I wonder if there is an “FBAR” red light on the machine.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/13/travel/tsa-new-technology/?iref=obinsite
I wonder if there is a “FBAR” red light on the machine.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/13/travel/tsa-new-technology/?iref=obinsite
The US tries to entrap us by denying our right, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to change our nationality.
http://www.businessinsider.com/man-tries-to-relinquish-us-citizenship-application-denied-2012-4
This was one of the most scathing articles I have seen in the the American press about USPs abroad. (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tax-dodgers-are-proudly-un-american-2012-05-04?link=MW_latest_news)
With people in the press writing articles like this, it is no wonder homelanders have the wrong opinion about us.
Editors Note: Al Lewis has now written an excellent article telling the our side of the story. Thanks, Al (and welcome to the Isaac Brock Hall of Fame!).
Al Lewis tries to shame former Americans in this hit piece at marketwatch.com a subsidiary of the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps you should have spoke with at least one person who ever renounced his or her citizenship. Shame on YOU, Mr. Lewis and shame on your editor for allowing you to publish. That just makes you a bigot with a platform. It is to the shame of the brain-dead media that such pieces of journalistic refuse can even see the light of day. Please, next time you want to write a screed that punishes a class of people for their actions, do your homework, like the young, promising Reuter’s journalist, Atossa Abrahamian, who actually spoke with numerous people who had renounced…
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Peters are discussing (rocks) I would like to live in Indy now.
Thanks to Deckard1138 for recording and uploading this segment. Used with permission.
Thanks also to Pacifica for the transcript of the interview.
Where did this guy live most of his life? Are there some clues to determine what the average “dominant nationality” was for this guy up to the time the IRS raped him?
Monty Pelerin kindly sent me a link toMark Nestmann’s article, Growing Numbers of Tax Refugees Exit USA – Permanently. Nestmann tells the story of man from Northern Mexico, whose mother gave birth to him in a border hospital on the United States side of the border. In his retirement, he bought a condo in San Diego to have a cooler place in the summer (I am going to quote a little too much for fair usage and yet I hope that Mr. Nestmann won’t mind–this story is too important for Isaac Brock):
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I thought it a good idea to repost a link to Peter W. Dunn’s article on American Thinker from last November: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/fatca_a_ticking_time_bomb_for_the_economy.html
I would encourage any young person who has American citizenship to renounce it as soon as he/she reaches the age of 16 or at least before turning 18 1/2. The cost is the same but the paperwork involved is much less. Going out into the world as an American citizen will now mean less opportunity for you because no one is going to want to employ you and opening up a bank account will be pretty well impossible. Already U.S. citizens who live abroad are being denied bank accounts and losing out on high profile job opportunities because none U.S. companies don’t want to have anything to do with reporting their finances to the IRS.
If you don’t want to live like a second class citizen in your own country of birth or in another country or as an American who lives outside of the States then dump your U.S…
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If this man or anyone in America loves Fidel Castro why isn’t he allowed to say so without there being an uproar? Doesn’t America believe in freedom of speech? Secondly why should anyone care about what is said about politics by a man whose life is coaching grown men to play a child’s game? What kind of an apology is it when it is given under duress? How is this any different then when a terrorist group forces a U.S. hostage to make a video denouncing America?
When you consider that America has diplomatic relations with many other governments that are ruled by more unsavory characters then it seems apparent that America’s obsession with destablizing Cuba is irrational and should be an embarrassment to the nation.
I would encourage any young person who has American citizenship to renounce it as soon as he/she reaches the age of 16 or at least before turning 18 1/2. The cost is the same but the paperwork involved is much less. Going out into the world as an American citizen will now mean less opportunity for you because no one is going to want to employ you and opening up a bank account will be pretty well impossible. Already U.S. citizens who live abroad are being denied bank accounts and losing out on high profile job opportunities because none U.S. companies don’t want to have anything to do with reporting their finances to the IRS.
If you don’t want to live like a second class citizen in your own country of birth or in another country or as an American who lives outside of the States then dump your U.S…
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UPDATE: Click here for the audio of this interview.
Hi everyone, I’ve done the 10 minute spot with Pete the Planner, and I think it went pretty well; I was able to touch on many of the important issues that affect all of us.
What: The Pete the Planner Show on 93 WIBC
When: Friday nights from 7-9pm and then podcast online anytime
Once the podcast is available, we will make a link.
About Senate Bill 1813 (passport confiscation), I’m not sure if anybody brought this up before on Isaac:
Perhaps most important, though, is Title II of the bill – “Stop Taxhaven Abuse.”
