Would Americans care if they knew where their taxes were going?

A recurring theme with FATCA is that Americans living in America simply don’t care about the problems the act creates for Americans living abroad. But maybe they should…

Getting harder for American expats to open bank accounts

The argument in favour of the US’s citizenship based tax system has long been that citizens benefit from having an American passport, even if they don’t live in the United States. But for many expats, FATCA is tipping the balance and the US passport has become a liability.

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FATCA and the unfair advantage

I wrote the other day about an article in the New York Times that was critical of FATCA. One reader let me know that the article may have hinted at more going on…

FATCA finally gets some negative press in the US

The New York Times recently published an article denouncing FATCA and the burden it places on expats and foreign financial institutions.

Eritrea’s Extortion

There are only two countries in the world that have a Citizenship-based taxation system, the United States and Eritrea. So let’s take a look and how the world reacts when a country without global political clout does it…

FATCA hits the opinion page of the Washington Times

While author Richard Rahn is making this a partisan issue by placing the blame squarely on Democrat shoulders and calling it an effort in “wealth redistribution,” he does write a refreshingly raw piece that does a good job of expressing the anger and frustration that many of us feel.

The canary in the coal mine

The Vancouver Consulate is now officially backlogged in its requests for renunciation of US citizenship.

What’s next for voluntary disclosure?

Now that the voluntary disclosure programs (OVDI / VDP) have ended, tax professionals are wondering what’s going to happen next. With OVDI participants facing stiff penalties, the IRS must either increase penalties for voluntary disclosers going forward or risk angering participants who will rightfully feel that they were deliberately entrapped by unfulfilled promises of leniency.

New TAS report condemns IRS conduct on OVDP

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is, according to its tagline, “your voice at the IRS.” It’s a government body tasked with ensuring fairness and proper conduct from the Internal Revenue Service.

Yet another article demonizes those trapped in the FATCA nightmare

David Voreacos has written an article hailing the success of the IRS’s charges against banks like UBS (which has made it nearly impossible for expats living in Switzerland to find banks willing accept them as customers).