Peter Dunn, blogger, Canadian citizen, Petros, former US citizen
or
Peter Dunn, Pete the Planner
You decide.
I’ve been called a number of things: but this is the first time I’ve been called “the other Peter Dunn”. I think that is just about the most hurtful thing of all.
Today, a certain Peter Dunn, a famous media figure who is both a comedian and financial adviser (isn’t that tautology?), wrote at his blog, A minor PR disaster for Pete the Planner (emphasis mine; hat tip Pacifica):
Things were going so great…until I was mistaken for another Peter Dunn.
While I try to help people take responsibility for their financial lives, the other Peter Dunn encourages people to leave the United States in order to avoid paying taxes. This mistake was originally brought to my attention by a Twitter follower, but then I noticed the increased web traffic on my website today. People have been Googling “Peter Dunn don’t pay taxes” all day. Ugh.
So for the record. I pay taxes. You should pay taxes, and the other Peter Dunn needs to stay out of the news. The world doesn’t need two Peter Dunns.
****Update: To be fair, I don’t know the ins and outs of the “other Peter Dunn’s” perspective. I’m not trying to insult him or his cause. I just wanted people to make sure they understood that we weren’t one in the same.
As far as I’m concerned, I am Peter Dunn, and he is the other Peter Dunn. Here my reasons:
- I am older; so I have the prior claim to being Peter Dunn Prime.
- Being older, wiser and more experienced, I would not suddenly panic if people confused me with another Peter Dunn, seeing as it is a pretty common name.
- Age before beauty. I am not sufficiently photogenic to be on TV. (That’s why my gravatar is Tertia kitty, covering my face!)
- I am Canadian.
- William Shatner, Michael J. Fox, and Steve Nash are also Canadians.
- Canada is bigger than the United States.
- I grew up in Alaska, which is much larger and colder than any state that Pete the Planner ever lived in.
- I never use three dots … when I write.
- Last but not least: my website has a better Alexa ranking.
Here is the poll. (Hint: the correct vote is for Pete the Planner).
This is brilliant. A sincere hat tip to you. I admittedly overreacted when I discovered the odd coincidence yesterday. Don’t forget the Tim Hortons factor. BTW, I just emailed you to offer an appearance on my radio program. I want to hear your story.
@ pete I definitely have a face for radio. Thanks.
This is too funny!
May I submit for your approval Peter Dunne, birdwatching expert? http://www.amazon.com/Pete-Dunne-Watching-Where-When/dp/0395906865
@Petros
I hope you accept the offer to be on the radio program. Your story is so worth telling.
Fabulous! Pete the Planner and Peter the Petros on the radio. When?!?
@Pete the Planner: We need all the attention we can get for this issue. Thank you!
By the way, we all pay taxes too. Probably much higher than you do in our adopted countries. We just don’t think we should be forced to pay taxes or reveal all our life savings to a foreign country (USA) where we don’t live-and where many of us haven’t even been citizens for decades. In my case, that’s four decades as a non-US citizen, but the US is trying to reclaim me and my money as I’m nearing retirement. Many others are in a similar predicament.
Even our Canadian born children and their education savings plans or disability savings plans are vulnerable to the attempted intrusion of the IRS into our normal everyday lives outside of the US.
Thanks for joining us here. Have a Tim’s double double on me.
I’m really glad this happened. I had no idea this was a problem.
@Peter, OMG you have to do it..Thanks Peter the Planner for offering OUR FAMOUS PETER DUNN the opportunity.. That’s wonderful!!
@petetheplanner.
We aim to educate. We’d love you to bring up the subject and tell the correct story to the US ‘homelanders’. The real tax evaders are resident in the US; for the most part, we are NOT them.
Welcome and cheers!
Hey guys you are supposed to be voting for the other guy. So far it is dead heat, 13 for me 13 for the other Peter Dunn.
… perhaps that means others are coming to the Isaac Brock site from the “other’ Peter Dunn’s site. I hope they have a real good look at the content.
Wait, we are supposed to voting for the ‘other’ guy?
@Pete The Planner: I just saw your article: What Freaks You Out The Most. IRS is what freaks me out the most. Considering that I haven’t lived in the US for 44 years and I haven’t been a US citizen for almost 40 years, that gives you a hint of what this is like.
I think almost everyone on Brock would agree IRS is the biggest Freak Show in their lives right now. Like me, most of us don’t live in the US. Some have never lived in the US. They just had the misfortune to be born to a parent who was born in the US or to be married to someone who was born in US. Some who do live in the US are relatively new immigrants who made the mistake of leaving some money in their home country and not knowing they were required to report that amount to IRS.
The IRS not only wants to know about our finances, but those of our spouses and children. If we have financial signing authority at work or in volunteer work, IRS even wants to know about the finances of our employers or charitable organizations. IRS and Congress seem to think we’re tax cheats, tax evaders, traitors or money launderers because we choose to live outside USA.
You will have a steep learning curve to understand it all before Peter Dunn (the real tax-paying Peter Dunn) comes on your show. Thanks so much for being willing to learn and to invite Peter to tell his and our story.
@Petros: Oops. I blew it. I voted for you. I was thinking I was voting for the Real Peter Dunn, not for the Other Peter Dunn. Can I vote twice? I’ll see if it works.
If I can’t figure out something that simple, how can I possibly be expected to understand the 72,500 page IRS tax code?!?
Ok, this site has been officially hijacked. I thought that if I put it here, on home court, you guys would all vote Pete the Planner as the other Peter Dunn. I’m losing this hands down: 23 to 17.
