ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Ed. note: William Olenick has been active in Republicans Abroad in Switzerland, where he is a longtime resident. He sent the following email letter to friends 28 January; we reprint it in full as part of our coverage of the ongoing problems for US citizens in Switzerland.“Dear all,
Read the article below my comments and you will see why I also have my problems with the banks and I am tax compliant.
For the last 25 years I have been busting open nitch markets for American products, contributing to lowering the trade deficit, developing new markets for US producers, creating employment for my brethren back home, increasing the tax base where they live.
The only way to do this is to be on the ground in the countries you are selling.
In my case, my markets were Europe, North Africa and the Middle East so it made sense to set up a base of operations in Switzerland, as it was close to the markets, was a well run country, my wife happened to be Swiss, from a large, close-knit family, so it was a no brainer.
Two months ago my bank informed me that I could no longer make wire transfers to the states.
That being the case how will I pay my suppliers?
More
*@Jefferson D Tomas, here is the text you can post. Thanks very much
FATCA is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The US government started piling them on with
1962 legislation which taxed just a handful of the very rich abroad – movie stars
filming in Mexico. So they came home. But the Tax Reform Act of 1976 brought
back hundreds of thousands of middle class Americans abroad who always insured
a healthy US trade surplus. The largest-ever US trade surplus was in 1975, but
when hundreds of thousands of overseas Americans were hit by a ton of bricks,
they abandoned ship and the US trade balance immediately went negative. There has never been even one trade surplus
since 1975 and our cumulative trade deficit
since 1976 now exceeds $9 trillion!
I had been running a company in Brazil penetrating a new
market for American products. When that Act was signed my combined Brazilian
plus US tax shot up to 81% more than any non-American with my exact same income
and family status. I could not
survive. I closed out work in process,
shut down the company and came home to start a new career.
A French company moved in, hired most of our employees and 8
years later was importing $1 billion in French products into Brazil to support
that market. The US share of that market dropped to near zero. This happened
around the world and that is why the 100-year period ending in 1975, during
which the US recorded trade surpluses for 95 of those 100 years, overnight was
transformed into our current perpetual trade deficit.
With FATCA, on top of being subject simultaneously to two
very different and incompatible sovereign tax systems, there will be few
Americans left abroad. The draconian FATCA rules obligate foreign banks to
provide detailed reports on their accounts of US citizens, in open violation of
the privacy laws of the countries where they operate. Rather than comply and risk massive penalties
imposed by their governments, they are closing down accounts of American
persons. Without an account to deposit their paycheck or out of which to pay
their rent, they cannot survive. So it
is either pack up and come home or renounce US citizenship. To those with
foreign spouses renunciation is their likely choice because obtaining a visa
for the spouse to immigrate to the US and start life over from scratch is
rarely a viable choice. Being uprooted after 10,
20 or more years and forced to start over in a different country is absolutely
inhumane. Yet that is exactly what FATCA does to middle class Americans living
abroad.
*@Jefferson D. Thomas. I left out the words “and report them to the IRS”,
And at the end. it should read “yet that is exacty what FACTA does to…”
*
geeez, I gave up, as demonstrated with the fact that I renounced. But, I enjoy supporting you guys. 🙂
Operation Turn the US Around (with military overtones) !!!
pacifica777 – “ally in that war”
mjh49783 – “convince even one person”
swisspinoy – “joining forces”
bubblebustin – “different divisions”
a – “active for the cause”
A virtual squadron chatters anonymously across the aether, fantasizing manifestations of muscle. Someday their counterforce could strike back.
There is a reason that people wearing yellow stars let themselves be corralled into cattle cars. They did not have the internet? They could not find one another in cyberspace?
The only plausible action in the circumstance is plodding one-by-one on-the-ground ten-toed vote. The survivors are the ones who get out on their own while the situation is still “semi-good.” Well, yeah, you could call those walking skeletons who managed not to die – the almost-too-late – you could call them “survivors” too!
Sauve qui peut. No assembly is massing to save the ostrich herd. The bugle of rescue is not expected.
