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
Good God, All I see in this person’s response to the FATCA menace is a FATCA compliance zombie groaning “FBAR…must go back to the U.S. Must Get In Compliance”. Shaking my head in disbelief. Outright defiance may be the only way we can save our retirement savings.
@The_Animal
Wow! And I thought I was harsh!
But yes, I’ll have to agree.
Dear all,
After of over 30 years of political activity in the Republican Party I am throwing in the towel as I believe that the two major parties do not have the best interest of the American people at heart and that they are completely incapable to repair what is wrong with our country.
I will support and push any independent candidate who looks like they have the balls and leadership to attack the embedded interests who occupy and control our nations capital.
I personally would like to see a new party formed called the Take Back America party who would become strong enough to oust the leaches that are sucking our nations life blood out of the citizens of the country with rampant regulations, legislation and creating rules that let them embed themselves so deep into the power of the government that it is next to impossible to dislodge them.
We are rapidly loosing states rights to Washington in the largest power grab ever witnessed in the history of our nation while the elected officials are running around like sheep without a sheepdog to guide them to the correct direction.
That said I think that all laws ever enacted in Washington should have a time span limit where they expire if they are doing the country no good.
I think 7 years is a good place to start.
A commission should be set up to review all laws before they expire,appointed by the states,and if a law or regulation is deemed to hurt forward progress in our nation and over burdens the states…shit-can it and dismantle the bureaucracy set up to enforce it.
If we did this we can get the government back on track in short order.
We need to be very vigilant in the protection of our rights against those who would use hyper advanced micro-technology and military style tactics and equipment to control the population to protect their own interests against the free people of the United States.
Feel free to pass on to whom you may and with this I step down from my position as Member at Large, Republicans Abroad Switzerland.
Good luck…you will all need it.
Bill Olenick
The disillusionment continues…
Here here
I have read all 130 comments, regarding my letter, and offshoot reactions, with amusement at the childlike spewing about me, by none of you that even knows personally and has never met.
For you I offer a lesson that will serve you well the rest of your life.
Do not assume because you will make an ASS/U/ME or ass out of you and me.
That said and done I am surprised to see so many comments by those who have given up their US citizenship which leads me to think about another bit of wisdom,Thou Protest Too Much,which leads me to suspect that many truly regret renouncing their citizenship otherwise why waste time beating a dead dog with a stick on these blogs about a decision already made when you should be leaping forward with your life in your newly adopted country.
You can say what you may but I can tell you that my letter reached the highest levels of power in Washington and may have even landed on the Presidents desk, which was my intent, and I have the contacts and know how to do so, knowing DC well ,having worked for 41 there, and I fully intend to be active against government abuse of power until my dying breath and FYI my little farming operation will take place in three states along with a processing center and will create many jobs so before you go off on a rant about someone you have no idea about save yourself some embarrassment and do your homework and check your facts.
Otherwise keep the faith and one last bit of wisdom;If you give then an inch,they will take a mile.
I am going home to fight…not to sit on my porch milking my chickens and getting eggs from my cows.
Now I must go and get busy…you should do the same as every action has a reaction and well planned reactions can resonate far and wide.
William Olenick
Interesting. There are 7 million people (less 380,000) who are waiting for news of a result after 1000’s of letters upon deaf ears. Perhaps you could offer some news—at ACA or elsewhere. Many people aren’t so fortunate as to have had income tax help.
Til then, what is one supposed to be doing? OVDI & a 27.5% haircut?
@William,
Most of the long-term ex-pats who renounced/relinquished US citizenship did so in order to survive. They have lived abroad for many years/decades and have NOTHING to go back to in the Homeland.
They still follow the issues because they are PISSED OFF by the fact that they were essentially forced to renounce/relinquish their US citizenship due to the injustices thrown upon them and they are very BITTER about having to do so.
I renounced my US citizenship, but will never renounce the American blood that runs through my veins. It was an emotionally painful decision for me but I knew I had to do it if I wanted to live a normal healthy life. Yes, I am bitter about it.
So I can empathize with your feelings. However, others here may feel different about it and were just not able to understand your decision.
