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14-03-2012 20:49 tinyurl.com

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Free Book Download - The Right Way to Manage Expats - Video

A shortage of English-language school places in Hong Kong is hurting expatriate families and damaging the city's reputation as a regional business hub, parents and lobby groups say.

The situation is driving some companies to look at alternatives such as Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai, they say.

International chambers of commerce have united to pressure the semi-autonomous Chinese's territory to wake up to the problem, but say their pleas for action have fallen on deaf ears.

"There is no space and no flexibility for families like ours. It's a big sacrifice on my family's part ... to come to Hong Kong," said a recently arrived American businessman and father-of-two, requesting anonymity.

"All we as parents are concerned with coming to Hong Kong is will any school accept our children? A lot of firms have decided to go to other cities in Asia where school accessibility is easier. Hong Kong is losing out."

Hong Kong had the dubious distinction of making assignment services firm Brookfield Global Relocation's Top 20 list of most challenging destinations for the first time last year, with schooling cited as the major problem.

"This continues to be the number one burning issue that (foreign companies) are facing in growing their businesses out here," in Hong Kong, said Janet de Silva, the American Chamber of Commerce's (AmCham) education affairs group chairwoman.

Immigration department figures show the number of US and UK passport holders issued with Hong Kong employment visas increased 42.48 percent from 2009 to 2011, as more people are drawn to the city as a gateway to the Chinese market.

But the former British colony's English-language schools have struggled to keep up with the demand due to land shortages, red tape and funding problems.

School waiting lists typically contain up to 100 names, and only two state-funded English-language schools had any spare spaces at the start of this year, according to school data and relocation specialists.

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Hong Kong's school place shortage deters expats

THERE have been far fewer consumer complaints from expats in Shanghai, which authorities attribute to the language barrier and poor publicity of the hotline service.

Compared to the huge number of complaints received from Chinese consumers - more than 111,000 - the city's consumer rights hotline 12315 only received 18 complaints from expats last year. China marks Consumer Rights Day today.

The city had more than 200,000 overseas residents at the end of 2010, according to the country's latest population census.

This does not mean that expats don't encounter consumer disputes. According to the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau, expats' complaints cover a wide range of problems, including public transport services, flights, food safety and apartment rent. But for various reasons, they won't call the hotline but try to solve the problem via other means, like legal action, or stay silent.

An American man who preferred to stay anonymous said he once called the hotline to complain about an airline company over ticket refund, but the operator hung up as soon as he spoke English. "I had to give up and asked my Chinese friends for help," the American said, adding that he believed the operator couldn't speak English.

Another expat, Obed, a Kenyan studying at Shanghai University, claimed he was not even aware of any hotline for consumers. "So if I had some consumer rights problems, I would just let it go," he said.

The Shanghai Commission for Consumers' Rights and Interests Protection admitted the hotline is not known among expats but officials still have no plans to promote the service. "We accept English complaints, but we don't have a special platform for them," said Zhao Jiaoli, an official with the commission.

Zhao said several operators at the hotline speak English, but only one is an English major.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision said its hotline 12365, which accepts complaints about product quality and food safety, has seldom received complaints from foreigners despite opening an English service several years ago. The officials said this was "quite normal" because the bureau has never promoted the hotline's English service.

In fact, some Chinese consumers have complained that the hotline was difficult to access.

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Eastday-Expats shrug off consumer gripes

A group of U.S. expatriates has written a letter to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman to complain he has not responded to a directive from the National Taxpayer Advocate objecting to the way taxpayers who came forward under the 2009 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program were treated by IRS examiners.

Nina Olson

Last December, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson described her concerns in her annual report to Congress and later sent a rarely used Taxpayer Advocate Directive to Shulman (see Taxpayer Uncertainty Prompts Citizenship Renunciations). Olson, who heads the Taxpayer Advocacy Service, argued that IRS examiners treated some taxpayers unfairly who had come forward under the 2009 program to voluntarily declare previously undisclosed bank accounts to the IRS. She said the IRS had subjected them to a one size fits all regime and rescinded some of the claims midstream that would have qualified for reduced penalties by way of reasonable cause (see Groundhog Day for IRS Voluntary Disclosure Do-over).

Olson issued a rare Taxpayer Advocate Directive last August, only the sixth in her office's history, according to Tax Notes, to try to force the IRS to change its audit procedures by revoking a memo from last March that directed IRS examiners to stop accepting less than a 20 percent penalty and assume that a violation is not willful unless proven otherwise. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman has not yet answered her request.

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The expatriate group, American Citizens Abroad, has now written to Shulman to express its concern that Shulman has not responded to Olsons directive. The ACA noted that tax information publisher Tax Analysts has reported that IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman has no plans to respond in writing to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olsons Taxpayer Advocate Directive (TAD) on the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) despite a statutory requirement that taxpayer advocate recommendations be responded to within 90 days.

In the TAD and in her report to Congress, Olson said that IRS examiners treated some participants in the 2009 OVDP unfairly, and she ordered several IRS divisions to take various steps to correct this treatment, including allowing taxpayers who had paid penalties under the OVDP to request a reduced penalty. In her report, she used the term bait and switch to describe the change in OVDP policy that the IRS implemented a full two years after rolling out the program.

In a Sept. 22, 2011 memorandum after her August TAD, Olson explained why she instructed the IRS to change such practices. In the memo, she noted that the IRS harmed taxpayers seeking to correct honest mistakes, and the IRS retroactively changed the terms of the OVDP to eliminate the possibility of examiners reducing penalties for overseas filers who had no idea they had to file, the ACA pointed out.

The memo further explains that the OVDP penalty structure assumes all participants are tax evaders hiding money overseas, when in fact, the IRS steered many people into the program who made honest mistakes.

Many participants in the OVDP program have been Americans living overseas who had no idea they had to make a tax declaration to the United States, which is the only country in the world, besides Eritrea, which taxes on the basis of citizenship instead of residence, according to the ACA. In her memorandum, Olson said of the OVDP, A more effective initiative would have prompted even more taxpayers to come into compliance without leaving those who did come forward feeling terrified, tricked, or cheated.

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Expats Protest IRS Treatment of Citizens Overseas

Expatriates working in Abu Dhabi have just weeks to register for their Emirates ID cards before being subject to fines by the Emirates ID Authority (EIDA).

Workers in the emirate who fail to apply for their compulsory cards will be charged up to AED20 per day from April 1, with a maximum fee of AED1,000.

Foreign residents living and working in Dubai have until June 1 to register for their ID documents, but are currently unable to renew their residency visas without having submitted an application.

The northern emirates became subject to fees for non-registration from December 1, while workers in Sharjah were penalised from February 1.

Since the launch of the Emirates ID scheme in 2005, EIDA has made a series of moves to boost the number of card holders.

Expatriates have been given more time than UAE nationals to register with the authority, but are now all required to have submitted the necessary documents to renew their residency visas.

In a bid to put further pressure on residents to sign up for the scheme, the UAE government is increasingly requiring expatriates and nationals to present ID cards when dealing with federal agencies.

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ID card deadline looms for Abu Dhabi expats