@Blaze, Shame on you. You can’t figure out the IRS tax code. Perhaps you could spend your retirement years working on that. You know those years you thought you could enjoy after all the hard years of work. Oh, I forgot the IRS wants to lay claim to your retirement dollars. Perhaps you can find a freight car you could bunk in after you have to sell your residence to pay them off. I am looking for one for myself.
@Blaze: What do you put on the question, Do you have any foreign accounts? No right? Because all your accounts are in Canada, and therefore none are foreign.
Welcome Pete!
Since I obviously take this issue very seriously, it’s nice to get a (rare) chuckle when following it on the internet!
I got a good chuckle out of your blog comment about the other Peter Dunn (and figured he would too). (I sensed where you were coming from; mainly you just didn’t want people to mix the two of you up.) I did also want to pass to you on some info about the other (or the real?) Peter Dunn and about the issue itself. And I was hoping you’d stop by. Glad you did and I hope we’ll be hearing more from you!
@all. I wrote about one or the other Peter Dunns earlier today in a comment on a different post, so I’m going to paste it here.
*******
“It’s been fun watching this article move around the world these past two days.
Googling for it led me to discover the other Peter Dunn. Well, this one thinks Petros is the other Peter Dunn. But you get the idea.
http://petetheplanner.com/2012/04/17/a-minor-pr-disaster-for-pete-the-planner/
“Things were going so great…until I was mistaken for another Peter Dunn While I try to help people take responsibility for their financial lives, the other Peter Dunn encourages people to leave the United States in order to avoid paying taxes. This mistake was originally brought to my attention by a Twitter follower, but then I noticed the increased web traffic on my website today. People have been Googling “Peter Dunn don’t pay taxes” all day. Ugh.
So for the record. I pay taxes. You should pay taxes, and the other Peter Dunn needs to stay out of the news. The world doesn’t need two Peter Dunns.”
Pacifica on April 18, 2012 at 1:34 pm said:
For sure, the world has plenty of room for two Peter Dunns … but I can see it must have been kind of startling for you to discover another one in this tax context!
However, it seems both you Peter Dunns have more than a name in common. You both pay taxes.
I know the other Peter from the Isaac Brock Society. I’ve never heard him recommend anyone should leave the United States or do anything else to avoid paying taxes. As stated in the Reuters article, he has always complied with IRS during his many years as a US citizen, and with Revenue Canada as well … it was the complexity of tracking US tax law changes (and they’re complex) and ancillary matters such as FBAR that caused him concern.
People relinquish their US citizenship for a variety of reasons. I did it decades ago. I just personally did not like the idea of being a citizen of two countries at the same time. Taxes were not an issue at all in those days, it was a much simpler era.
Taxes are a big issue today, however, for US persons abroad. But it’s not tax avoidance that’s pushing these people to renounce. In fact, with the Tax Treaty, FEIE, and the US having such low tax rates, most US persons living and paying tax abroad end up not owing one red cent to the IRS,
It’s the unbelievably (and increasingly) complicated paperwork, along with increasing US restrictions on a US-person-abroad’s ability to live like a normal person (US restrictions on retirement savings accounts where you live, banks refusing to do business with US persons because the banks don’t want to run afoul of incredibly complex US tax law, etc.) that is fueling this rise in relinquishment of US citizenship.
This whole tax thing not being an issue 40 years ago, it played no role at all in my decision to relinquish. But I do respect the personal decision a person today makes if they feel US tax law in 2012 is making them unable to live a normal life outside the US. These people are not trying to play it both ways and/or choosing to play games with the tax code. They are choosing to give up their rights as well as their responsibilities as a US citizen … end of contract … sounds fair to me.
Please do check out isaacbrocksociety.com We post several articles daily on new developments in US tax law for US persons abroad, FATCA, etc, from contributors around the world with a variety of viewpoints. Your posting or commenting, too, would be most welcome!”
@ tiger who wrote: “Perhaps you can find a freight car you could bunk in after you have to sell your residence to pay them off. I am looking for one for myself.”
We have an 8ftx8ft bunkie we could let you use. No rent accepted though because if we took even a penny for it our 1040 would get even more complicated. Ask Just Me about that.
@ Petros: I voted correctly. Probably the first thing I’ve done right since my kryptonite card debacle began. No, second thing right. I found IBS.
One of the Peters was reporting (and possibly paying) to TWO tax agencies. Will the ‘other’ Peter Dunn cheerfully and wholeheartedly volunteer to do the same – to “help people take responsibility for their financial lives..” ?
‘Our’ Peter;
perhaps its now very confusing re which ‘other’ Peter we were voting for or against?
Is this serendipity – and an example of those ‘mysterious ways’?
@badger I respectfully decline your invitation to pay two taxing agencies. 🙂
Here are some another reason why HE is the other Peter Dunn:
1. I was featured in the Reuters article. I guess that makes me the most famous person to renounce my US citizenship, well, after superman.
2. I’ve learned that Pete the Planner’s program is in WIBC Indianapolis. I think that makes him a Hoosier.
Voting is now a dead heat: 25-23; but I’m still think I can influence people. Had my good friend Dan in Indianapolis vote for the other guy. So even his hometown people are voting
foragainst him.Petros, Please take him up on the offer! Even though that poll was very confusing 🙂 , I do think I managed to vote for you.
@Petros: It turns out I did vote for the other Peter Dunn as the Other Peter Dunn after all the first time. But, to be sure, I voted for the other Peter Dunn as the Other Peter Dunn a second time. Confused? So am I!
I don’t tick off any boxes about foreign accounts because I haven’t filed with IRS for 38 years and despite their draconian expectation, I’m not about to start now! I do pay taxes in Canada, file my CRA return and tick No to the question do I own any foreign property.
@Tiger: I don’t dare sell my home. IRS will want most of that too.