Two prominent members of the European Parliament Sophie in’t Veld and Sylvia Goulard have recently raised concerns to the EU Commission over the FATCA five agreement the US signed with five EU nations. Link below to their written request to the EU Commission.
http://www.d66.nl/intveld/document/wpq_fatca/f=/vixnlqmqvwm5.pdf
Hi everyone.
A number of people have written to the Isaac Brock Forum saying that they can’t get onto the forum. Now I want to mention that I am absolutely ambivalent as to whether this forum even exists. It was created out of a desire to serve people in a different format than what this WordPress blog. That’s ok with me, but as adminstrator of this blog I definitely have my hands full, and therefore, I retreated from involvement there.
Now the person who kindly set up the forum has not accepted to be its on-going administrator. So I wonder if someone that we know here would be willing to do it. This announcement has been up at the forum itself but no one has come forward.
After my post regarding how CBC news article carried IRS water, Calgary411 has published two email responses from Ian Johnson of CBC News*, which explain why they corrected the initial article. I was glad for the corrections. However, the letters also explained the CBC rationale behind the articles. In the first letter, Johnson wrote:
This story was written as part of a CBC income tax season editorial package. It was intended as a primer for Canadians who were born in the U.S. or who hold dual citizenship, in order to provide them with basic information about actions being taken by the IRS that they might not be aware of, and which could have direct tax implications for them.
On January 25th, I posted a story of the “Opt Out” success of a Minnow with the alias of Moby.
It was under the title of An OVDP Minnow “Opt Out” Success by Moby
If you are not familiar with his story, I would suggest that you read that post first to bring you up to date with his story.
Moby, now complete in his dealings with the IRS and no longer residing in America, has generously made his “Opt Out” correspondence public for all OVDI participants to see and learn from. What follows is his message for all of us.
In a consultation Tiger, Somerfugl and I had with a lawyer today, he assured us Canada’s Bank Act and privacy laws protect the rights of all Canadians.
Because Canadian laws have not been amended to accommodate FATCA, he advised us there is no basis for a lawsuit now, but there may be in the future if the government changes the laws or if banks don’t adhere to the current Bank Act or privacy laws.
This is an excerpt from a post at RenounceUScitizenship. Most of the rest of the post already appears here. That said, for those who what more …
I wrote an earlier post that discussed how to select the right tax preparer to do your U.S. tax returns on a going forward basis. Many people fear that the IRS cannot be trusted. But, can we trust the cross border professionals? The purpose of this post is to share some thoughts on how to get the “professional help” required to clean up past compliance issues. This should be considered in terms of (at least) the following four factors: Continue reading
Recent summit talks between the Finance Minister of Canada and the Commissioner of the IRS, to determine how to overcome incompatible tax systems, has resulted in a suggestion about how to revamp the United States and Canada tax treaty. The two parties propose to merge the Internal Revenue Service of the United States and the Canada Revenue Agency, on or before January 1, 2013. The proposal is subject to approval by Congress.
There is a story out tonight on Yahoo News and other sources that ACA (American Citizens Abroad) has just sent a letter to Commissioner Shulman about his refusal to respond formally to Nina Olson’s TAD.
https://twitter.com/#!/FBAR_Compliant/status/178080469689176064
The so-called “Surface Transportation Bill” is proving to be a remarkably “fruitful” platform for senators to use the amendment process to push through their pet legislation. Tim just posted about Carl Levin’s SA 1818, which gives Timmy Geithner the power to outlaw credit cards from countries that Carl Levin doesn’t like. Now, American Citizens Abroad, via an update on their Facebook page, tells us that Harry Reid snuck in something much more sinister: a provision allowing the Secretary of State to deny U.S. passport renewal to — or revoke the existing passport of — anyone with outstanding tax debts over a certain threshold. Continue reading
Over the past half-year, tens of thousands of words have swirled around the current situation of extraterritorial citizens of the United States.
In all that flood of comment, one piece stands out for treatment of an important but little-considered facet. Early on, financial planner (fee-for-service) David Christianson squarely addressed the topic of personality in Long arm of American tax law. It is good to see that his perceptive take at Winnipeg Free Press still remains available, just a click away.
