Would anyone be interested in starting a book or information guide that outlines the ramifications and consequences that face citizens and residents of another country when dealing with US legislative powers in an attempt to rule and control your finances?
The amount of fear and insecurity throughout the tax compliant expats of Canada and the world is nothing less than appalling, especially coming from a Country that qualifies themselves as a free democratic society.
This Information can be used to get the correct questions to answers relating to your IRS filing requirements, legal issues relating to the penalty structure, and your rights as a Canadian citizen when regarding the issues we will face when the final draft of FATCA is released.
In conversation with PetrosResearch an idea was put forth that he could offer his services to research, write, and publish something that could be of aid to all of us. I think the outline would also make a great story and would help get our message across to the rest to expats who are unaware, or individuals who have more questions than answers.
This is not just a few pages of notes, but rather an indepth outline containing many pages of interesting text and valuable information. Of course this is going to take many, many hours of research…..and Petros already has experience with this sort of thing.
I would like to maintain this thread for anyone interested in putting up seed money to employ PetrosResearch to perform this task. I am hoping that the numbers will be such that it would be a very small monetary sacrifice from each one of us to push this project forward.
This is worth discussing. I have thought for some time that there should be a FAQ available to USCitizens either here or on the Expat Forum so that newcomers, the majority of whom are in shock and feeling desperately alone, can quickly find answers to their most urgent questions and then connect with others in this situation for ongoing support. The more people we can reach and help, the more of us there will be to make our voices heard and put pressure on those with the ability to do something about it.
The first thing to do is define what we need to put out there. Among those of us who have been posting here and on the forum, there is a wealth of information and experience. Among us all, there surely are many personal or business connections to create a network of professionals or experts in various areas of expertise (law, accounting, finance, politics, government, marketing, media) who can provide us with knowledge and “savvy” for dealing with it at every level, as this whole thing rolls out. Let’s see what work is involved so that it does not all fall on Petros’ shoulders, and some of us can help by sharing the research, writing and referencing.
We should gather together both information and advice for those affected. There is no doubt a book’s worth of facts, and discussions, and interpretations, and arguments, and choices, and ramifications, and alternatives, and individual experiences, on all of this. People need quick answers and so a FAQ should be part of it, and then they need to be directed to sources with expanded information of the who/what/why/where/when/how of each issue (FATCA, FBARs, OVDI, US taxes, passports, businesses affected, children affected, renouncing, relinquishing, etc). It’s a big job but it can be split up among those of us willing to help.
Count me in.
I have been encouraging this as well. Count me in.
We need to create a central information and advice center – including a network of trusted professionals.
I’d be happy to send money if this is a worldwide-focused thing rather than a Canada-specific thing. Americans in the rest of the world have questions too. You guys in Canada have been vocal. The rest of us are scared to speak out. I can’t figure out how to report my apartment loan in Korea (see my blog) and none of the tax preparers over here have been able to give me any useful advice.
Another point that’s worth exploring: the consequences of not filing/paying US taxes if you have citizenship or other irrevocable status where you live. Specifically, a lot of extradition treaties either state that local citizens cannot be extradited, or that perjury is an extraditable offence but tax evasion is not. My (possibly insane) theory is that filing an IRS form incorrectly could be perjury (a lot of forms, like the 8854, require you to certify that all the information is correct “under penalty of perjury”). But not filing a tax form at all is merely a fiscal offense, which is non-extraditable.
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Are the professionals on our side though? Our problems are their bread and butter
I think that’s why Renounce said “trusted professionals”. Phil Hodgen, I believe, is trustworthy.
It may be that it takes a rabble rouser like me to write a book, because I am not a professional. I am simply a researcher, and therefore to a degree disassociated from the need to give advice for which I will not be sued–professionals tend to have a much more CYA approach to everything (though I’m sure someone could try to sue me, I am not giving “professional” advice but whole lot of just my informed opinion).