The United States is the only developed country in the world that subjects its nonresident citizens to complex, ongoing, multiple, and frequently meaningless financial reportbacks. Recent new enforcement initiatives threaten to exacerbate the already onerous burdens imposed by longstanding American exceptionalism. The resulting current situation is fraught with uncertainty, inconsistency, and anxiety. The listing below annotates material selected on the basis of interest, quality, and/or significance. The circumstances faced since 2011 by hundreds of thousands of beset residents and citizens of Canada define the scope of this effort.
2013 Apr 24 – Collins
Margaret Collins / Richard Rubin
Americans paying up wherever they reside beseech Congress
Bloomberg (24 Apr 2013)
Three examples of extraterritorial US persons subject to the agonies of IRS compliance. Charles Allard in Hong Kong has “regularly had to amend tax filings on top of paying levies to the countries where he lives and works.” Winship Herr in Switzerland has paid $3000 to file paperwork requiring payment of $30,000 in US taxes on top of Swiss taxes, partly because of exchange rate disparities. John Kent in England spends about 100 hours to file despite having almost no U.S. source income. “The potential for change to taxation of U.S. citizens abroad is slim.”
2013 Apr 22 – Reed
Max Reed
The ticking time bomb of tax liability for Americans in Canada
Canadian Lawyer (22 Apr 2013)
Eventually FATCA will affect most of the one million or so noncompliant US persons resident in Canada, who remain ” blissfully unaware of the ticking time bomb of U.S. tax liability.” Reed is co-author with Dick Pound of Tax Guide for American Citizens in Canada.
2013 Apr 19 – Jolly
David Jolly
G-20 pushes for measures to end tax evasion
New York Times (19 Apr 2013)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/business/global/g-20-pushes-for-measures-to-end-tax-evasion.html
Print: (20 Apr 2013) B6
“Finance ministers and central bankers of the G-20, meeting in Washington, said in a communiqué that automatic exchange of tax-relevant bank information should be adopted as the global standard.”
2013 Apr 18 – Broom
Giles Broom
Zurich mayor renounces U.S. citizenship amid tighter tax rules
Bloomberg (18 Apr 2013)
“Corine Mauch, 52, a member of the Socialist Party born in Iowa City, Iowa, returned her passport to the U.S. Embassy as she regards Switzerland as her home and doesn’t want to deal with Internal Revenue Service paperwork.”
2013 Apr 18 – Reuters
Reuters
Banker associations sue U.S. over account reporting rule
New York Times (18 Apr 2013)
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/04/18/business/18reuters-usa-tax-lawsuit.html
State bankers associations of Florida and Texas are suing the federal government “over new rules requiring banks to report account information for non-resident aliens to their home governments as part of an effort to combat tax evasion.”
2013 Apr 18 – Temperli
Silvio Temperli
Corine Mauch hat den US-Pass zurückgegeben
Tages Anzeiger (18 Apr 2013)
http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/zuerich/Corine-Mauch-hat-den-USPass-zurueckgegeben/story/27073559
“Mauch ist der Ansicht, dass die Menschen vor allem dort gesellschaftlich und politisch mitwirken sollten, ‘wo sie tatsächlich leben’.” … “Auf die Frage, wie viel Geld sie jährlich den Vereinigten Staaten abliefern musste, antwortet Corine Mauch: ‘Der Betrag war nicht astronomisch, aber auch nicht nichts, circa nochmals halb so viel wie die Schweizer Steuern’.”
2013 Apr 11 – Bogardus
Kevin Bogardus / Bernie Becker
US expatriates plead for relief from IRS
The Hill (11 Apr 2013)
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/293187-americans-living-abroad-plead-for-relief-from-irs
The House Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. Congress is receiving considerable feedback from expatriates in its call for comment on potential tax reform.
