If tax complexity equals corruption, perhaps the US is one of the most corrupt nations in the world and we just don’t know it.
The U.S. tax system is not simply corrupt, it is corrupt in a deceptive manner that has degraded the entire system of American government. Congress is able to funnel vast sums of money in perpetuity to its favored funders through the tax code without anyone realizing it.
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=255756,00.html
IR-2012-35, March 19, 2012
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service seeks civic-minded volunteers to serve on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP), a federal advisory committee that listens to taxpayers, identifies key issues, and makes recommendations for improving IRS service.
Via Just Me on Twitter, we learn that Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), head of the House’s Americans Abroad Caucus, posted a video of her questioning Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on, among other things, banking issues faced by U.S. Persons in non-U.S. jurisdictions. For those of you who hate watching videos (like me), after the jump I’ve made transcript of the relevant section, which begins around 3:14.
Hello Police State!
While the Obama Administration curtailed its involvement with local police agencies to enforce immigration law and capture criminal aliens, that same administration wishes local cops to help the Internal Revenue Service enforce tax laws, according to testimony given before a panel of U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday.
IRS May Draft Cops to Catch Tax Cheats, Official Tells Senate
I would draw your attention to the recent post by Robert Wood at Forbes. It caught my attention this morning, and so I decided to post a comment back to him. Frankly, Robert is one of the regular and consistent writers on FATCA, FBAR and Citizenship taxation issues. He often quotes and references American Citizens Abroad. I sometimes joke that they must have him on their payroll. That is NOT true! LOL
Here is the link to the most recent posting…
FATCA Makes Banks Shut Out Americans
I could not pass up the opportunity to post a comment back to him, and the text is produced below:
It seems that in addition to arbitrary and indefinite detention of U.S. citizens and resident, as authorized through the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act ( NDAA) that a supporting piece of legislation that lengthens the time the government can hold information on you has also been signed into law:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/americans-data-held-longer-under-counterterrorism-rules-053900195.html
The Internal Revenue Service audited about 30 percent of the returns of those with adjusted gross income of $10 million or more in 2011, according to statistics released on Thursday. By contrast, in 2010, the agency audited about 18 percent of that group.
Via TaxProf Blog, a new paper by Linda Dodd-Major and Paula N. Singer: “When Immigration and Tax Converge“, which criticises the the IRS’ confusing treatment of foreign nationals living in the U.S. I’ve quoted some choice bits below.
I hope that they don’t fear us at Isaac Brock Society and put us in a parallel category with the “Sovereign Citizen” and “Freeman” movements because the only thing we want is to pay our taxes in, and only in, the countries where we live. We don’t claim to be immune from the law (our local laws in the countries where we live apply to us) we just claim that US jurisdiction does not apply to us abroad! Most of us live in sovereign nations that are independant from the US.
As many of you may have gathered by now, I’m not a Tory, I’m a “Dipper” (NDP supporter) from way back. But I am beginning to like Jim Flaherty. Certainly more than any other Tory in recent memory (with the exception of Jim Prentice, for whom I also have great respect, after his stance for the free vote on gay civil marriage in Canada a couple of years ago).
In today’s mail (remember Canada Post?) I got a three-and-a-half page reply from Flaherty to three emails I’d sent last month. Actually not “snail” mail, it arrived the day after it was dated (but then, I live in Ottawa). It may be a new standard reply now, and others may have received one recently, but there’s a passage in it that I haven’t heard before, on FATCA, which I’d like to pass on, with pride and hope.