@swisspinoy
I get what you’re saying, but at the same time, I don’t have the luxury of living on a farm and sit in the sun for hours. Not only do I feel betrayed, I also feel that FATCA has placed my family under attack in some ways, so I have no choice but to be political.
Meanwhile, I have ZERO desire to return to the US. Nowadays, I even loathe visiting there, even just to see family. For the last ten years that I lived there before I emigrated, I hated it. But, I thought I could just stay out of the political nonsense of it all, and simply live my life. It didn’t work out.
My father used to tell me how if you worked hard and kept your nose clean, that the good things in life will come to you. Not only was he fired from his last job, his employer screwed him out of his unemployment by lying to the state. After that, he was turned down for every frigging job he applied for since that point. He ended up having a stroke, and he died two and a half years later, and because he had no insurance, the hospital did virtually nothing for him except to offer him a clot busting pill after the time had already expired for the pill to have any benefit! That and he was seven months short of collecting his social security, too. Quite frankly, I can’t think of a bigger, undignified kick in the ass than that, except for how society could just be callous about it all in spite of all the wrongs that had taken place. He was basically shit on, and discarded like yesterday’s garbage. Yeah, I’m quite sure he was not the only person that was treated like that, but my mother is still convinced that he got the best health care possible, well, if really the best care possible is simply changing a bed pan every once in a while. Nope, I’m convinced societal indifference played a part in his death, and with him stuck between a job, and a social security check due to what I believe is age discrimination, he fell into a deep depression, and he smoked until he croaked. On the other hand, he’s not blameless, either. After all, he chose to smoke.
But, the system there is toxic, and it stinks to high heaven. Only in America can someone not only screw you over, but they can also be so arrogant and paternalistic about it to the point where you feel like you’re the one doing something wrong, and that is basically the point. I don’t know anyone that is happy there, including family, regardless of how well, or how poorly their life circumstances have turned out. People are just snapping over there left and right! How many high profile shootings over there do people have to endure before they realize there is a serious societal problem? But yet the best answer they have is arming all the teachers? Now they want to have drills in school where the kids have to endure the sounds of gunshots, but yet on the same token, they want to protect the kids from violent video games, even though there is NO link, between video games, and violence? Doesn’t this strike anyone as just complete batshit insanity? C’mon! Did Adolf Hitler become violent after playing Nintendo when he was a kid? What? Didn’t he have video games? No? Well how could he have been responsible for killing 6 million Jews if he didn’t even have Super Mario Brothers? What’s that? The games had nothing to do with it? Well gee whiz? I was so positive just a minute ago…..
Oh, and I’m sure Joseph Stalin must’ve loved Sonic the Hedgehog! What? He didn’t have that, either? Well goddamn! How did he think of those purges?
Maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with their abysmal education system, and a complete aversion towards accountability? But really, why work, when you can just sue someone, and then make a reality show out of it? Isn’t a sizable bunch of those politicians that are running things into the ground over there the same ones that got deferments out of the Vietnam War because they were too good to serve, and that they had money and connections? Christ! I’ve got more respect for those that burned their draft cards and headed for Canada!
Every day I spend in Canada is a day where I appreciate just a little bit more that I’m no longer there in the US, and I literally can’t wait until I can free myself of the burden of US citizenship.
*mjh49783, that looks like something that I might have written. Let’s just say it like this. Since moving to abroad, I’ve made the effort to limit my US criticism mostly to foreign policy and my focus now is to shift such completely over to Switzerland. Other than that, thanks for expressing a lot of my views which I prefer to not mention! I agree with most of that with the main difference being your dad rather than my mom (I love violent video games and have no need for a gun).
Canada signs information exchange agreement with…………………….Liechtenstein!
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n13/13-014-eng.asp
*Roger Conklin, I posted the following to the Time article:
Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/01/31/mister-taxman-why-some-americans-working-abroad-are-ditching-their-citizenships/#ixzz2JajXgb3v
usx, I have no fantasies or illusions, which makes prepping to “ditch” irritating or depressing by turns. I think most people awake enough to be aware, and with opportunity and means, opt to flee when faced with a Goliath opponent. Everyone else opts for damage control when reality looms large enough to make an impression/impact and some survive and some don’t. Even the Canadian govt to some extent really is hoping that this won’t be the awful thing that it is shaping up to be and won’t effect as many ppl as it probably will b/c they are mostly still mired in the real fantasy that things are going to turn around, get better again and they won’t have to take steps to disentangle from the US before it really begins its freefall.
