I am living, for now, in exile from my land of birth. In a new article at iexpats.com, George Prior explains my situation, “FATCA Critic Fears Arrest by US Authorities“. When George Prior contacted me, I had no idea he would write an article about me nor that he would focus on my fear of returning to the United States. This article appears on Election Day=Revenge Day.
While campaigning, Obama said to a crowd booing Romney, “Get revenge. Vote.” Well, US expats who have suffered the indignities of being treated like criminals without probable clause through the requirement of revealing private information, threats of imprisonment and excessive fines, can get revenge. Some expats who joined the OVDI program have received extortionate penalties designed for homelanders who put money in Swiss bank accounts to hide it from the IRS and avoid paying taxes. I have Canadian accounts to be sure. But I live here in Canada and I pay more taxes than the majority of homelanders—Homelanders have never even heard of GST/HST. I pay my fair share.
I can’t vote as I was forced to give up my US citizenship and my right ever to return and to live again in my country of Birth. I and many others here have suffered at the hands of President Barack Hussein Obama. He has allowed the IRS to hound expats, one could even say that he has sicked his dog on expats. Who is to blame: Republican George ‘Dubya’ Bush for signing 2008 HEROES Act which instituted an exit tax for those who would relinquish their citizenship. A democratically controlled Congress pass the legislation and Barack Obama voted for it. The same democrats in Congress passed the 2010 HIRE act, and President Obama signed it; HIRE included the FATCA legislation which tries to force our banks to rat on US expats, even when we are dual citizens of our countries of residence. Yes, Democrats are to blame. But then the lamentable Reed Amendment, which bans those who expatriate for tax purposes, was passed by a Republican Congress and signed by a Democrat President Bill Clinton. We are hounded by dogs of both breeds.
Thus, I urge people to vote against Obama–while not endorsing Romney. I can’t vote. I’ve already lost my citizenship and fear returning to the United States. This is Obama’s America: persecuting and torturing United States citizens living abroad. Yes, I consider forcing an expat to give up the right to return to his or her native land a form of torture:
Exile is torture, and torture is universally condemned around the world. The Ex-Patriot Act would permanently separate persons from their heritage and their families — children from parents, brothers from sisters, nieces and nephews from beloved aunts and uncles. It tears people away from communities and friends. Exile would destroy their lives. It is psychological warfare, condemning people to years of regret, bitterness, and rage.
The above words, I wrote about the torture of being banned as a result of the Ex-Patriot Act. But my fear of arrest at the border for spurning the FBAR filing requirement also results in exile and torture.
Please, there is a way to avenge me and thousands of other expats in my situation. Vote for Obama, NOT.
PS: I will likely e-mail this to members of my family.
@all- I would have to say that the problems that led up to the financial crisis of 2008 are really at the root of the problem and not just President Obama. There is a mindset of total fiscal mismanagement and a lack of personal ethics that pervades American politics. The fact that Candidate Romney wants to spend 2 trillion dollars on the military just shows how little even the Republicans have learned from this whole debacle. No one wants to make their supporters pay the price for what they get.
We can’t lose sight of the fact that Congress conceived and wrote this bill. In the end it will be up to Congress to develop a moral backbone that results in repeal this bill and the elimination of citizenship based taxation.
This is likely not the best place for this, but it deals with the vote of Americans in Calgary:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/11/05/calgary-american-expats-vote.html?cmp=rss
My MP’s (Michelle Rempel) office, last year, told me there was an estimate of 83,000 Americans living in Calgary. Quite the discrepancy in this CBC News piece. Do we REALLY know how many US Persons are anywhere other than the US — and what are we basing it on?
In the final irony, Mitt morphs again, and goes from expropriated Obama’s “Hope and Change” to a “New Tomorrow, Tomorrow” Stephen Colbert’s Super Pac political slogan. Too funny.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/420761/november-05-2012/colbert-super-pac—severe-candidate-warning
BTW, probably the most fun and insightful coverage, will be live at 11pm, Eastern Time, on Comedy Central. http://www.comedycentral.com/
I am not a US citizen, whatever the US government claims. That being said, IF I were eligible to vote, and if I wanted to effect revenge upon the US, I would have voted for the Romney/Ryan ticket, in hope that Ryan would eventually become president and accelorate the trip down the sewer. Obama was a great disappointment, but that doesn’t change me from a social democrat into a fascist. Sorry.
@ Petros
That’s a pretty good article, although if one does not read the following sentence carefully it almost makes Brockers appear to be the evil fisherpersons when we are actually all minnows dangling on the over-reaching hook of FATCA. 🙁
“The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act legislation is described by Peter Dunn, who alongside five others created the Isaac Brock Society, as “a fishing expedition to catch those who have failed to report taxes and foreign bank accounts.”