In any event, the situation faced by all Americans living abroad is a monstrous tragedy that must be overcome. Different people will take different courses of action. Some will renounce/relinquish, some will return to the Homeland, while others will continue to just suck it up and remain gluttons for PUNISHMENT.
So good luck to you William with your journey back to the Homeland and keep up the good fight!
PH
Well said, Patrick Henry. Good luck to all, whatever their decision. What a huge waste of valuable life on this earth to go through this!
@William,
You say:
“…which leads me to suspect that many truly regret renouncing their citizenship otherwise why waste time beating a dead dog with a stick on these blogs…”
I partly agree: Like Patrick Henry, I cannot imagine what my pain will be like when the time comes that I am forced to renounce.
–But because I will always think like an American I know that I will have no choice but to continue to fight the system.
@ Bill,
Thanks for posting. Brock may be a more mixed bag than you’d think.
Not so fast … I note you say “many,” not “all,” may truly regret renouncing … but we may be an even bigger tent than you think.
Some Brockers have recently renounced/relinquished.
Some plan to renounce/relinquish.
Some have no intention of ever giving up their US citizenship.
Some are/were dual citizens.
Some are not and never were dual citizens.
Some (particularly in Canada) relinquished decades ago but got caught up in this because of US law/policy changes which retroactively threw our citizenship loss into question.
Some were born in the US because their parents were temporarily in the US on student or other visas.
Some are border babies (people in rural areas on the Canada/US border often used to have their babies at the nearest hospital), who “lived” in the US for a few days.
Some never lived in the US at all, but have a parent who was born in the US.
Some are green card holders.
So, we all have different feelings about this mess, based on both what “category” we fit into and our current individual situations and our individual personalities.
I, for example, cannot “leap forward with [my] life in [my] newly adopted country” because I don’t have a newly adopted country.
I got dragged into this in 2011 due to retroactive changes in US law/policy. This is a matter a person must straighten out, which I have, a matter which, according Statistics Canada data, involves approximately 115,000 US-born Canadian (not dual) citizens. So, I stick around Brock, using my experience, to help other people extricate themselves. Unfortunately the US plays a bigger role in my life in one week now than it did in the last 40 years.
Not me. I terminated my contract 35 years ago, never had a single regret. I just never liked the concept of dual citizenship. I liked the US quite a lot at the time and actually felt I was choosing between two really good countries. (It was an easy choice, but it was a logical, non-emotional decision – I sure could never have imagined in my wildest dreams, the joy, the glee, the relief, the emotion I would feel in 2012 when I got that document I’d never even heard of until 2011, my CLN – times have really changed). The US was my favourite foreign country until 2011. But the US was, and is, a foreign country, not my country and I have no relationship to it. I’m real active in my community (food coop, school book sale) and my country (national political conventions, policy conferences). But I haven’t been a US citizen/resident/anything for most of my life [of the 300,000,000 people who live in the US, I personally know 1 that I could recognise by sight] and the US has changed itself so much in the past decade that it’s hard to relate it to the US of the 50s and 60s. So, although born there, I see it and feel about it differently than someone who is a part of it.
So, that’s a rough thumbnail of where I’m coming from.
I feel that all “US persons abroad” are victims, but we are all different and our circumstances are all different, so we each make the choice which is best for us.
As I wrote in January,
I think we’re all playing on the same team and I hope we’ll be hearing more from you.
newly adopted country?
“newly adopted country” ????
I did not adopt Canada, I was born a Canadian citizen while my parents were temporarily living in the US. And I have lived in Canada for well over 40 years!
I suppose if one has the option and the means to relocate to the US and actually wants to that’s one thing, but for those of us who’ve married “foreigners” and started families in other countries – it’s probably not. Bringing a foreign spouse into the States isn’t something that Uncle Sam appreciates enough to make a short easy process. My husband had a fairly straight forward no-brainer logical avenue for sponsoring me but the US won’t be as accommodating in reverse. In fact, when we were dating, he was regularly detained and harassed at the US border. I never once encountered such hostility when crossing into Canada to visit him.
