Big Brother Gov’t Seeks to Tax and Track All Drivers

[Mr S]

http://www.infowars.com/big-brother-gov ... l-drivers/

[Rock]

http://www.infowars.com/big-brother-gov ... l-drivers/

It looks like another excuse to require more personal information on all citizens while beefing-up the size of government. The gasoline tax would be so much easier to implement and administer. But it would not give them an excuse to further invade privacy.

As you may know, US expats are also being increasingly tracked - through their tax and informational returns. Starting next year (when 2011 tax returns are due), we will be required to submit detailed foreign account date directly with our tax returns to the IRS. The old requirement of sending similar data to a separate department in the Treasury will remain in force so we will be required to send nearly duplicate data to two different agencies. The IRS will start comparing out overseas incomes directly to overseas assets. They may require asset information on previously unreported items such as real estate, physical gold, and even cash held in safety deposit boxes.

The new requirements are all part of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) which will be fully implemented by 2013. This new set of laws will also require all foreign financial institutions to automatically provide data to IRS on all their US citizen customers (the way on-shore financial institutions already do) or face draconian penalties on all US related business such as being prohibited from executing any wire transfers which go into or out of the US.

Americans who are caught trying to hide foreign income and assets will face confiscatory penalties and possible serious jail time - first they go after you criminally, then while you are sitting in jail, they come back civilly to milk you for all your remaining assets. If you don't wanna comply with all this, best you find a new citizenship and revoke your US passport ASAP. Currently there is already an exit tax in place for people with relatively high prior 3 years earnings + a decent asset base. As time passes, the cut-off will likely be lowered as more Americans take this route. US Passport renouncement activity has already shot-up dramatically YoY. I don't see this trend letting-up anytime soon.

[Mr S]

http://www.infowars.com/big-brother-gov ... l-drivers/

It looks like another excuse to require more personal information on all citizens while beefing-up the size of government. The gasoline tax would be so much easier to implement and administer. But it would not give them an excuse to further invade privacy.

As you may know, US expats are also being increasingly tracked - through their tax and informational returns. Starting next year (when 2011 tax returns are due), we will be required to submit detailed foreign account date directly with our tax returns to the IRS. The old requirement of sending similar data to a separate department in the Treasury will remain in force so we will be required to send nearly duplicate data to two different agencies. The IRS will start comparing out overseas incomes directly to overseas assets. They may require asset information on previously unreported items such as real estate, physical gold, and even cash held in safety deposit boxes.

The new requirements are all part of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) which will be fully implemented by 2013. This new set of laws will also require all foreign financial institutions to automatically provide data to IRS on all their US citizen customers (the way on-shore financial institutions already do) or face draconian penalties on all US related business such as being prohibited from executing any wire transfers which go into or out of the US.

Americans who are caught trying to hide foreign income and assets will face confiscatory penalties and possible serious jail time - first they go after you criminally, then while you are sitting in jail, they come back civilly to milk you for all your remaining assets. If you don't wanna comply with all this, best you find a new citizenship and revoke your US passport ASAP. Currently there is already an exit tax in place for people with relatively high prior 3 years earnings + a decent asset base. As time passes, the cut-off will likely be lowered as more Americans take this route. US Passport renouncement activity has already shot-up dramatically YoY. I don't see this trend letting-up anytime soon.

The US government is broke and it's citizens are indentured servants to the governments eyes. They are really going after individuals who make over 100k overseas so the IRS can steal their share in taxes. If you make or have assets less than whatever the current cutoff rate is (i think it's approaching 90k this year) than they don't care....right now anyways... later this decade they may decide they need even more taxes and control over citizens and try to take a portion of that too. I don't have any real wealth at the moment so I don't have much to worry about but in a couple of years the PI banks may decide not to allow Americans to open accounts anymore or close current ones so they don't have to deal with the us rules. But the people who run things here are also incompetent and may not abide by the rules anyways until they are forced too.

If i had wealth I would have already secured a second citizenship somewhere and considered revoking my US one, but for now I'm still a no body to them.

It's a possibility that all this could complicate the matter of foreign companies wanting to hire Americans as well. Time will tell. But like all people with money, no matter what the government does, people will always find new methods to hide their wealth. So all this really does is create more red tape for the average citizen and probably doesn't help much catching people trying to hide their overseas assets.