And in this sentence? Well I know darn well you and the other founders have absolutely no desire to “rename anonymous”even though everyone needs to have a non-anon name at Brock but it’s their choice what to call themselves. 😉
“In an attempt to inform the public, especially the 6.2 million American expats, about why FATCA is, in his opinion, “fundamentally wrong,” Peter Dunn, and five other concerned Canadians who wish to rename anonymous, launched the Isaac Brock Society late last year.”
Anyway nit-picking aside, I hope this article brings others to Brock to read and learn. Does iExpats have a good sized following? Most of all thank you, Petros, for putting your real name out there but I’m very sorry all of this has put you in jeopardy. Yes, exile is a form of torture but perhaps sometime in the future they will permit you to “visit” your American relatives in the buffer zone at a border crossing where you will be separated by inch thick, bullet proof glass and only allowed to speak to your loved ones via a telephone. It’s the least they could do … the very least.
Well, …
Statistical Analysis beats Fox punditry! Nate Silverman was right.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13510_3-57545543-21/can-nate-silver-and-friends-nail-their-presidential-predictions/
Mention of FATCA and the election and expats in same (rare) paragraph:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/expat-overseas-voters-obama_n_2078125.html
…………..”According to Cynthia Dillon, Republicans Abroad — which, unlike its
Democratic counterpart, is not an official part of the Republican Party
— is hoping that its economic message, coupled with anger over the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which requires foreign banks to report American account holders to the IRS, will change expats’ minds about the president.
“It is my opinion that partially because of FATCA and the dire
economic situation in the US with repercussions everywhere… Americans
abroad will have voted for the Romney-Ryan ticket that promises to help
rebuild the economy at home,” said Dillon,”….
*badger, Romney really missed a golden opportunity. I’m sure that he would have won many more votes and won the election if he had stood up for Americans living abroad. Many Americans would have voted for him, even though they disagree with some of his other positions. Yet, instead, he chose to ignore us, giving Obama another 4 years.
Four more years of deck chair rearranging.
All who have managed severance in 2012 – a nod here to Brock’s latest happy ex Banany – can pat themselves on the ba
rack and suppose that they will not have this fissure in the #fiscal cliff to agonize over:http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/middle-class-faces-quick-impact-from-fiscal-cliff-in-form-of-alternative-minimum-tax/2012/11/04/e1ec0636-2523-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html
@swisspinoy, yes, Romney demonstrated that he cares no more for expats than Obama does – didn’t even mention FATCA as far as I can tell, or extraterritorial taxation of individuals. So he wasted a chance to capture votes abroad.
Waking up to a truly awful reality. It maddens me that so many Americans Abroad would vote this onto ourselves. At a dinner party about three years ago, Maya Samara and I were in a conversation and I told her how deeply concerned I was about FATCA. She marginalized the issue and said that this is only an issue for rich people who are not being up front about their income. I told her that my worry is that it would jeopardize our bank accounts. Besides, the taxes charged on Americans abroad are unfair and they are much higher than what Americans onshore pay.
She argued that these taxes were a small issue and that the issues were exaggerated by the rich. If the US did not do that, then the rich would simply move overseas to avoid their tax obligations. I told her that I did not know of anybody who moved overseas to avoid tax obligations except perhaps some of the NGO and UN staff and that I fully support the elimination of the FEIE as it would let Americans abroad see, first hand, how the double tax regime works.
She was alarmed and said “you’d impose that tax on people in Hong Kong, where the income tax is much lower than the US?” I told her that the answer would be yes. If anybody is going to leave the US to avoid taxation, it would be people moving to Hong Kong. (Admittedly, I was winding her up. The real issue for her was that majority of the Democrats abroad in Geneva are NGO employees who pay no income tax and thanks to the FEIE, they pay little or no income tax to the US either.)
I told her that this would let them see the effects of AMT and exchange rate together and understand how chaotic and oppressive the double tax regime would be, but most of all, it’s about fairness. She said that she was not a tax expert and walked off.
That’s what I find frustrating. There is no conscience for what they have done.
*Now that this election is over, the way is clear. RENOUNCE…RENOUNCE…RENOUNCE! There is no freedom left in the United States of America. Any Americans who want into Canada had better lose their citizenship fast because Obama’s hands are in your pockets.