I know why ppl ended up branded with yellow stars and skeletal corpses. It’s because they didn’t recognize that things weren’t going to turn around and get better b/c their opponent was huge and their countrymen were idiotic cowardly sheep.
mjh, I understand. I don’t like going down there either. Crossing the border makes me uneasy and I have an irrational fear of not being allowed to come home again when we travel back. Everything that’s going on down there – the nuttiness and violence and complete disregard for the growing reality that the 1990’s really aren’t coming back – is because on some level, people know this. But as a friend there told me when I asked her how she could vote for Obama again “I have to have hope or how will I get out of bed every day?”
There are four more years of the current stupid policy. No amount of protest from expats is going to change anything b/c the USG cleverly convinced homelanders that we are all wealthy tax evaders and ingrates. To gain anything, we’d have to recast that narrative first, Americans are all, for the most part, are in various stages of lifestyle decline that is consuming them. I doubt that any effort on our part will even attract their notice let alone change their minds.
The real service of this site is explaining to expats why they should and how they can shake off their US personhood. jmo
@SwissPinoy
I wouldn’t be too surprised that what I’m writing is actually more common in people’s lives than we realize. Though I would normally prefer not to talk about my dad in a public forum, among other things, it seemed necessary in order for me to help paint a more complete picture of how I currently feel at present.
There is one other thing I never could understand about the US. How could a society be so arrogant and paternalistic on one side, but yet claim to be the place to go for those that seek individual freedom? Isn’t paternalism, and freedom, two concepts that are mutually exclusive? I guess it goes to show how divided and dysfunctional the politics are over there nowadays.
But, be that as it may, I certainly don’t plan to get an absentee ballot for the foreseeable future, and I think I’ve said what needed to be said anyway. I find it therapeutic to vent in a positive manner, instead of being over there like one of the many ticking time bombs.
Not so easy to switch completely to all things Canadian as I’m pretty close to the US border, but I don’t feel one bit guilty about switching the channel once the president is on, or when they’re talking about some other craziness in the US on TV. Also, it’s just the simple things here that I like, like not having to look over my shoulder whenever I walk down the street at night. 😉
@a
Kind of ironic that a society based so much on consumerism is “in various stages of lifestyle decline that is consuming them”.
@mjh49783
Thank you for sharing some of your life’s events with us. I don’t know where I’d be if I couldn’t discuss with others this insane predicament we’re going through in a largely constructive manner.
Re being able to walk down the street without fear here, I just happened to flick on Piers Morgan interviewing these two young women who were at a shooting range who said that they needed to be able to spray bullets at any intruder who might bust through their front door. My husband and I looked at each other and I said that the last thing in the world I would ever think would be someone doing that. If I had to live like that, I’d use only one bullet and it would be on myself! Of course these girls probably live in some gated community somewhere with roving security, but you can never be too safe!
It’s like they never stopped believing in the boogie-man.
@bubblebustin
Insane, isn’t it? To have to be paranoid enough to where it seems rational to just spray bullets like that, to stop the bad guys? That’s not freedom! That is fear!
Compare that to being able to walk down the street at night, and know that you can do it without having eyes in the back of your head? That’s freedom!
Bubble, you bring up another important aspect of this site. Being able to discuss/share with people who “get it”.
Honestly, it’s not all that dangerous down there outside of the big metro and high poverty areas. I taught in a gang infested school during the 90’s and lived on the edge of the “hood” and felt safer than I sometimes feel in Edmonton today. It’s a matter of where you live, just like anywhere else.
But the perception of violence (usually driven by racism and classism) is ingrained in people in the US. The last time we visited my hometown (tiny place in the Midwest), my husband and I went biking on the new trail that led, I discovered, through what passes for the “ghetto” according to my sisters who live there. It’s a part of the town that historically has housed low income and working poor. Not much different from when I was a kid but the perception of danger has really exceeded the reality of the town’s crime rate, which like most of the US has been steadily dropping for some time.
