Taxation Without Constitution

Foreign asset reporting before FBAR and FATCA: “loyalty questionnaires” for World War II Japanese American internees

"Most of us are familiar only with modern-day attempts to get Americans to report non-US accounts and investments: the controlled foreign corporation laws of the 1960s, followed by the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, and today’s FATCA. But three decades before TD F 90-22.1 and seven decades before Form 8938, there was WRA 126, 'Application for Leave Clearance', which had to be filed by any Japanese American seeking to leave a War Relocation Authority internment camp." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingForeign asset reporting before FBAR and FATCA: “loyalty questionnaires” for World War II Japanese American internees

The Unsung, But Massive Obamacare Sales Tax Increase That Is On the Way

"In 2014, Obamacare will take effect, with many of the changes set to roll out over the next six months. There are a number of new taxes that the ACA will bring- twenty one to be exact- but the sales tax on the purchase of health insurance is by far the largest. The tax increases that remain on the books will cost taxpayers more than $675 billion over the next ten years. Chief among these will be the sales tax on the purchase of health insurance, totaling $101.7 billion, and making it larger than all the other industry-specific taxes combined." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Unsung, But Massive Obamacare Sales Tax Increase That Is On the Way

US tax rules sour life for Americans abroad

"Scott Schmith is a patriot and a US military veteran but he is no longer a US citizen: Sick of complex tax rules making his life in Switzerland miserable he recently handed back his passport. 'It was a pretty big decision and there was a bit of anxiety,' said the 50-year-old photographer who served in the 1990-91 Gulf war and has been living in Switzerland since 1993. But once he received his Swiss passport and handed back his US one last September, 'it was like a load of weight off my shoulders.' A growing number of American expats are opting to give up their citizenship rather than deal with the increasing difficulties imposed on them by US tax authorities." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS tax rules sour life for Americans abroad

Obama’s Tax Crackdown to Target Foreigners’ Accounts in US Banks

"The Obama administration may soon ask Congress for the power to require more disclosure by U.S. banks of information about foreign clients' accounts to those clients' home governments, as part of a crackdown on tax evasion, sources said. The information-sharing effort stems from a fight by the Treasury Department against offshore tax evasion under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, adopted in 2010 and set to begin taking effect at the end of 2013. At the heart of FATCA is a law requiring more disclosure by non-U.S. banks of information about Americans' accounts to the Internal Revenue Service." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama’s Tax Crackdown to Target Foreigners’ Accounts in US Banks

IRS: Cheapest Obamacare Plan Will Cost $20,000 per Family by 2016

"The Internal Revenue Service issued a report Wednesday in which it estimated that under Obamacare, the least expensive health insurance plan available to a family in 2016 would cost $20,000 annually according to CNSNews.com. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act all U.S. citizens are required to have health insurance, either through their employer or by purchasing it directly from the government. Individuals who don't have it by 2016 face a penalty amounting to either 2.5 percent of a person's taxable income or approximately $2,000 per family, depending on their income." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIRS: Cheapest Obamacare Plan Will Cost $20,000 per Family by 2016

Still no list of Q4 2012 ex-Americans in the Federal Register

"If you, I, or any other U.S. person abroad fails to report some information to the U.S. government under Chapter 61, Subchapter A, Part II, Subpart A of the Internal Revenue Code, we might have to pay the U.S. government tens of thousands of dollars of fines, regardless of the actual underlying tax deficiency. If the U.S. government fails to report some information to us under the exact same Subpart, we get zip. So don’t get too excited when you hear that today’s Federal Register is missing something; after all, it’s only the ninth time in sixteen quarters that Timothy Franz Geithner has violated this single provision of the law of the land." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStill no list of Q4 2012 ex-Americans in the Federal Register

Mister Taxman: Why Some Americans Working Abroad are Ditching Their Citizenships

"The U.S. is the world’s only industrialized nation that taxes citizens who live overseas, even if their income is generated in a foreign country and they never return to America. And while high-profile cases like that of Tina Turner or that of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin catch public attention, the vast majority of expatriates affected by double taxation and increasingly draconian filing rules are middle-class or retired, or those who have never lived or worked in the United States at all, but were born to American parents overseas." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMister Taxman: Why Some Americans Working Abroad are Ditching Their Citizenships

Paul Craig Roberts: Attack On Sovereignty

"Those concerned about 'The New World Order' speak as if the United States is coming under the control of an outside conspiratorial force. In fact, it is the US that is the New World Order. That is what the American unipolar world, about which China, Russia, and Iran complain, is all about. Washington has demonstrated that it has no respect for its own laws and Constitution, much less any respect for international law and the law and sovereignty of other countries. All that counts is Washington’s will as the pursuit of hegemony moves Washington closer to becoming a world dictator." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaul Craig Roberts: Attack On Sovereignty

Federal Judge Shoots Down IRS Attempt To Regulate All Paid Tax Preparers

"In 2010, the IRS decided to require all paid preparers to register with it and those who weren’t otherwise subject to national standards to pass a minimum competency test. Registration began in 2011 and preparers were supposed to pass the test by the end of this year. But on Friday, in a surprise ruling, Washington D.C. Federal District Court Judge James E. Boasberg blocked the IRS from implementing the new requirements, finding the agency 'unambiguously' lacked authority from Congress to regulate those who simply prepare returns and don’t otherwise 'practice' before the IRS by, for example, representing a taxpayer in an audit." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFederal Judge Shoots Down IRS Attempt To Regulate All Paid Tax Preparers