*Oh don’t spoil the witch hunt fun, The_Animal. FATCA is coming to a neighborhood near you:
I’m all for taking action against criminal activity, but not “at any cost” of the innocent individual
@swisspinoy, re that article – this extract underscores the insanity of the IRS – they cancelled any in person IRS help at consulates and embassies due to budget cutbacks (with no assistance in Canada – home of >1million US ‘taxable persons’ who need help if they want to become ‘compliant’, yet the IRS says;
“………..International investigations have been given priority in the
CI division, with headquarters staff working to support field offices in
developing new types of prosecutions, he said.
Much of the work involves partnerships with foreign
governments and law enforcement agencies, as well as private entities and
professional organizations, he reported. The IRS now has 17 attaches at key
embassies and consulates in 10 countries, he said, with plans to expand that
international presence.
“We’re seeing positive results from having attaches in these
locations,” Weber said, pointing to the advantages of being able to work
directly with foreign counterparts, at the same table and in the same time
zone.
“When we work together, it’s a force multiplier, and the
criminals lose,” he said.
“So
we need to be smarter, more creative, more effective,” Weber continued. “I’m
sure my (4,000) agents are up to the challenge.” But he suggested that there is
enough work ahead for another 1,000 CI agents, if he had them.”
No hiring of agents to help ‘taxpayers’ abroad – only for enforcement. No investment in ‘education’, only enforcement. No investment in service – only enforcement. No bigger budget for the Taxpayer Advocate – only for enforcement.
The US and IRS do not truly want compliance from those of us born, living and working legally ‘abroad’. Compliance from us abroad wouldn’t bring in the big penalty bucks for the US deficit. They want errors to penalize. They want unfiled or misfiled FBARs, 3520/As, and all the other obscure and incomprehensible forms for our legal and already-taxed savings. They desperately need to create as many non-compliant ‘taxpayers’ as possible; as those of us who can use the FEIE and Foreign Tax Credits, and who eschew holding any savings that can be punitively called ‘foreign trusts’ and PFICs, etc. generate little or income for the US – so they need to make it even more difficult and complex to report correctly from ‘abroad’ in order to invent ways to confiscate our non-US assets – and obscure their true purpose with a transparent dusting of something that they say is ‘law’, but which is really extortion thinly disguised.
These announcements simply confirm that is their purpose.
*badger, that’s so bizarre. Originally, I figured that IRS should focus on enabling Americans abroad to free-file online using their non-US address, regardless of their age or income. That’s the reason why I didn’t file every year. It’s annoying to punch in all the figures only to be told: “rejected because you live abroad!”. Yet, instead, it looks like the IRS hired thousands of troops to hunt down those who didn’t file for wrongly being rejected when they tried to do so. In my view, compliance with citizenship-based taxation is only possible when the US uses the tax data submitted to the government of which the expat is a resident. All of this double-filing is just pointless.
Just a follow up:
Good to see statistical analysis winning over belief based punditry…
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13510_3-57546161-21/obamas-win-a-big-vindication-for-nate-silver-king-of-the-quants/
But, as Michael Lewis showed, in Money Ball, the coaching and sports commenting fraternity, never learn the statistical lessons that Billy Bean put into practice either. So, I doubt any of the Fox pundits will learn much from this either…
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-5-2012/democalypse-2012—what-doesn-t-kill-us-makes-us-stronger-edition—media-accountability
Our belief systems are not so good at predicting what can win, or what will happen.
@ swisspinoy; yup, bizarre. And they seem hellbent on compounding that situation. Particularly the obsession with our local ‘foreign’ savings and accounts – down to the level of 10,00 aggregate. I don’t have a problem reporting the interest earned – just as I do where I live. But that isn’t what they want. Which only leads me to believe that they’re not really after taxing my ‘income’ per se. And as people here have pointed out, the US IRS and Treasury could make an exception and have us only report those accounts held OUTSIDE our country of residence. Although I realize now from reading here at IBS, that those in Europe particularly, would commonly work and bank across borders in the EU. The US could compromise – but they continue to state that they’re not interested in making any exceptions by country. Which just continues to make what they’re doing extortionate, unjust, and ludicrous – a default position asserting that ALL accounts and savings outside the US – over the entire globe, are all suspect criminal enterprises – until proven innocent – annually for our entire lifetimes. And that includes ALL the accounts of ALL non-US persons and companies and organizations in the entire world, if a US person has co/signatory powers on them. Really? I mean, when you state it like that, how can any other country take them seriously? Start giving examples of accounts that are included – like my local school’s parent committee fundraising acct. – and the absurdity mounts.
