Canadian court rules against 'Gwen and Kazia' challenge of FATCA information-sharing law's constitutionality

An appeals court in Ottawa has affirmed the constitutionality of the way the Canadian government allows Canadian financial institutions to share the information of their U.S. account-holders with the authorities in the U.S., ending the latest round of a years-long battle by two U.S. born Canadian women who are known informally to their supporters as "Gwen and Kazia." 

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New European Parliament 'update' of 2018 report on FATCA said to acknowledge many FATCA critics' concerns

(..as FATCA critics respond with calls for immediate EU action)                                                                          

A new report by a European Parliamentary think tank that had been commissioned by the Parliament's Committee on Petitions (PETI) to "update" a previous report on the subject of "FATCA Legislation and its Application at the International and EU Level" is being welcomed by FATCA critics in Europe for its acknowledgement of certain  concerns about the way the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is implemented that the original report didn't fully identify.

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Mixed response in Expatland as U.S. Treasury unveils plans for new FATCA reporting 'guidance' for 'FFIs'

The news that banks in the Netherlands will not, in fact, be obliged to begin requiring their U.S. person account-holders to have U.S. Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs), such as Social Security numbers, as of Sept 1, has (unsurprisingly) been welcomed by such TIN-lacking U.S. persons in that country.

(Particularly since Sept. 1 came and went more than a week ago...)

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Lehagre's Assn of Accidental Americans requests U.S. district court 'expedite' its renunciation fee challenge case

The Association of Accidental Americans, a Paris-based advocacy organization, together with 20 “accidental Americans” (persons deemed to be U.S. citizens because they happened to have been born in the U.S. but who've lived all of the rest of their lives elsewhere, as citizens of other countries), yesterday filed a motion to expedite a legal challenge it filed in 2020, over the legality of the Renunciation Fee.

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Dutch finance secretary issues '4th FATCA Progress Letter', as Dutch Accidental Americans enquire 'what progress?'

The back-and-forth between the Dutch government and so-called accidental Americans who happen to be Dutch residents and citizens has resumed within the last few days, with a "Fourth Progress Letter [on] FATCA" having been issued on Monday by the country's State Secretary for Finance, Marnix van Rij. As usual, a response was immediately forthcoming from the Netherlands Association of Accidental Americans (NLAA) – which, again as usual, insisted that in fact, "no progress" on FATCA had yet been made. 

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UK's tax authority to reach out to 'hundreds' with possible links to bank in non-CRS-compliant Puerto Rico

As the UK's tax collection agency, HM Revenue & Customs, is reported to be preparing to reach out to "hundreds" of customers of a bank located in Puerto Rico over possible tax irregularities, financial services industry observers have been pointing out that the bank in question is located in one of five U.S. territories that, like the United States itself, have not signed up to the OECD's Common Reporting Standard (CRS).

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Ross McGill: ‘FATCA isn’t the problem: CBT is’ 

In the early years of this century, a number of major media exposés reported how Homeland Americans, as well as rich people from other developed and developing countries, were making use of secret overseas bank accounts in order to avoid their tax obligations back home. 
 
Switzerland, where bank secrecy was enshrined in law, was an unsurprising favorite of many such wealthy individuals, but other jurisdictions were also named...

France's National Assembly approves FATCA reciprocity amendment, citing 'accidentels'

France's National Assembly on Tuesday approved an amendment to the government's latest finance bill that would require the U.S. government to ensure that U.S. banks and financial institutions provide the same information to France's government about accounts held by French taxpayers that French financial entities are currently providing annually to the U.S. government, as they're required to do by the U.S. law known as FATCA.

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John Richardson: 'The CRS ≠ FATCA'

When the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act finally came into force around the world in 2014 –  four years after it was signed into law by President Obama – the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development was preparing its own account information reporting regulations package.

The Common Reporting Standard, as it was to be known as, differed from FATCA in that it was intended to be global, and fully reciprocal – meaning that those countries participating in the collecting and forwarding of information about other countries' resident taxpayer's financial accounts would expect to receive the same data about their taxpayers resident in that country... 

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Opinion

Ross McGill: ‘FATCA isn’t the problem: CBT is’ 

Ross McGill: ‘FATCA isn’t the problem: CBT is’ 

In the early years of this century, a number of major media exposés reported how Homeland Americans, as well as rich people from other developed and developing countries, were making...

Mar-18-2023