Between the politicians and media, I don’t know how anyone can escape paranoia down there about imaginary dangers while real threats (like unemployment, wage deflation, income inequity) are ignored. The bogeyman is more real to them than the policies that are destroying their lives.
Canada’s not perfect. I try to remind my liberal friends of that all the time though they really see us as living in some Michael Moore utopia. But, life here isn’t as … shrill and oppositional.
To have to ‘spray bullets’ is a complete disrespect for firearms, and for those who take the time to attain the skill to shoot with accuracy and fewer bullets. They’re treating firearms like they’re toys. Perhaps they are to many! I’m surprised Barbie doesn’t have a shooting range and pink whatever it is those girls were shooting.
I would think that the police aren’t too happy about the citizenry armed to the teeth, but have to dummy up because of the 2nd Amendment.
@a
Yes, Canada certainly isn’t perfect. In Windsor, Ontario, for example, it’s not easy to find work. That and there’s been plenty of teacher’s union discontent that has affected my stepson’s education in a negative way. The premier that had just been replaced seemed to be quite the nit wit, and the province has been left in a financial mess. But, there’s NO way I’d pick a guy like Hudak. Meanwhile, the provincial NDP leader seems just a touch too left for my taste, and I thought I was a liberal! I can’t vote right now anyway, but even if I could, what can I do to choose, other than examine the candidates carefully, and try to make the best decision that I can?
The health care system here is better than where I left, but it certainly isn’t perfect. I’ve had no problem finding a doctor, but I’ve also heard of people having to wait over a year to get one in places where there are doctor shortages. One can also be waiting in the ER for hours to see a doctor if you’re not of the highest priority, but on the other hand, there are plenty of same day clinics here when you just have to see someone. Also, people say it’s free, but it isn’t, as it’s funded by taxes. A 13% HST here hurts a little more, but we get more for what we’re compelled to pay in tax.
Lastly, isn’t it great though that it’s not shrill and oppositional like it is south of the border? I think it’s a great part of Canada’s charm, though I’m sure there are other countries in the world that can make similar claims.
mjh, I too think that this is part of Canada’s charm and I wonder sometimes if those who are born here truly appreciate the rather low-key and practical way of things. Yes, there are things that could use some improvement. The way the provinces deal with teachers baffles me. I taught in the states and was shocked to see that teachers here are expected to coach and do extra curricular clubs for not even a stipend though it surprises me not at all that they are shut out of input into how and what is taught – that is so typical. The health care system is set up in a most inefficient manner too – far too much counterproductive gate-keeping by GP’s – but I live in Alberta. People come here looking to work shift for an oil company. Professionals don’t exactly flock here.
I have to giggle about the idea of what is a conservative and what is a liberal. Canadians have no idea what conservatism is. Here in Alberta, the NDP and Liberals are loons for the most part. They’ll never get elected in large numbers if they don’t start employing some practical common sense to the regional issues (and the Liberal leader has got to be the biggest drama princess of a politician I have ever seen.) However, I really like our local leaders. Down in the states, unless you were important in some way, you weren’t likely to even know them. But our ward councilors have been great. Our MLA always gets back to us. The Mayor makes it a point to attend all sorts of local functions and responds to emails herself. Probably bit of an illusion but it feels more like you have a voice. I will be so happy when I can vote.
mjh49783 & a –
Thanks for your eloquent and riveting testimonies. They resonate.
The US is such a good place to die – assuming of course that you suppose unwitting self-execution is the bright thing to do.
No better way to display truep solidier love of that cIRSed countery than to have its kearth spiled over you or to have your frittered ashes spreayd over its blandshape. Land of the freek and home of the grave!
Here is one Place that you can find statistics on crime and fear of crime.
There are more statistics (crime per 100,000) on crime from OECD somewhere else, sorted by specific crime.
Other than murder, the results will surprise you.
@roger conklin I just posted to time in two places in the comments, also with a link to your statement to House Ways and Means as I couldn’t find SwissPinoy’s comment that he said he posted with the link. I took the liberty because the PDF file is public record anyway. Sorry, I didn’t catch your second post with the minor correction, but I think the result is ok.