[Rock]

http://www.infowars.com/big-brother-gov ... l-drivers/

It looks like another excuse to require more personal information on all citizens while beefing-up the size of government. The gasoline tax would be so much easier to implement and administer. But it would not give them an excuse to further invade privacy.

As you may know, US expats are also being increasingly tracked - through their tax and informational returns. Starting next year (when 2011 tax returns are due), we will be required to submit detailed foreign account date directly with our tax returns to the IRS. The old requirement of sending similar data to a separate department in the Treasury will remain in force so we will be required to send nearly duplicate data to two different agencies. The IRS will start comparing out overseas incomes directly to overseas assets. They may require asset information on previously unreported items such as real estate, physical gold, and even cash held in safety deposit boxes.

The new requirements are all part of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) which will be fully implemented by 2013. This new set of laws will also require all foreign financial institutions to automatically provide data to IRS on all their US citizen customers (the way on-shore financial institutions already do) or face draconian penalties on all US related business such as being prohibited from executing any wire transfers which go into or out of the US.

Americans who are caught trying to hide foreign income and assets will face confiscatory penalties and possible serious jail time - first they go after you criminally, then while you are sitting in jail, they come back civilly to milk you for all your remaining assets. If you don't wanna comply with all this, best you find a new citizenship and revoke your US passport ASAP. Currently there is already an exit tax in place for people with relatively high prior 3 years earnings + a decent asset base. As time passes, the cut-off will likely be lowered as more Americans take this route. US Passport renouncement activity has already shot-up dramatically YoY. I don't see this trend letting-up anytime soon.

The US government is broke and it's citizens are indentured servants to the governments eyes. They are really going after individuals who make over 100k overseas so the IRS can steal their share in taxes. If you make or have assets less than whatever the current cutoff rate is (i think it's approaching 90k this year) than they don't care....right now anyways... later this decade they may decide they need even more taxes and control over citizens and try to take a portion of that too. I don't have any real wealth at the moment so I don't have much to worry about but in a couple of years the PI banks may decide not to allow Americans to open accounts anymore or close current ones so they don't have to deal with the us rules. But the people who run things here are also incompetent and may not abide by the rules anyways until they are forced too.

If i had wealth I would have already secured a second citizenship somewhere and considered revoking my US one, but for now I'm still a no body to them.

It's a possibility that all this could complicate the matter of foreign companies wanting to hire Americans as well. Time will tell. But like all people with money, no matter what the government does, people will always find new methods to hide their wealth. So all this really does is create more red tape for the average citizen and probably doesn't help much catching people trying to hide their overseas assets.

1. The foreign EARNED INCOME EXCLUSION is around $91,500 (money you get paid by an overseas company while living overseas long term). You are also given a generous foreign housing exclusion.

2. BUT, none of this applies to UNEARNED INCOME such as dividends, interest, capital gains, rental income, social security benefits, pensions, annuities, gambling winnings, or even alimony. You have to pay taxes on this types of income just as if you made them in the States. Other types of income which might not be included (depending on circumstances) is business profits and royalties.

Many expats live on investment income and/or rental income and/or social security/pensions/annuities and/or website earnings. None of these benefit from in the EARNED INCOME EXCLUSION or foreign housing exclusion. However, certain website earnings might be included if none of the companies involved are based in USA (eg Google Adsense earnings would not be included in the exclusion).

3. I believe the USA is the only developed country in the world which taxes worldwide income of non-resident citizens.

4. Completely separate from the tax issue is informational requirements. Whether or not you are liable to pay US tax, you (US citizens and PR holders) must submit forms (FBARs) to the Treasury each year on all offshore accounts you hold if their aggregate value ever reached US$10,000 any day of the previous year or face possible criminal and confiscatory civil penalties.

5. The exit tax is one whereby once you declare the intention to revoke US citizenship, you are required to pay a one-off tax if any of the following apply to you:

- your average annual net income tax for the 5 years ending before the date of expatriation or termination of residency is more than a specified amount that is adjusted for inflation (around $145,000 for 2010) OR

- your net worth is $2 million or more on the date of your expatriation OR

- you fail to certify that you have complied with all US federal tax obligations for the 5 years preceding the date of your expatriation.

Calculation of the actual amount owed is a bit complicated and involves marking assets to market values, etc. But generally, it will end-up being a significant chunk of your assets if you fall within the scope of the tax.