How I would love to present Ambassador Jacobson with one of those real life examples of US arrogance and absurdity when he continues to spout off in the Canadian media about how the US and Canada have a ‘special’ relationship. What crap. And the media here just laps it up – and repeats it verbatim.
Jacobson is a bag man for Obama. He knows full well what is going on here. He’s got the President’s ear – so it strains credulity that he wouldn’t have said to Obama – look, I’m taking flack from Minister Flaherty, and some semi-public heat from protesters in Canada over those grannies and the IRS. He must have some idea of the complexity involved – he’s a lawyer “Jacobson spent 30 years gaining expertise in the areas of complex
commercial, class action, securities, insurance and business litigation
as a partner at the law firm Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal LLP”. And his bio says “he served as Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel” – so he was actually in the Whitehouse.
Some here continued to speculate that Obama was unaware of the real impact of his policies and the actions of Geithner and Shulman on those abroad – including the >1 million just north of the border in Canada, but I think that’s impossible.
Further to that, one of Jacobson’s special projects is that of the shared Border security initiatives, which we know has implications re the integration of efforts around US entry, US passports, US taxes and US citizenship. He also says “there is no better example of successful economic statecraft than in
the U.S.-Canada relationship. Our trillion dollar trade and investment
relationship creates close political and social connections and these
political and social connections lead to even more trade. This “virtuous
cycle” of friendships creating trade and trade creating friendships is
exactly what Economic Statecraft is all about.”…
He acknowledges the social connections – and the importance to trade. But apparently not enough to acknowledge that if >1million US duals/persons live in Canada, and you threaten all of the with the IRS and confiscation of their legal Canadian savings – eventually wouldn’t that put a damper on trade? Roger is right when he says that citizens abroad are crucial to trade, and act as informal ambassadors outside the US.
Well, right now, Jacobson and Obama should worry about starting another term where more of us now know what we face from the US, and are taking steps to renounce, or otherwise cope – but with growing anger and resentment towards the US. They’re creating a lasting antagonism with the citizens of a major trading partner right next door – and potentially amongst over 1 million Canadian citizens and residents and their families and friends. I admit that the evidence is thin because so many of us don’t feel able to come forward to the news media, but we’ve been telling more and more of our fellow citizens. We’ll never look at the US the same way again.
Maybe Jacobson and Obama don’t care, because it’s a second term, but they’re Democrats, and eventually there will be another election. They’ve proven that they’re going to stay the course – they never reached out to those abroad except through celebrity fundraisers.
Those of us who are duals here will be voting in Canada’s next federal election – and can raise these issues there. And if we just keep hammering that the US considers ALL bank accounts to be potentially criminal money laundering ones- which we have to report, but which might just accidently compromise those belonging to other Canadians?
*One of those thing I have noticed is that Geithner’s number two guy Neil S Wolin and his international gal Lael Brainard have travelled to literally sixty plus countries around the world on official visits on behalf of the US Treasury Department. Neil Wolin even found time to speak in front of the Togolese National Assembly and just a few days ago Wolin was visting Myanmar of all places. However, neither Geithner, Wolin, Brainard, or Shulman have found the time to visit Ottawa or Toronto. Its not as if that if Geithner, Wolin, or Brainard wanted to speak in front of the Economic Club of Canada they would be turned away. From it seems it is simply that the US Treasury Department as an organization thinks very little of Canada’s importance apparently Togo, Lebanon, and Myanmar are far more important.
@Badger- I for one want no compromise. The U.S. has absolutely no business in my financial affairs that are conducted with another government’s treasury and that is what should be. Unless that interest is earned within U.S. territory there should be no reporting of even the smallest penny of foreign earned income to the I.R.S.
I am not looking for a kinder I.R.S. regime. I am looking for no I.R.S. regime at all. That is the bottome line.
They could have acheieved much more with less time if they had just done the right thing and implemented residency based taxation at the least or territorial based taxation at the most. Now instead they have basically locked all U.S. persons out of the world financial system and by locking them out they will soon find that they have locked the U.S. out.
Placing capital controls on citizens and dictating who they can and cannot do business with is the sign of an empire in decline.
@ recalcitrant — Exactly so! Plus I and others are also locked out of the USA — no tourist dollars from us!
@Petros… Have you seen this article? You get more coverage. Maybe it has been posted elsewhere…
FATCA Critics Fears Arrest by US Authorities
@Petros, and this was commented on here too..
https://www.devere-group.com/news/FATCA.aspx
and this..
http://www.nigel-green.com/2012/11/06/fatca-is-major-issue-for-us-expats/
Petros, thank you for making that huge sacrifice – becoming a visible protest symbol for those of us who cannot yet do the same.