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FATCA Hassles: Feds Cracking Down on Overseas Tax Evasion

“Switzerland, which has strict privacy laws protecting customers’ confidential financial information, has effectively declared American citizens personae non gratae as far as their banks are concerned. Banks are shuttering accounts, refusing mortgages and refinances, and refusing to open accounts for Americans living abroad. The rules create an incentive for foreign employers to cease investing in America, avoid hiring Americans, or both. And in some cases, Americans have been refused employment or promotions at foreign companies because the job description requires them to be signatories on the company’s account.” Continue reading →

Bern’s backing of FATCA ‘hits financial sector’

“Walter Boss, a tax lawyer with Poledna Boss Kurer AG in Zurich, said uncertainty was ‘one of the worst enemies in the financial world.’ But more clarity could come at a steep price, even for banks that maintain they have done nothing wrong. Forced to cough up US client records, they are basically being ‘deemed guilty until proven innocent,’ Boss said. Hornung was even more critical. ‘It’s not really an agreement, but more of a dictate from the United States,’ he said. And after suffering the onslaught from Washington, the biggest danger could lie ahead if European tax authorities decide to take the same route as their American counterparts, Hornung warned.” Continue reading →

Swiss MPs endorse US tax compliance deal

“FATCA only addresses current and future accounts held by Americans, but Bern also recently agreed to a controversial deal focused on making amends for past wrongdoings by the banks. That deal offers individual Swiss banks the opportunity to avoid US prosecution if they agree to pay ‘substantial fines’, and provide details on US citizens’ accounts, including the sources and destinations of funds transferred to and from the accounts. The agreement, which is expected to erode Swiss bank secrecy laws, has come under widespread criticism, tempered by recognition that without a deal the country’s all-important financial sector could lose access to the US market.” Continue reading →

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer defends tech company NSA cooperation

“Mayer said she was ‘proud to be part of an organisation that from the beginning, in 2007, has been sceptical of – and has been scrutinizing – those requests [from the NSA].’ Yahoo has previously unsuccessfully sued the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court, which provides the legal framework for NSA surveillance. In 2007 it asked to be allowed to publish details of requests it receives from the spy agency. ‘When you lose and you don’t comply, it’s treason,’ said Mayer. ‘We think it make more sense to work within the system,’ she said. The meeting came as Yahoo and Facebook filed suits once more to force the Fisa court to allow them to disclose more information.” Continue reading →

The Hidden Arms Race

“It’s safe to say that Muslims across the world see U.S. bombers and Tomahawk missiles as raw, ‘Western Christian’ aggression against their kith and kin. This is the case no matter how much legalistic justification our government places on what happens — like ‘punishing’ the Syrian government for using chemical weapons, or whatever. So what’s the biggest issue for investors right now? Well, at the Agora Financial Wealth Symposium in Vancouver, one speaker discussed how broad markets were ‘priced for perfection.’ That is, the general indexes, collective share prices, price-earnings ratios, etc. are all indicating a market psychology of everything being fine, and getting better.” Continue reading →

‘Legitimate Wiretapping’

“Russian spy agencies want easier access to all Skype conversations, notes Doug Valentine. Who can doubt the CIA, FBI, NSA, and the rest of the alphabet from Hell already have access from Bill Gates, the oligarch whose company Microsoft owns Skype? Now Bill wishes Obama could be even more of a dictator, adds Travis Holte, so the corporate state can crony-subsidize the plutocrats even more than it does now. And, Travis notes. Gates is openly anti-free market. His preferences should be enforced at the point of a government gun.” Continue reading →

BEARCAT Bread And Circuses, Or Why I Ripped Up My Ticket

“We had eaten up the lie of hope that ‘working within the system’ is actually possible. I am ripping up my lifetime ticket to the circus that came with my birth certificate and social security number. Never again will I stoop to enter a government building. Never again will I grant credence to the idea that a government worker has rightful authority over me. Never again will I take precious hours out of my short life to grant legitimacy to this farcical freak show, when I could be spending that time trading with crypto-currency in the agora—the free market—in which we do not contract with or pay tribute to ring-leaders. It’s anarchy or bust, baby. It always has been.” Continue reading →

Ruling: State Lawsuit Against Illegal ObamaCare IRS Rule Can Proceed

On August 11, 2013, a federal judge ruled that the State of Oklahoma has standing to proceed with a lawsuit challenging an Internal Revenue Service rule issued in May 2012 regarding premium subsidies in the form of tax credits and penalties delivered through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchange provisions. Oklahoma’s Attorney General Scott Pruitt […]