My wife was listening to the NPR Now channel on XM radio during her drive to work this morning. She called to alert me to this short discussion that was on the Brian Lehrer show which is an WNYC program out of New York. This is primarily a discussion with Matt Welch, editor in chief of Reason magazine, who follows up on the Vanity Fair revelations regarding Romney’s Offshore accounts. Here he explains why he thinks Swiss bank accounts are just fine, and also gets into a discussion of FATCA impacts on average middle class Expats. I am not sure how many NPR stations around the nation carry this program, but good to hear such coverage on the U.S. airwaves. It is short, only about 10 minutes, and you can listen here.
Tag Archives: FATCA
Disappointing Information on Canadian Bankers Association Site
According to their website, “The Canadian Bankers Association works on behalf of 54 domestic banks, foreign bank subsidiaries and foreign bank branches operating in Canada…to promote an understanding of the banking industry and its importance to Canadians.”
It is all the more disappointing to find the following information on their site, intended for us Canadian consumers (says last updated July 5).
- For a US person – “If you do not complete IRS Form W-9 or provide your consent to disclose information to the IRS, your financial institution may be required to withhold a tax of 30% on any U.S. source payments that you receive and send this money to the IRS. Also, your financial institution may refuse to open an account or may be required to close existing accounts” (emphasis mine).
- For ‘non-US person’ clients, the repercussions of not providing further documentation, if requested, are, “If you choose not to provide this additional documentation upon request, at a minimum, your financial institution may be required to withhold a tax of 30% on U.S. source payments1that you receive and send this money to the IRS.”
So, a Canadian born in Scotland that has US indicia who refuses to provide documentation will have 30% US source income withheld. A Canadian born in the US who refuses to provide documentation will not only have 30% withheld, but may have their account closed? Yet, if both refuse to provide further documentation, then how the heck will a bank know where a person was born? And how is this not discrimination? Continue reading
Amy Webster a dual Swiss-US Citizen, tells her FATCA Fallout banking story.
Amy Webster, a communications specialist who lives in Morges, Switzerland shared her FATCA fallout story recently on the Genevalunch blog. The link to her story was in one of the comments posted here on Isaac Brock. I have been in contact with her via email, and obtained her kind permission to also cross post it here for additional visibility. She said, “By all means, my story has gone public, so please feel free to do what you wish with it, as long as it can help our cause!” Her story follows: Continue reading
Roger Conklin: 1099 problems vs FATCA problems….
Roger shares a recent story about his difficulties in sorting out a small error with the IRS over 1099 reporting. I think the story is instructive of greater difficulties to come, when the IRS is gathering “all account data” from Foreign Financial Insitutions (FFIs) plus foreign governments. Remember, this is not just “income related data” like the 1099.
We now see FATCA has expanded to 3 various models, FATCA Direct, FATCA Model I for 5 EU countries, and FATCA Model II for Switzerland and Japan. More models to come? So, reflect on Roger’s story below, and ask yourself, “So what could possibly go wrong?” 🙂 Ah, she’ll be ‘right, Mate! Trust us! LOL Continue reading
The Best Investment in U.S. Defense is to Stop FATCA and Start respecting the sovereigny of other nations
- Note this is a post that I wrote December of 2011. I have cross posted it from RenounceUScitizenship. It dovetails with some of the recent posts published here about the costs and foolishness of waging war on the sovereignty of other countries.
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“What do the recent G20 discussions and the IRS’ enforcement of foreign asset reporting have in common and why should “dual nationals” be concerned?”
From: Fear Factors: Dual Nationals and the IRS
A recent G20 summit was held in Toronto, Canada. The internet is a great thing – gives you instant access to the newspapers in any part of the world. As a result I was able to read both the local commentary and international commentary. The local (Toronto) newspapers were marveling at the extent and cost of the security offered to these “great leaders”. A friend commented to me that:
“If they were such great leaders, then they wouldn’t need that kind of security.” Continue reading
June 18, 1812 – June 18, 2012: U.S. citizenship-based taxation, and other ways to wage war at a profit!
