The Isaac Brock Society consists of individuals who are concerned about the treatment by the United States government of US persons who live in Canada and abroad.
If clicking on a link brings you to the wrong page in the comment thread, click here to arrive on the current page of the thread: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2011/12/14/about-the-isaac-brock-society/
The United States is one of two countries in the world that taxes its people no matter where in the world they may reside. The other is Eritrea, which the USA has condemened for terrorism and for its diaspora tax. The majority of US persons who live abroad are not aware of their filing requirements. But recently, the US government has decided to crack down on those who are not in compliance.
But what is more, the US government has begun, since about 2004, to apply with great pressure a long-neglected requirement of 35-year old law called the Bank Secrecy Act. That requirement is FBAR, the foreign bank account report, which the United States government expects annually from those who have accounts outside of the United States which exceed $10,000 in aggregate. The fines for failure to file this form are extortionate, and virtually no US person who lives abroad even knew about FBAR, while most of them, over a certain age, own bank accounts with retirement savings exceeding that amount. The threats of fines and imprisonment has frightened many people who as a result have consulted expensive accountants and tax lawyers to get this mess sorted out, only to face high accounting or legal fees on top of potential fines and back taxes. In 2009 and 2011, the IRS offered voluntary disclosure programs (OVDI). Some who entered into the 2009 OVDI, because of fear of the penatlies, were shocked when the IRS assessed them fines in the tens of thousands, essentially treating them as tax evaders instead of a law abiding citizens in their countries of residence.
For many US expats, renunciation now seems like a really good idea. Why not? Many haven’t lived in the US for years and now they have few ties there except perhaps some family members. So they want to renounce their citizenship only to find that the laws regarding expatriation are confusing and that the exit tax requirements are at best complicated and invasive, and at worst, extortionate and utterly in violation of their right to expatriate.
The media coverage of this issue has been uneven. There have a been a few balanced stories, but most of the time, the media has merely publicized the purposes of the US government; this is especially true of US media sources. The Canadian media has generally done a much better job of grabbing the attention of the world about the abuses of the US government. That being said, even the Canadian media sometimes falls into the IRS trap of projecting fear in order to force compliance. Overall, we regret when the media offers only condemnation and fear without telling the story from the side of the victims or informing them of their rights and alternatives.
US persons abroad also face US border guards who are starting to put pressure on all those who have a US place of birth to travel only on a US passport, even if the person has not been a US person for decades–an arbitrary change of policy making those who relinquished citizenship into would-be loyal taxpayers to a profligate government that has to borrow 40 cents on every dollar its spends.
The Isaac Brock Society is here to fight. Sir Isaac Brock prepared Canadians for war with the United States and gave his life in repelling a US invasion in 1812. So we also want to fight for US persons who are frightened by the IRS, the border guards, the compliance condors, and the media. We are here to provide one another with resources and strategies, comfort and advice.
But not only so, we are here to warn other Canadians about the illegal incursion of the US federal government into the lives of the US expat community. Pretty soon, with the new FATCA legislation, this arrogant attitude of the United States will affect every man, woman and child on the planet who wants to open or maintain a bank account or to invest in a retirement fund. Now, according to FATCA, you will have to tell the United States whether you are a US person when you open up a bank account in, e.g., Australia or Thailand. This makes every country in the world a protectorate of the United States, for, if they comply with FATCA, they are ceding their very sovereignty to a nation which has not invaded or conquered the rest of the world, but only uses its waning hegemony over the financial sphere to coerce other nations.
So whether you are a US person living in exile, a Canadian or a citizen of any other country, we ask you to join us in this struggle for freedom and justice.
Peter;
I totally respect your belief and stance that taxes should be local and collected locally. But what you should understand about the Eritrean 2% tax; historically was introduced by Eritreans in the Diaspora; as a rehabilitation tax. It is still voluntary! Not like what The American State Department aka Susan Rice and Canadian Foreign Affairs aka Baird wants us to believe. These Hippocrates are using the 2% tax as a political ploy to destabilize Eritrea. It will be a joke of the century to believe that the Canadian government is doing justice in protecting the Canadian-Eritreans not to pay 2% taxes.
Estifanos N.