Long story short, if the U.S. government decides in its sole discretion that a foreign jurisdiction is impeding tax enforcement, Uncle Sam can shut them out of the U.S. financial system, no questions asked.
It’s just another measure to turn foreign banks into unpaid spies of the federal government … and limit financial freedom for U.S. citizens.
This is a bully move, plain and simple. Most of the global financial system depends on U.S. banks for correspondent accounts. When you wire money from Cambodia to Brazil, for example, the funds pass through New York.
Source:http://www.businessinsider.com/something-is-wrong-with-this-picture-2012-4
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About Senate Bill 1813 (passport confiscation) I’m not sure if anybody brought this up before on Isaac:
“Perhaps most important, though, is Title II of the bill – “Stop Taxhaven Abuse.”
Long story short, if the U.S. government decides in its sole discretion that a foreign jurisdiction is impeding tax enforcement, Uncle Sam can shut them out of the U.S. financial system, no questions asked.
It’s just another measure to turn foreign banks into unpaid spies of the federal government … and limit financial freedom for U.S. citizens.
This is a bully move, plain and simple. Most of the global financial system depends on U.S. banks for correspondent accounts. When you wire money from Cambodia to Brazil, for example, the funds pass through New York.”
Source:http://www.businessinsider.com/something-is-wrong-with-this-picture-2012-4
No the above are not words spoken by an American expatriate, although we can all relate.
Freaking Americans causing people all over the world to have nervous attacks and cry all the time!
Steven Mopsick, 30-year IRS vet has come forward to speak against US extraterritorial tax policy. Thanks Steven!
http://mopsicktaxlaw.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/its-time-for-common-sense-and-fairness_18.html
“The law which requires U.S. Persons to submit worldwide income to US taxation must be changed. It is unfair, it makes no sense, and it has a chilling effect on commerce, jobs creation, and free trade. Perhaps more importantly, our world image has suffered enough over the last few decades. People from all over the world who have been on the fence about whether America has lost its mind, can only be convinced that we have with this new compliance initiative.”
Isaac Brock discussion thread about Steven’s post on his blog: http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2012/04/18/thank-you-mr-steven-mopsick/#comments
Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship
Life in “Form Nation” (or is it a “waste of a life”) …
Click here to read comments about this video.
PAYING tax always hurts. But America’s tax code seems designed to make it hurt as much as possible. It contains 3.8m words, and was changed 579 times in 2010 alone. Taxpayers must wade through a swamp of gobbledygook: tax compliance consumes 6.1 billion man-hours annually, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). That’s the equivalent of 3m people working full-time, year-round—more than the entire federal workforce. Each year, Joe Taxpayer must sign a thick return that he cannot plausibly understand. And woe betide him if any of its contents should turn out to be inaccurate.
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Roger Conklin wrote: Petros, I forwarded your comments to a friend of mine who is much more conversant in the items you highlighted in your last post. I am taking the liberty of pasting his response to me. He seems to think it is more complicated. His comments are as follows: [My responses follow in blue]
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This story is not new, but Alex Newman has written an interesting article about why it is wrong for Congress to give this power to the IRS:
Still, despite the travel “exceptions,” experts say the whole scheme is unconstitutional and represents a blatant violation of due process rights. “It takes away your right to enter or exit the country based upon a non-judicial IRS determination that you owe taxes,” constitutional attorney Angel Reyes explained to Fox Business. “It’s a scary thought that our congressional representatives want to give the IRS the power to detain US citizens over taxes, which could very well be in dispute.”
A financial expert also told Fox that the unconstitutional provision would apply to an alarmingly high number of people — especially in the wake of the economic crisis. And in the coming years, as jobs continue to evaporate and the value of the dollar continues…
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This post original appeared at the Righteous Investor. It argues that since the US census does not count US persons abroad, they do not have proportional representation in the House of Representatives. Thus, even though citizens abroad may vote in Federal elections, they are voting for someone else’s representative, not their own. This is a violation of the Ninth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
See also:
Is it taxation without representation if you can vote? Damn right!
Do United States persons abroad differ substantially from residents of Washington D.C.?
Tax Treaty in conflict with Canada’s Human Rights Act
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An excellent post by Petros from Isaac Brock. When will the US stop? How far will it dare go?
Regular readers of the Isaac Brock Society will probably not be among those who believe that it is inconceivable that the United States will attempt to forcibly annex Canada and that I am nuts for thinking it possible. We are already suffering from capricious treatment at the extra-territorial hands of the United States. Besides, I’ve only stated what is obvious from an historical point of view: What does a nation experiencing severe financial difficulties do if it has a powerful military? More often than not, it begins to plunder its neighbors. Moreover, if something is inconceivable or impossible, it may have a 20% chance of coming true.
