1. I think that the US personal tax regime is a bit different to what we are used to on this side of the Atlantic. Apparently all citizens (and those who have worked in the US and hold a green card) are liable to pay taxes to the IRS on all earnings from anywhere in the world.

    They also penalise any banks who they suspect might be aiding off-shore tax avoidance, and have an international reach. Apparently it can be a big problem for US embassy staff to open local bank accounts when posted abroad, because the banks see the risk of being fined by the IRS as not worth the trouble.

    With that sort of system in place (apparently there are only about three countries in the world taxing their citizens in this way), it’s not a big surprise that the IRS effectively want to apply the same principle to corporation tax.

    At the moment, the big US corporations deliberately keep off-shore earnings out of the US to avoid the punitive taxes on money brought into the country. This is probably just a way to make that less worth while.

    Greedy bastards, governments.

    • You are absolutely right Mick. American ex-pats living and working in Ireland right now are charged income tax here by our Government. But they must also fill out their end-of-year tax returns to the US Government and are subject to another round of income tax there on top of their Irish contribution.

      But isn’t it odd that their Inland Revenue Service can threaten to jail American citizens overseas for non-payment of (double) income taxes while Tim Cook of Apple can sit in the White House with Trump and tell him his company has $231BN in non-taxed profits sitting in banks off-shore the US and Cook can actually then threaten the American President in his own home that he won’t get a cent of it unless he does what the Corporates want him to do.

      The greedy bastard governments have spawned an elite minority who would appear to be the ones really running the show over there.

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