Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 47 Comments

Another Huffington Post article out last night on Expats and renouncing.  This is the 3rd in a very short period of time.  I only had time for couple short comments late last night in reply to someone else. I am off this tomorrow for an across state trip, and won’t be back to Seattle until late last night for more responses.  I am re-posting this from a comment I made earlier for better visibility. Hope others can weigh in. I see Eric has made 3 comments before I went to bed, and I see some others in a quick peruse this AM.  Got to run.

American Expat Taxpayers Would Rather Ditch Citizenship Than Face New IRS Rules

47 thoughts on “Huff Post: American Expat Taxpayers Would Rather Ditch Citizenship Than Face New IRS Rules”

  2. *nobledreamer, the pupils posting there are a lot of fun.  I like playing with their statements, taking their talking points and twisting it around right back at them.  But, it’s a bit addicting… I better go do some more logical things now.  I never realized how fun it is to pick on my liberal like-minded buddies!  It’s really funny when they accuse me of being a “republican”.  Yet, the best comment of them all was the one who didn’t want to assist Americans abroad with unemployment benefits since they would spend the money in another country:

    It could be that they are spending their paychecks and contributing to
    the economy of a different country.  Why on earth would Americans want
    to financially support (encourage) that?

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/ExpatAmi/american-expat-taxpayers-would-rather-ditch-citizenship-than-face-new-irs-rules_n_2094559_204753145.html

    Unbelievable… just unbelievable!

  3. @SwissPinoy

    Yes, the Republican thing gave me the giggles.

    That comment is so stupid that I couldn’t even follow it at first. Guess I’ve been away too long……   😉

  4. Anybody can use my words. I could have gone on and on and I of course didn’t mention my more personal concerns. There is so much ‘larnin for them to do. A lot to take in. I think we have scored with Mark helping with NPR and now our comments on the HuffPo site making people think a bit more about this — except for those who will never concede we are worth them spitting on.

  8. I don’t see talk of the nation as anything in the bag.  It would take nothing to just pass over it.  It would not be the first woman to have said she was considering my proposal.  Submissions such as above, in quantity, might tilt the scale.  Note that I received a similar response in my visit to the local station, from Rubio’s office and from my rep’s office, and the Senator’s office where I am researching.

    If we get NPR, then I would need to start listening to Rush Limbaugh to get into his fantastic show.

  9. @Mark Twain

    I won’t have time to really follow up on this until later, (maybe in Sydney) but I discovered this PRI monthly hour program called Americans Abroad with Ray Suarez.   

    http://www.pri.org/america-abroad.html

    Ray is really good, and if you are a regular Talk of the Nation, listener, you would have remembered him.  He is now a regular on PBS NewsHour.

    I did not know he was doing this show, and just happened to hear snippets of it as I was traveling, and decided to look it up.

    I have sent him a quick tweet, to see if I could spark an interest.

    https://twitter.com/FATCA_Fallout/status/268214489646788608

    Maybe you would be interested in trying to make contact, and I will try to see if ACA is interested too.  An hour program on the impacts of US Tax policy on American’s Abroad would be a BIG score if we could get him interested!  The one story I heard tonight as I was traveling, called American Entrepreneurship in a Global Economy, touched on some American Tax complexity as an inhibitors, so I have to think there would be a sympathetic ear to the subject.

    cheers…

    PS, I know others here will not agree with me, but if we are to win the FATCA battle it has to be done with the rationalist on the moderate to left side of the spectrum in the both the Dem and Republican partisan camp, IMHO.  If Rush gets on a Rave, and it is seen that FATCA opposition is about protection for the 1%, it shuts down the conversation.

    Given how the Republicans and Fox propaganda types have marginalized themselves with the recent election, (Lied To By ‘Conservative Media as Joe Scarbough says) I would stay away from him like a plague, at least for now, as he and a lot of the Right Wing Entertainment media is on the losing side of the argument for rational thought. Even if there are those here that love Rush, you have to recognize that the GOP true believers missed the boat seriously when it comes to reading and appealing to the electorate. It is what it is. 