I posted several short comments to Time this morning and had no trouble logging in with Facebook using Internet Explorer, but when I tried to post your long post, I got the twirling bubbles (please wait) for minutes. I then popped your text into word and corrected the carriage returns, but that didn’t help. Then I logged on with FireFox using Facebook and was able to post very quickly. I mentionned that you were a frequent contributor at IBS.
If you want to post to news sites like Time directly, I would suggest you try opening a Facebook account, perhaps a second one as R. Conklin or something like that to be dedicated to these issues, and install FireFox and see if that helps. So far I have had no problem with my Jefferson Tomas facebook account being for a “nom de plume”. Knock on wood. The name is not to defraud but protect my identity as an amateur writer, political thinker, ranter, and blogger.
By the way, installing a second browser allows you to be logged into IBS via Internet Explorer for example as an author and as another WordPress ID e.g. for your own blog using FireFox. Two authentication contexts. If you install Chrome you would have three. Best way to handle things unless you want to work from multiple PC’s or build virtual machines. It can get confusing though unless you have multiple physical screens.
swisspinoy, I wish I were free like you, but I’ll be there eventually. I’m very far from being rich. I just want to live my life. I don’t want to work my butt off on a farm only to get notice that I’m being audited from 10,000 miles away!
A, regarding your very true statements about how expats have been cast in the US media… and they say that the Press is “free” and there is no manipulation. yeah right! The sad thing is that when I’ve tried to point this out to resident Americans, they don’t want to hear it!
@geeez
Yep. They don’t want to hear it from me either, but that’s okay. I can’t worry about that. I know I could make it my life’s mission to try and get the word out about the injustices that we’re put through, and find out that I’ll just hit a brick wall at every turn, simply because the homelanders can’t be bothered to care. In the process, it might even cost me a marriage, and would certainly result in my being bitter for the rest of my life, and for what? Meanwhile, I have a family here that does care, and I don’t have to convince them of anything. Why would I want to risk sacrificing a good thing to try and convince those that would just as well piss on my grave?
It just isn’t worth the cost, in my view, to convince anyone over there of our plight, to what is to me now an alien culture.
*@Mjh, exactly. If things go smoothly and am able to get out (renounce), then I’m going to go for it. However, apart from my mother and her sister and possibly my father, I don’t think it would be wise to go out of my way to tell anyone else because they just won’t understand it easily. It’s none of their business either.
*@Mjh & monalisa1776, what I did is to make a simple facebook announcement:
This sparked a fraction of interest. So, in response to the claim of “denouncing”, I wrote:
This was then later followed with my comment on Time, which got automatically reposted on facebook:
In response, one fellow responded with:
Hope that helps. 🙂
Swiss, once I explained to different family and friends about the compliance difficulties/expense and the rather dismissive attitude of the USG towards the plight of expats and their foreign spouses, there was understanding.
However, there was still the expression of fear for me once I am no longer a citizen. Many of them really think that this is awful but not awful enough for them to complain to their congresspeople about. Sure they sympathize, but they aren’t going to rally to my defense. It was especially disheartening b/c I have blogging/journalist friends, some of whom have platforms that reach a lot of homelanders, and they won’t touch this issue. They simply can’t bring themselves to criticize the current govt b/c they have bought wholly into the bogeymen that they have been sold about what would happen to their lives if Dems and Obama weren’t in charge.
In the end, I am forced to conclude that I am on my own in solving things as they effect me and my family, and after that, perhaps I can pick up the banner locally – to inform on a province level b/c Alberta is a place where many Americans are lured to work. I have plans to get involved in politics here anyway and perhaps this is my cause, but I am not going to paint a target on myself until I am in the clear. Selfish, I know.
@monalisa1776
My family here already knows my intentions. As for the family I have on the US side, I think the only one I’m going to tell will be my mother. If there’s anyone over there that might understand, it will be her. I don’t believe that anyone else will get it, nor does it really matter to me if they do.
Beyond that, I doubt I’m worth the trouble of sending a drone after me.