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I spoke with Atossa Abrahamian of Reuters regarding my case. Her article is now available online, and I am pleased with her general tone; she treats us favorably and does not accuse us of being tax cheats, like so many other journalists have done.
Guys and Gals, we have an opportunity to weigh in with comments to David Jolly’s NYTs article on Tax Complexity for American’s abroad. It is not often the New York Times, the newspaper of record in America, does an article on our issues. It would be a shame to miss the chance for some reasoned comments from Isaac Brock readers and commentators.
The article is now on their
blog, and can be accessed under the title Americans, The Taxman Cometh. You will have to create a free account, but you can remain anonymous if fear is the reason you are being silent. There are only six comments so far, and I know this group is capable of far more than that! Thank you!
This is an excellent post from a few months ago. You can also refer to the “Master Nationality Rule” in International Law
Dual nationality exists when two or more nations claim jurisdiction over an individual. This may lead to disputes between the nations claiming the allegiance of the person, requiring that international law settle the matter. This has led to the doctrine of dominant nationality.
See also:
Dual Citizenship and National Laws
Dominant nationality protects individuals from state overreach
Dual citizenship and forced marriages, by Alison Symington
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Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship
As FBAR enforcement grows, it is inevitable that various aspects of Mr. FBAR will be subjected to constitutional scrutiny. Although it will take time, Mr. FBAR will certainly be invited for lunch by the Supreme Court of the United States. The FBAR rules apply to U.S. persons regardless of where they live. Therefore, the FBAR law is also an extraterritorial application of U.S. law. Therefore, I could imagine a circumstance where the obligations imposed by Mr. FBAR could be considered by a foreign court. (How about this for an example: A U.S. citizen is a real estate broker in Canada. As such he is required to maintain a trust account. Clearly the FBAR law would require the account to be disclosed to the U.S. government and the records retained for a “fishing expedition”. Imagine further a Canadian statute that criminalizes the disclosure of the contents of…
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A couple of days ago in a reply to the thread about Shulman not accepting a second term as IRS Commissioner, Roger Conklin wrote this:
“Petros, Allow me to make one important clarification: I think you will find that the Expat community voted heavily in favor of Obama because during his campaign he comitted to “level the playling field” for US citizens living abroad. He was very clear in this. But once elected he promptly did nothing to keep this vote-getting commitment. ACA leadership has made many attempts to follow him up on this commitment, but the response has been absolutey zero. It is if this commitment had never been made. His actions speak much louder than his words. I suspect and sincerely hope that in this next election the vote will be very lopsided against him. To those of you who are expats, please keep this in mind.”
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The court said that mere tax evasion (not fraud) was not a reason for Switzerland to provide information to the IRS.
“Et le tribunal maintient que le fait de ne pas déclarer un compte ne constitue pas une fraude.” (The court maintains that not declaring an account does not constitute a fraud).
This is excellent news, I just hope that parliament doesn’t screw it up.
Here is the New Zurich Newspaper article on the same decision. It goes into more specific details. I don’t have time to do a manual translation from German so you’ll have to try Mr. Google. http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/wirtschaft/aktuell/amtshilfe-gestoppt_1.16381062.html
Also, here is the Bloomberg coverage for the same (in English): http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-11/swiss-court-rejects-disclosure-of-credit-suisse-client-s-data
Estimated world population as of Oct. 31, 2011 7 billion
Estimated population of the U.S. for 2012 313,281,000
Estimated number of U.S. citizens living abroad 6 million
Estimated costs to administer FATCA and chase those 6 million- billions of dollars forever. Net benefit to be derived at the best is most likely zero but is more than likely to be negative because the taxes collected are not likely to ever exceed the cost of FATCA compliance. Of course we will never know because the U.S. very conveniently refuses to establish any criteria for costs calculation.
The cover story for the current issue of Canadian Business is “Canada’s Banks Under Fire.” Cover caption is “Why we’re about to pay for America’s mistakes.” Long story, pages 24-29. All about Volcker rule and Basel III.
Not one single word about FATCA. Not one single word about current attempts to harvest revenue from hundreds of thousands of tax-compliant Canadian residents.
One of the best bits is a quotation from Ian Lee of Sprott School of Business: “There’s a casual carelessness from American government officials about the impact of their decisions on people outside of their country. They just shrug their shoulders.”
US RELINQUISHMENT RENUNCIATION.m2
Above is a link to data we are compiling on Relinquishments and Renunciations — a work in progress. This corresponds with the Consulate Report Directory (in sticky post below), tracking individual experiences for each Consulate, along with a timeline chart.
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