Monthly Archives: July 2015

Swiss court rules handing over bank employee info to US illegal

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“A Swiss court has ruled that Credit Suisse’s decision to provide US tax authorities with information on an employee was illegal, according to the ruling made public Monday.  In April 2012, the Swiss government gave 11 Swiss banks the go-ahead to accommodate a US tax evasion probe and hand over the names of thousands of their employees and consultants working with American clients.  Fearful of harsh US penalties and prosecution, the banks then met Washington’s demands, handing over personal information about numerous staff members, and reportedly also making personal documents, emails and details of telephone calls available.”

http://news.yahoo.com/swiss-court-rules-handing-over-bank-employee-us-192213815.html

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Authors Guild demands ISPs monitor, filter Internet of pirated goods

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“The Authors Guild, one of the nation’s top writer’s groups, wants the US Congress to overhaul copyright law and require ISPs to monitor and filter the Internet of pirated materials, including e-books. The guild, which represents thousands of authors, has been quite active in trying to protect its members’ works. Most recently, the guild is urging the Justice Department to investigate Amazon’s book-selling practices on antitrust grounds. The guild had been involved in long-running litigation against Google’s university book scanning project. Last year, a federal appeals court said that universities could scan millions of library books without the authors’ permission.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/07/authors-guild-demands-isps-monitor-filter-internet-of-pirated-goods/

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Online gambling ban won’t stop online gambling, but will stop growth

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“The Sheldon Adelson-backed legislation to ban regulated online gambling — The Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) — is back in the spotlight thanks to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.  RAWA would immediately abolish the legal, state-regulated online gambling markets in New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware, where regulated online casinos directly employ hundreds of people. It will only serve to prop up unregulated markets that have none of the age verification, identity verification, consumer protection or anti-money laundering systems that regulated sites are required to utilize by law.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/236442-online-gambling-ban-wont-stop-online-gambling-but-will

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IRS Seeks To Require Reporting Of All U.S. Bank Accounts

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“Currently, information reports are not required on non-interest accounts, while there is a $10 threshold for reporting on interest bearing accounts. This change would be effective for the current tax year of 2015, giving banks and credit unions little time to adapt their systems for compliance.  Should this provision be enacted, taxpayers will be awash in new 1099s reporting de minimis amounts of interest.  In many cases, they will report less than a one dollar in earned interest per year.  Additionally, this new reporting requirement will impose substantial costs on the financial services industry that far exceed the revenue that will be gained by the proposal.”

http://consumerbankers.com/cba-issues/comment-letters/joint-letter-re-sec-603

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New IRS guidance limits FBAR seizures to a mere 100% of account value

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“New constraints on penalties the IRS will impose when taxpayers don’t properly report their foreign bank accounts show agency concerns that some will argue in court that huge penalties are unconstitutional, attorneys told Bloomberg BNA.  Practitioners said the guidance likely stems in part from an argument a taxpayer was prepared to make in court in 2014 that a penalty far greater than the value of his bank account, across multiple years, was an excessive fine under the Eighth Amendment. Some said that argument still could be made even under the new guidance, which limits the amount the government can take to 100 percent of the account.”

http://www.bna.com/new-fbar-limits-n17179927429/

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Congress’s Plans to Lock You in

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“Congress ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on April 2, 1992. But it’s now having second thoughts.  The ‘right to travel’ makes some politicians very nervous.  In May, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced legislation that would seize the passport of any US citizen with ‘seriously delinquent tax debts.’ This is the fourth year in a row that Hatch, or other Big Government apologists, have introduced this measure.  The proposal requires no hearing or any other due process to grab your passport. All that’s needed is for the IRS to issue a ‘Notice of Levy’ for any amount greater than $50,000. This is a letter informing you that the IRS thinks you owe it money.”

http://www.nestmann.com/congresss-plans-to-lock-you-in

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Yemeni-Americans Say U.S. Embassy Unfairly Revoked Passports

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“The passport of the man was deemed fraudulent and taken away. He was stuck in Yemen for 13 months until he was granted a temporary passport valid only to return to the United States. But without his official passport, he cannot return to where he left his daughter. He is not alone. At least 20 other Yemeni-Americans from New York to California have similar stories.  Even for a federal agency with a reputation among critics as often being overly harsh in deciding who can enter the United States, lawyers say, what happened in Sana seems particularly egregious. American citizens, they say, are essentially rendered stateless for no apparent reason other than their Yemeni origin.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/nyregion/yemeni-americans-thrust-into-limbo-say-us-embassy-unfairly-revokes-passports.html

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Thomas Friedman and the Wish for War with Iran

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“Thomas Friedman, the New York Times op-ed-page representative of the foreign-policy elite, is unhappy with how the soon-to-be-completed Iran nuclear talks are going. He says President Obama, like his predecessor George W. Bush, hasn’t been tough enough. Before judging Friedman’s analysis, certain facts must be kept in mind. Iran has never had a program designed to build a nuclear bomb. You wouldn’t know from his column that Iran is a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), subjecting it to intrusive inspections for many years. Iran has been demonized and framed. Friedman is doing the bidding of those who want a U.S. war of aggression.”

https://sheldon.liberty.me/thomas-friedman-and-the-wish-for-war-with-iran/

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Ron Paul: For Normal Relations With Cuba, End US Interventionism

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“President Obama announced on Wednesday that the US and Cuba would restore full diplomatic relations and that embassies could be re-opened in each country by the end of the month.  For this achievement, which was resisted by vested interests in the US, Obama should be praised. However we shouldn’t be too optimistic about truly establishing normal relations until we understand how relations became so abnormal in the first place. The destruction of relations between the two countries was preceded by US intervention on behalf of a hated Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista, which had turned the Cuban people against the United States and set the stage for the emergence of Fidel Castro.”

http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/july/06/for-normal-relations-with-cuba-end-us-interventionism/

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Apple, GE, and others could soon sell their products in Iran

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“The nuclear accord reached today doesn’t mean companies can immediately market and sell their products in Iran — the country must meet certain requirements before sanctions will be lifted, and it’s not clear when that would happen — but it does mean businesses are suddenly very close to operating in the country, something they’ve been interested in for some time. Iran is a country of more than 77 million people, and as the Journal points out, today’s nuclear deal would eventually unfreeze more than $100 billion in Iranian cash held in foreign banks, which would give more buying power to the country and certainly could entice companies hoping to bring their products to Iran.”

http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/14/8960381/apple-ge-iran-nuclear-deal

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