Sorry I forgot to put his up yesterday – cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship
“War is failure”
– Once heard Colin Powell requote this truism
June 18/12 – 200 years ago today the US attacked Canada in the #warof1812 – http://t.co/O3MTCiH8 Laxers's perspective http://t.co/qg4SmeSd
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) June 18, 2012
Today is an important day in Canadian History. Exactly 200 years ago today, the United States under President Madison attacked what was then British North America. The outcome of the war depends on which country’s historians you listen to. But what is clear is that – after three years, the United States failed in its military invasion of it’s British neighbour to the North. In other words U.S. expansion stopped at the 49th parallel – making the existence of Canada possible. Continue reading
U.S. Naricissism and it’s impact on the sovereignty of other nations – Introduction
Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship
Hot off the press from Phil Hodgen!! – Is this what one would expect from a narcissist?
The Internal Revenue Code uses the word “expatriate” to specifically refer to someone who goes through a process of terminating U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status. This is what you will find in Sections 877 and 877A of the Internal Revenue Code. Yes, it is a lazy and ego-centric way for the U.S. government to approach the world: “A word means only what we say it means.”
The most reasonable, vocal, articulate, justified and marketable – “Anti-Americanism” comes from U.S. citizens abroad http://t.co/6Al1Z77U
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) June 16, 2012
In an early post: Nationalistic Narcissism and U.S. citizenship – Being a U.S. citizen is like having a narcissist for a parent – I suggested that the United States is a narcissist. On the most minimal level, narcissism includes the belief that everything and everybody should revolve around the narcissist. Anybody who has ever known a narcissist knows that narcissists do not recognize personal boundaries. To put it another way, a narcissist sees everybody as an extension of the narcissist – i.e cannot accept that other people are autonomous individuals. Although I am not suggesting that Wikipedia is extremely authoritative, I note the following comment:
Continue reading
FATCA: The IRS’s Very Big Stick
This just out on the Wall Street Journal Blog, by Christopher Chung.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is brandishing a “very big stick,” and it’s called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
But the government isn’t looking to hit foreign funds and institutions to bring in tax revenue. “[The IRS] would say, ‘We would be thrilled if we didn’t collect a dime under FATCA,” Laurie Hatten-Boyd, a principal at KPMG, said. “They view this as an information gathering regime, not a withholding regime.”
Note: No mention of impacts on Minnow Americans abroad, or immigrants new to America.
Yes we can!! – Change we can believe in – Organizing the community of U.S. citizens abroad – One community at a time!
Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship
To the readers of the Isaac Brock Society blog. I recognize that many of you are no longer U.S. citizens. As a result, the November 6 Presidential Election may have no direct effect on your lives. Nevertheless, as citizens of other countries you have a clear interest in stopping the U.S. plunder of other nations through citizenship-based taxation. Therefore, I suspect that citizens of all free nations have an interest in putting an end to citizenship-based taxation, FBAR, OVDI and FATCA to harm other sovereign countries. Although, Barack Obama is not the architect of citizenship-based taxation, his administration has used it in new ways to harm other sovereign nations.
Last night the Economist Magazine ran an online debate, on the issue of whether Barack Obama should be re-elected president. The debate allowed live comments. There were a total of 92 “registered” comments. Of the 92, approximately 7 were attempts to comment that never became comments (unless the absence of a comment was intended to be the comment). In any case, of the 85 substantive comments approximately 7 were from U.S. citizens abroad. The agony of U.S. citizens abroad is real. Their pain can be heard. The simple fact is that the Obama administration has made life for U.S. citizens abroad a life of agony. In order to spread the word, I created a number of tweets which link to the cries of anguish. Here they are: Continue reading
Foreign Financial Institutions could recover some of their costs for implementing FATCA
The problem with FATCA, according to so many foreign financial institutions (FFIs), is that they bear all the costs and none of the benefits of FATCA. This is perhaps untrue. According to the IRS website, informants are entitled to a cut on the proceeds of civil and criminal fines under the Bank Secrecy Act (FBAR):
4.26.7.8 (11-17-2006)
Rewards for Informants
- An individual who provides original information that leads to recovery of a criminal fine, civil penalty, or forfeiture that exceeds $50,000 for a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act may be eligible for a reward, 31 USC 5323 and 31 CFR 103.62.
- The reward may not exceed the lesser of $150,000 or 25% of the net amount collected. Generally officers and employees of the United States, state, or local governments are not eligible to collect the reward.
Thus, if the FFI provides information ratting out their US citizen clients to the IRS, they should be able to claim a portion of any fines that the IRS is able to collect.
Undoubtedly, the IRS will claim that the information was not “original” but required by FATCA. Nevertheless, FFIs should pursue the “legal” possibility of getting a piece of the action.