As Pacifica777 points out, there are many categories of US citizen and some of them more tenuous than others.
It will be difficult to give up my USC, no doubt, but the USG hasn’t left me any alternatives if I choose to live outside its borders. I don’t have the means to keep up with their compliance demands. As it is, I have had to give up working and put aside plans to open a business b/c it’s just not something that can be done by someone of modest means if one hopes to not run afoul of the “rules”.
I resent this. I haven’t done anything wrong or illegal but I am treated like a criminal anyway, which leads me to believe that the US isn’t interested in keeping me a citizen anyway.
It’s nice for you that you have contacts and means to make your situation better, but you are not the norm and probably should take your own advice about “assuming”.
Thanks for the update. Looking forward to hearing about your progress on this matter that concerns so many of us.
@William,
My story can be read here and here in the comment section.
I am proud of my 300+ years of American heritage and my 700+ years of Swiss heritage which make me who I am, and I am fighting so that my Swiss-American-Filipino children will have fewer hinderances in enjoying their heritage. At the going flow of things, I fear that they may be forced, by Americans, to distance themselves from their American heritage while they continue enjoying the full benefits of being Swiss-Filipino. Switzerland and the Philippines are very proud of my children. Where does America stand?
On the issue of renunciations, here is my view:
EnglishForum
William was lucky that he was even able to have a business adventure outside of USA. A couple months ago, I had about 150,000 Euros worth of business in hand, which could easily have been implemented by establishing a local company with a quick startup and simple accounting. However, just beginning a company outside USA means more than 100 hrs of forms at initiation and quite a few hundred more afterwards. Add to it the likelihood of being audited by the IRS.
All of that pleasure from US when I haven’t lived there in 15+ yrs.
Let’s hope that William has received assurances from the President that US citizens indeed might be allowed to be competitive globally, rather than dragged down by a blue boat anchor.
p.s. I gave the business away to someone else—a non American
@Mark Twain, the US President has assured that it is a great honor to assassinate Americans living abroad without a fair trial, in violation of the US constitution. As such, it is unreasonable for the US President to oppose violating the US constitution on the Equal Protection Clause, or to even reject national origin discrimination in violation of US federal laws. Thus, G-d forbid granting Americans abroad political representation and make sure that they are heavily condemned and punished when they renounce!
@William Olenick
You say:
“Do not assume because you will make an ASS/U/ME or ass out of you and me.”
…
“Which leads me to suspect that many truly regret renouncing their citizenship.”
🙂
To make my own generalisation, I’d say the widespread emotion people seem to feel upon renouncing is not regret, but relief.
If people feel regret, I would think that’d be in the sense of regretting having to make the decision in the first place, which they feel forced to do in order to continue living a normal life, their normal life. And a sense or regret and bitterness in realising that to the US today citizenship does not mean in belonging in the sense of “membership in” but as in “possession of.”
@Pacifica777 et al.,
I suggest that emotional responses to renouncing are, as you said above, a real “mixed bag.”
Some will have much more emotional pain and “true regret” than others because of closer “ties” to the US (and high appreciation of their American blood), quite distinct from any anger and bitterness associated with the IRS nonsense, but this forum includes them all.
William appears to suggest that it is not reasonable to continue to complain (and aim to provide support and helpful advice?) after renouncing. As the intent is to influence people in a positive way I really do not see the problem.
It’s unique that some US citizens generally seem to get excited that every year 100’000 wahhabists or whatever immigrate to America. Then, when one individual renounces for whatever unknown reason, some Americans get shocked that the individual doesn’t hate America or might even want to visit relatives, spend tourist dollars or even retire to the place. G-d forbid! There must be nothing worst than the non-US citizen who doesn’t hate America! Nationism can be stupid. What matters the most is that one has a roof, food, water, friendly neighbors and a just legal system.
Here is William’s comment and the response to him on the Renounceuscitizenship blog:
http://renounceuscitizenship.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/packing-up-going-home-one-us-citizen-in-switzerland-vents-his-anger/#comment-6334
William’s comment:
The response: