like a little angel.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/americans-abroad-are-suffering-from-double-taxation-but-biden-can-fix-it?fbclid=IwAR2U10-xdj52R9QjjgaB8IzEboadmgJ8nCUS3dDIjTkc8WSGfvEgVWDp-Vk
From AEFNJ: German bank to close its doors to ‘U.S. persons’ from March, citing FATCA reporting burden: Report
Not open for comments but makes for interesting reading anyway. Looks like the EU actually might be waking up to the fact the USA is indeed taking over the world via US financial dominance.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_21_109?fbclid=IwAR3LUwnYSvhDvhMZwZR2GWrp71q5RYi1SX_UJRLPCTh6UFG2-d5iswgp_Ao
The European Commission press release on international financial relations Mike cites above is indeed “interesting reading”.
Most striking is that over and over, the release refers to “unlawful extraterritorial application of unilateral sanctions” by a “third country”, and “unlawful extraterritorial application of unilateral measures by a third country.”
By hedging on the identity, the EC comes across as terrified to say the name of this “third country” they are talking about.
Perhaps some advice the EC obviously needs:
“Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”
See answer below to a *question posed by MEP Sophie in’t Veld
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2020-005165-ASW_EN.html
Parliamentary questions
21 January 2021
E-005165/2020(ASW)
Answer given by Mr Reynders
on behalf of the European Commission
Question reference: E-005165/2020
The authorities that are responsible for monitoring and enforcing the application of the General Data Protection Regulation(1) ( GDPR) are the national data protection authorities.
After these authorities came to the conclusion in 2018 that there had been no occasions where they ‘had to prohibit the processing and transfer of personal data to the US(2) under the FATCA(3) regime’(4) and following further exchanges with stakeholders, they are again looking into this issue at the level of the European Data Protection Board.
The Commission participates in the meetings of the Board and closely follows any developments on this file.
(1) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj
(2) United States.
(3) United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
(4) See the letter of the article 29 Working Party of 8 February 2018, available at https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/article29/item-detail.cfm?item_id=614217
Last updated: 22 January 2021
*Q. posed by MEP in’t Veld;
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2020-005165_EN.html
Parliamentary questions
22 September 2020
E-005165/2020
Question for written answer E-005165/2020
to the Commission
Rule 138
Sophia in ‘t Veld (Renew)
Answer in writing
Subject: Data transfers to the US in the framework of FATCA and the GDPR
In order to comply with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), implemented by bilateral intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) concluded between the EU Member States and the US, accidental Americans, who are EU citizens, have to transmit a social security number (SSN) to their bank under threat of closure of their bank account. In order to obtain this SSN, these people have to provide very sensitive data to the Federal Benefit Unit of US embassies, which are subsequently transferred to the US.
1. Does the Commission consider this transfer of information to be in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?
2. Does the Commission consider that this transfer of information is a direct consequence of the intergovernmental agreements concluded by the Member States to implement FATCA? What actions does the Commission undertake to protect the transfer of this information to the US?
3. Will the Commission open infringement procedures against the Member States?
Last updated: 9 October 2020
Most recent report from the IRS Taxpayer Advocate has several issues of interest to those ‘abroad’;
https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/reports/
January 14, 2021
National Taxpayer Advocate release of 2020 Annual Report to Congress
A message from the US embassy in Canada;
“The United States Government does not plan to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to private U.S. citizens overseas. Please follow host country developments and guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination.” https://ca.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information-canada-3/
But wait, if through US citizenship “…..the government, by its very nature, benefits the citizen and his property wherever found….” – then what part of the US government and its extraterritorial tax regime is benefiting US citizens/taxable persons and their property outside of the US during this global pandemic crisis?
The consular official who conducted my relinquishment warned me that by relinquishing I was giving up all claim to US assistance abroad in case of an emergency.
This is a global emergency.
I don’t see much official evidence of US assistance to US taxable persons/citizens ‘abroad’ during this global pandemic emergency, in fact, I see the absence of US assistance to those outside the US, ex. https://eg.usembassy.gov/covid-19-vaccinations-and-consular-issues/
Though I’m no longer a US taxable person/citizen ‘abroad’, I can’t help thinking repeatedly about the obdurate US assertions that people like myself should have been filing and reporting and potentially paying US taxes from ‘abroad’ lo these many years – merely on the basis of a US birthplace – with no US economic connection (US residency limited to a few years as a minor) – yet the US would not have offered any real assistance to me during this massive global pandemic?
The court in Cook vs. Tait said; …”The contention was rejected that a citizen’s property without the limits of the United States derives no benefit from the United States. The contention, it was said, came from the confusion of thought in ‘mistaking the scope and extent of the sovereign power of the United States as a nation and its relations to its citizens and their relation to it.’ And that power in its scope and extent, it was decided, is based on the presumption that government by its very nature benefits the citizen and his property wherever found, and that opposition to it holds on to citizenship while it ‘belittles and destroys its advantages and blessings by denying the possession by government of an essential power required to make citizenship completely beneficial.’ In other words, the principle was declared that the government, by its very nature, benefits the citizen and his property wherever found, and therefore has the power to make the benefit complete. Or, to express it another way, the basis of the power to tax was not and cannot be made dependent upon the situs of the property in all cases, it being in or out of the United States, nor was not and cannot be made dependent upon the domicile of the citizen, that being in or out of the United States, but upon his relation as citizen to the United States and the relation of the latter to him as citizen. The consequence of the relations is that the native citizen who is taxed may have domicile, and the property from which his income is derived may have situs, in a foreign country and the tax be legal—the government having power to impose the tax.”….
COOK v. TAIT, Collector of Internal Revenue.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/265/47
My local, provincial and federal Canadian government and all the taxes I pay here are assisting me to live and survive during COVID. In contrast, if I was still a US person, the US would be providing me with zero assistance from afar – no access to vaccine, healthcare, unemployment, etc provided to me in my home ‘abroad’ in Canada…..
When the rubber met the road, the ‘benefits’ bestowed by the US government to those ‘abroad’ are nowhere in sight.
The current global pandemic crisis subverts further the weak US rationale asserted for US extraterritorial CBT and FATCA. One would think that would give the Canadian federal government pause in defending the FATCA IGA against the ADCS lawsuit since the deal cost Canada, still gives us nothing the US/Canada Tax Treaty didn’t already provide for, and implies that US extraterritorial CBT is legitimate when applied to those in Canada.
Wouldn’t you think that during this unprecedented crisis that Canada and the rest of the FATCA signatories might wonder if they should be upholding a foreign power’s extraterritorial claims to non-US personal and financial information, in pursuit of locally generated and sited assets?
Nations around the world have taken the position that relations with the US come first, and that the threats under FATCA are too severe to risk happening.
Their position, as unfair as it is, is that this is between US citizens and their own government.
And we all know how the US government will react to a strongly worded letter from a US citizen in France.
All roads lead to renunciation.
EU ‘Accidentals’ cheer, as FATCA on ECOFIN agenda next week
February 12, 2021 By Helen Burggraf
https://americanexpatfinance.com/news/item/642-fatca-on-ecofin-agenda-next-week
Related to article referenced above, for those on Twitter, pls RT, Like and follow: @USAccidental
https://twitter.com/USAccidental/status/1360500313594220544?s=20