  10. This was mentioned: HuffPost Live conversation on expats–send in your phone number, live via Webcam.  Is this meant to be an open broadcast, or is this meant that the mentioned woman would call to the persons she chooses to speak to (from the email submissions)?  I can’t find any other mention of it other than within this comment thread

  11. http://www.pri.org/email.html

    http://www.pri.org/pri-contact.html

    phone: 612.338.5000  We value your feedback!

    FBAR reporting of foreign bank accounts had never been enforced–only 100,000 had been filed per year (of 7 million US citizens overseas) during year 2000.  However, the new OVDI and OVDP programs retroactively created penalties of 25% of unreported accounts for so many of 7 million  innocent US persons overseas, and tens of millions of dual-citizen-immigrants living inside USA.

    Next comes FATCA (you have done one small piece on this) which not only raised penalties, but now forces foreign banks to search out and report these innocent and unknowing persons.  All the while, the IRS removed instructions on how to file FBARS from their instruction booklets.  FATCA’s purpose was to raise revenue from penalties upon innocent US persons “reversing the burden of proof” upon them, in order to pay for the jobs in the 2010 HIRE Act. 

    Today, few people know about this terrible legislation and the coming horrendous effects upon millions of US persons and upon the US and foreign financial systems.

    Please report fully upon this to the millions of US persons in fear of this campaign and upon the terrible expected effects upon the desirability of US as an investment option for global investors.

     

  13. I also made a submission to NPR Talk of the Nation this weekend, but did not get a email acknoledging it.

  14. *Sometimes the IRS can be too much. They have lots of tax rules that they strictly impose which collects too much taxes from expats. Not all expats are well-off in terms of status in society. They are still human beings trying to earn an honest living.

  15. @Stephanie Dexter

    How right you are. Take my case in point. My husband are both US citizens, I was born in the US, moved to Canada at 12 and my husband is Canadian born and is a US citizens through his American father. Neither of us have ever worked in the US. I’m retired and we live on a modest income from our investments and what my husband earns. The proceeds of the sale of our home here in 2008 was to go to our retirement, but when we found out through the Canadian press that we were supposed to be filing US taxes (something the USG never informed us of) we made good with the IRS. Making good required paying capital gain tax and late penalty to the IRS on proceeds from the sale of our home ONLY because Canada didn’t. Nearly a year and six figures later there is still no resolution to our tax situation with the IRS.

  17. Thought I would add this story that was published yesterday in the Independant

    Land of the flee: why, despite Obama’s re-election, Americans are renouncing citizenship in droves

    Since President Obama took office in January 2008, nearly 5,000 people have voluntarily surrendered their American passports, according to data made available by The United States Office of the Federal Register. Last year alone, nearly 1,800 US citizens went rogue, compared to about 230 four years ago. Renunciation figures shot up shortly after the UBS scandal of 2008, when the Swiss bank was caught helping thousands of Americans evade taxes, a revelation that led to tighter restrictions on overseas bank accounts. Many in the expat community believe that the US government has gone too far in its monitoring of foreign bank accounts and taxing on assets and worldwide income. And for the defectors, financial freedom has become more important than heritage.

  18. http://www.npr.org/programs/talk-of-the-nation/
    I try to check if it is to be aired on NPR, as they list their topics one business day in advance.  I’m giving up hope—they looked into it and decided they don’t care.  They have my name and phone number and info.
       Off to the state capitol in a couple of hours to again meet some friendly people who were forget me as soon as the door shuts behind me.

  19. @Mark Twain

    I admire your efforts, and keep it up. It is easy to get discouraged in these matters, but somewhere, sometime there will be a break through of awareness.  Just remember, that Roger Conklin has been on this mission for 30 year and hasn’t quit yet!  

  20. *Just Me, I’m actually enjoying my new hobby as a non-resident alien middle class veteran commentator who renounced to pay taxes with a bank account.  Such easily defeats generalizations and stereotypes.  🙂

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