To Em
In the middle of your comment, you said I am afraid I don’t know much about the current Government then you said it can’t be any more dictatorial than the current US Government. I cannot reconcile your statements. If you don’t know much about the current Government, then I suggest you try to know as much as you possibly can and lead your readers because you are misleading them. There is old saying ” Little Knowledge is dangerous “.
@ Asefaw S.
I will try to learn more about Eritrea. I think you should also examine the current government in the USA more carefully to understand why I said what I said. THAT is where “little knowledge” IS dangerous. The USA has become dictatorial while pretending to be democratic but because of its military might and economic power it is of far more concern to me and the entire planet than Eritrea. Don’t feel bad though because Canada is a relatively insignificant player on the world stage too. I watch the eagle like a hawk, spend many hours a day doing so, but I also focus my attention on the eagle’s prey. I have great empathy for all the eagle’s prey.
From the latest press:
Eritrea Dictatorship Extorts Millions of Pounds in ‘Diaspora Tax’ Scam [VIDEO]
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/eritrea-dictatorship-extorts-millions-pounds-diaspora-tax-scam-video-1435794
Eritrea has the least free press in all of Africa and Eritrea has the highest number of jailed journalists in Africa.
United States and Eritrea = Just the Two of Us (a regular match made in heaven)
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@Estifanos N, SwissPinoy, not to mention:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22708711
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/feb/11/eritrea-britain-illegal-diaspora-tax-embassy
So how you can call it “voluntary” is a mystery to me. If you don’t pay you can’t contact your family/friends back home. No pressure then.
Plus it breaks the UN sanction:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-05/un-security-council-passes-sanctions-resolution-on-eritrea.html
Pity we can’t get a similar sanction against the US as part of their tax money also goes into funding military/black ops ventures.
Testing my account. Haven’t been able to post for days. Trying with a new email address.
Wow that was strange. My old email address must be blocked. I wonder if this is affecting other posters. I tried to post about 20 times over the last week but got nowhere until I tried with a new email address.
@Omghesstillanamerican,
I just checked and neither of your e-mail addresses are blocked here. Don’t know what happened. Had your comment been blocked by the site and/or gone directly to spam, we would have seen it and released it for posting. Even accounting for possible human error, I don’t think we could have missed seeing about 20 of them, so whatever happened is puzzling. I’m sorry this happened. Glad you found a workaround and are posting.
@pacifica777, thanks. At first I thought it was because the site was extremely busy and that was why my messages weren’t posting. Right before I posted the above messages using a different email account I also tried posting with my old account and it didn’t work. I didn’t get an error message or anything. The message just vanished. It happened so many times over the last few days that I thought my old email must be blocked by mistake.
Also when I tried to post those 20 or so messages and they didn’t go through I retried by copying and pasting the message again at which time I did receive a message that said my post was a duplicate. It’s odd that it would say my post is a duplicate if it had no record of any of my messages.
@ omghesstillanamerican,
That’s strange all right.
I checked your comment history. Before today the most recent I find are these three on March 12th:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/12/15/wondering-why-has-the-world-turned-more-upside-down-for-some-than-other-us-persons-abroad/comment-page-2/#comment-1217300
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/12/15/wondering-why-has-the-world-turned-more-upside-down-for-some-than-other-us-persons-abroad/comment-page-2/#comment-1217252
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/12/15/wondering-why-has-the-world-turned-more-upside-down-for-some-than-other-us-persons-abroad/comment-page-2/#comment-1217058
And prior to that the next ones going back are in February.
@pacifica777, I had no trouble posting until right AFTER those 3 messages on March 12th. I got really chatty starting March 12th thru March 14th. Too bad you all missed it : )
Fresh in the news:
[i]Eritreans in Australia “forced” to pay illegal tax[/i]
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/03/17/eritreans-australia-forced-pay-illegal-tax
Normally, Eritrea would accuse SBS of being racist for not also criticizing America.
Does anyone know what the source is for the number of U.S. citizens we often here are resident in Canada? The number I often here is slightly over 1 million U.S. citizens are resident in Canada. Does anyone know what the source for this number is, and whether this number includes children, or is it limited to voting-age American citizens? Thanks.
@susan
Who knows, but it sure gets repeated, even though most of us don’t agree, knowing there are a great many US persons who don’t get counted, such as children of US’s born abroad but remain unregistered, accidentals born in the US but left the US to never resurface as a USC, relinquishes who never notified DOS, just to name a few. It’s a wild guess, IMO, as the US failed to complete the only census they tried to take.
