Lynnley Browning (Twitter: @LynnleyBrowning) brings us the two-and-a-half-month old news that songwriter Denise Rich, the ex-wife of Marc Rich, had her name published in the Federal Register back in April due to her renunciation of U.S. citizenship in November 2011. Her editors at Reuters seem to have decided that a neutral statement of the aforesaid fact wasn’t good enough for the headline, so they pushed it out over the wires it as the inflammatory “Socialite Denise Rich dumps U.S. passport”. The story has also been picked up by HuffPost and MSNBC.
While Obama uses drones to kill people in South Asia as example of U.S. power, Romney builds companies to feed people in South Asia as power of U.S. example
US drone strikes will give the term “blowback” new meaning
The example of U.S. Power
An interesting article appeared in the MumbaiMirror on Saturday July 8/12. My impression is that the MubaiMirror is a low quality newspaper. But like the Toronto Star, it does reflect popular sentiment.
Continue reading
8854 Encore!
The excuse for flogging this horse: it ain’t dead yet! Plus, this stuff needed to be pulled together.
When I posted Form 8854 on 13 June 2012 I facetiously hoped for two professionals to come up with diametrically opposed views.
Michael J. Miller soon weighed in with some very useful comments, based on actual off-the-record conversations with IRS. That information seemed to be received with joy, because it was so what people wanted to hear.
Petros followed up with a second thread on the topic on 19 June 2012: Please read this post if your actual expatriation date is before 2004 (Updated)
Some of you have been over there already, but I only recently came across the Phil Hodgen comment (to his own magisterial Why People Expatriate) that describes the core question as
A vexing problem … [that will] … require someone to be a crash-test dummy to test this in the Federal courts.
Hodgen says he might dedicate a separate posting to this in the future. In the meantime, does anyone feel like pursuing a new career as a crash-test dummy? Without someone steppping up to hit the wall, only perpetual uncertainty for all US persons in the affected class!
Not diametrically opposed exactly, but definitely messier now, definitely more equivocal than univocal.
May the dialectic continue to swerve and clatter its way toward the never-settled approximation of what actually is. If a troubling issue seems too neat, and relatively resolved, the result can’t be real.
Financial Post “An Unnecessary Overreaching of U.S. Tax Law into Canada”
There was a request for posting of this Financial Post article of a few days ago. I, too, thought it an excellent piece and made a few comments.
An unnecessary overreaching of U.S. tax law into Canada by Prof. Vern Krishna, CM, QC, LSM, tax counsel with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP and executive director of the CGA Tax Research Centre at the University of Ottawa.
The best thing Joe Green and Democrats Abroad could do is encourage all Democrats to vote for Romney
Cross-posted from RenounceUScitizenship.
This is a response to the email from Professor Green. Note to members of the Isaac Brock Society: This post is in part, an attempt to consolidate a number of the comments to Professor Green’s email.
Dear Professor Green:
U.S. citizens abroad – Democrats, Republicans and Independents – thank you for the “FBAR/FATCA Task Force” and we note with gratitude that:
Your FBAR/FATCA Task Force has been working steadily to seek relief for overseas Americans facing onerous tax reporting burdens.
Furthermore, your six proposals would be welcomed by U.S. citizens abroad – to be specific:
- 1. Define a foreign or offshore account as an account in a country other than one’s country of residence or the US, thereby recognizing the legitimate need for local banking services;
- 2. Raise the FATCA reporting threshold to $1 million to put the focus on taxpayers with wealth sizeable enough to justify the costly and complex investment structures normally used to conceal assessable earnings;
- 3. Index the reporting threshold to inflation so that it goes up every year just as the Section 911 income exclusion does;
- 4. Add a provision that excuses anyone who does not owe taxes (because of the Section 911 exclusion or any other exemption or a tax treaty) from the obligation to file form 8938, regardless of the threshold reporting;
- 5. Merge the FBAR reporting requirement with the developing FATCA legislation to eliminate duplication in filings; and
- 6. Offer amnesty to overseas Americans who are delinquent taxpayers, inviting them to pay what they may owe and restore their status as tax-compliant citizens. (See our opening remarks for our success in this area.)
That said, your proposals are merely an attempt to improve the conditions of the prison of citizenship-based taxation. You are essentially just accepting the ideas of citizenship-based taxation, FATCA, FBAR and the rest. Gotta be in prison anyway. Why not put the effort into getting along better with the guards! Continue reading
TD Bank and Iranian-Canadian Account Closures
This story has been all over the news this morning in Canada and there is even a Facebook page now up.
Here is the Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/CondemnTDoniranians
This might be an opportunity for Brockers make allies among “other” groups of Canadians.
What do you all think? Good news?
Dear Democrats Abroad member,
Your FBAR/FATCA Task Force has been working steadily to seek relief for overseas Americans facing onerous tax reporting burdens. This is an update on developments related to taxation of overseas Americans and on our advocacy work.
A New IRS Program for those who have not filed
The Internal Revenue Service has made a significant concession to overseas voters who present little or no risk to tax avoidance. On Tuesday June 26, 2012, the IRS announced it will provide a new option to help some U.S. citizens and others residing abroad who haven’t been filing tax returns and provide them a chance to catch up with their tax filing obligations if they owe little or no back taxes. The new procedure will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2012. See these postings on the IRS website for the details of the new program:
www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=256772,00.html and
www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=258431,00.html
[Auther’s Note: the above urls are correct, but if you cannot open them directly when you lick the hyperlink, simply copy and paste the addresses in your browser window.]
Break through: FATCA story finally hits the NPR radio waves in America!
After waiting for 3 long years, a story about FATCA was finally heard on some NPR stations around the Nation. This was created by PRI (Public Radio International). They have a daily radio show which they do in conjunction with the BBC, and it comes out of WGBH in Boston. It is appropriately called, The World. You can listen to the story here: What FATCA Did to American Bank Customers in Switzerland Coming on the heels of the CBC interview on Canada Day, it is good these stories are finally being heard by a wider audience.
More good media news
Thanks to ACA member, Dorothy, who brought Expats Radio to ACA’s attention, ACA now have relationship with them. The first ACA interview is NOW on their website. This will be the first of many and they will be working with them to help ACA reach a wider audience. You can listen to an interview with MaryLouise Serrato here.
Expats Radio informs ACA they have over 250,0000 visitors each month, plus they have a catalogue sharing agreement with NPR radio. This means ACA will be available to be heard on NPR and hopefully reach a deeper audience in the US.
Myth: EVERYONE is Eligible to Free File!
EVERYONE is Eligible to Free File!
http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html
Everyone? Including Americans abroad? Even those with foreign addresses, senior citizens, the working middle class or the wealthy?
if you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, the rules for filing income… are generally the same whether you are living in the U.S. or abroad.
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/article/0,,id=180946,00.html
The rules for filing income are generally the same for those living abroad? Really? Seems hard to believe. Let’s put it to the test.
CBC radio speaks with Russ Hunt and Marie Cashion
Here is the link to the CBC Radio (New Brunswick) of the interview with Profs. Russ Hunt and Marie Cashion:
They have asked for feedback:
infoam [at] fredericton [dot] cbc [dot] ca ; or talk back at 1-800-561-4222 (I don’t know if this number works outside of NB).