BEPS and the New International Tax Order

Abstract

Across the globe, banks are flagging accounts with indicia indicating their owners may be "US Persons", making it possible for the United States to enforce its taxation of nonresident citizens extraterritorially for the first time in history. The indicia method constitutes a mining expedition for US citizens carried out by foreign banks and governments. Establishing a tax jurisdiction in this manner is unprecedented, enlisting major foreign assistance to dramatically expand the enforcement of the U.S. tax jurisdiction over a globally dispersed population, after a century of neglect and apparent indifference. While supporting effective information exchange as to residents aligns with globally accepted tax jurisdiction norms, the reach to nonresident US citizens is not.[...]The international community would be justified to, at minimum, insist that the United States catalogue its own taxpayer population, inform this population of its status, and educate it of the attendant obligations, before turning to other countries to assist in the task.