Regarding persons who left the US, in the 2006 Canadian census approximately 117,000 US-born persons self-identified as “Canadian Citizen Only,” but pretty much no one seems to have even heard of a CLN before 2011 and I’d guess — just my guess — that most of them don’t have CLNs at this time. So probably the US would consider most of these people Americans or could be considered “alleged Americans.”
Hi all new to this site and this issue. Im american born by accident, mom tried to have me here but I came there… to Cnd parents, left US at 3 never returned. I’m 51 worked only in Canada, filed my CND taxes and tried to save money for retirement and kids education. I found out this week I might lose all that to US penalties for not filing us return ? I had no idea. Kind of freaking out,…$600 per return for prepare and I have to do 6 year of FBARS myself. Im overwhelmed and scared.
How do I protect myself my home my savings my sons education future? Do I file or not, disclose or not.
Haven’t even looked into relinquishing US citizen ship… is it worth it , a hassle?
Any advise or guidance.
American by mistake
Welcome, Americanmistake.
Advice and guidance is to start researching and reading. There is no easy answer. We understand your freaking out — some call it the OMG moment. There is understanding and support for you here.
None of your questions are easily answered. Start reading at the sidebars on the right-hand side of the page, including the information sessions offered and the Canadian Charter Challenge discussion on how we are trying to fight FATCA, combined with US citizenship-based taxation. Read, read, read — and then ask your questions.
We have at the moment (for Canada) from the US / Canada Tax Treaty and from the mouth and pen of (now former) Canadian Finance Minister Flaherty, variations of saying:
Just found your site, I may have seen it before but this is the first time I have sat down for a actual look. I think I’m at least 2.5yrs through my FBAR/OVDI. I may actually have a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m just playing phone tag with the agent who sounds okay so far. Of course he wants me to resubmit something, it had better not be my package again, this would be the third time I have done a submission. I’m not liking the idea of my stuff floating around that office in Austin. My question is the letter for the penalties and stuff, who has written a letter themselves? I have read one that would appear to have been written by a lawer. My tax guy (HR block guy) have been slogging this out together I really want to avoid involving a lawer. Any advice?
Petros et al. The right hand side of the page is getting busier and busier and severely limiting space for new comments. As a result comments quickly disappear never to be seen again. Apparently most of us post on the most recent thread. The bottom of the page is a little out dated as well. Any chance of some editing to weed out all the obsolete material. I fully understand you can’t satisfy everyone. I much prefer the posts that try to help someone rather than the rants. I also firmly believe that posting comments on other websites is a waste of time- they are read by precious few and they rarely change anyone’s opinion. Cheers KalC
@ KalC,
The sidebar is still showing the 20 most recent new comments as it always did – I think that’s automatic. Regarding other stuff on the sidebar, I work with the “Important Info,” “Take Action” and “Lists of Links by Subject” boxes and keep them up to date (or try to). Stuff does get removed, particularly from “Take Action,” but if you feel something in particular in these boxes is outdated/obsolete, let me know. Thanks.
Thanks pacifica. I guess the problem is that the comments are coming in much more frequently.
Calgary 411 and all
Thanks for your support and guidance and yes I have been reading ang wading through all the post Its is hard as people have said, many comments and then things of value lost.
I am applying for relinquishment. just got appoint at toronto office for May 27. If no go then on to fille taxes and renouce route. I will keep you all posted.
Be well
am
@KalC,
Perhaps we need a new thread called ‘Bitch and Moan Here’, with comments excluded from showing up on the side bar (if it is even possible to do this in WordPress). That should cut down on the number of helpful comments from disappearing too quickly off the list of recent comments, while still providing those of us like myself who need to vent once in awhile, somewhere to go.
I think Brock is at its best when it is trying to talk someone in from the window ledge but sometimes I need to read a rant or two simply because I can’t always express my own anger at the injustice as well as others do. I can vicariously vent that way. I also need the jam-packed informative posts and comments because I never know when I’ll find my ever-illusive, conclusive solution or at least some justification for my make-shift one. I didn’t realize there are always 20 recent comments listed, even when some of the titles are very long. And yes, sometimes the comments just fly off the bottom of the page — leaves me panting to keep up. And here we go, getting very close to 8 million on the counter. My goodness!