Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 93 Comments

The good news is that renunciations of U.S. citizenship are getting publicity.

The bad news is that the article does not recognize the needless suffering, desperation, and fear of Americans Abroad.

That said, it is better than most articles coming out of the Homeland.

Here is a comment that seems to me to be “right on”:

“The increase in renunciations is one sign that ordinary Americans who have lived and worked abroad for years, as well as green-card holders in the U.S. and overseas, believe they are at growing risk because of the intensifying government pursuit of undeclared foreign assets.”

Oversees banks are preventing Americans from opening accounts. They will be liable if they do not disclose all financial dealings with Americans. Now that the NSA can data mine (infiltrate) your emails, phone records, text messages, online financial records, etc….under the guise of terrorism, they will have accomplished exactly what they have intended all along, a mechanism to hunt down revenue.

Look for the unintended consequences as their Statist hand presses individual freedom and liberty creating a scenario where one is no longer their own property but the States property. There will eventually be civil unrest, unless these confiscation policies can be stopped. Once the State runs out of private cash to pay for their largess, they will confiscate our assets, just like Europe, it’s coming.

 

It’s time to turn the narrative from:

“Tall tales from the Homeland” to

“The needless suffering of Americans abroad”.

Your mission if you choose to accept it, is to educate the Homelanders. So far the comments are much more intelligent than usual. Perhaps some of you can keep the momentum going.

 

 

 

 

93 thoughts on “More from Laura Saunders @WSJ – Overseas Americans: Time to Say ‘Bye’ to Uncle Sam?”

  1. I feel a little better knowing all of you are being contacted. It means finally they are wanting to understand what FATCA means, how it is so dysfunctional for everyone involved. I’ll give them a call tomorrow. I just hope that more and more articles will flood the press with honest facts about the criminalizing of innocent expats because of FATCA.

    I had a tax lawyer from London today on twitter tell both me and ACA “FATCA is not going anywhere or CBT so get compliant and get OVER IT!” He then deleted his account and comment. This person had in his profile that he was a law prof in London too. I am doubting that, probably another tax attorney signing up to drum up business off the FATCA gravy train.

  2. Sorry WhiteKat, but I forgot to mention that you were contacted by WSJ too.
    I don’t believe they will print what you say unless you identify yourself.

  3. Calgary, if anyone’s story should reach people it is most certainly yours. I sometimes wonder how you’ve done it and how you’ve kept your cool.

  4. Atticus,

    So many of us have horrendous stories! What I highlight of my family’s story is only one of them.

    I feel that my son’s supposed US citizenship situation is only the “tip of the iceberg” for this segment of persons who could be affected by FATCA. That they can somehow be entrapped into the “gift” of US citizenship is repugnant to me. These people and their families, most of whom would not yet know what this could mean for the person they make life decisions for, need some kind of voice. They have much more on their plates than to have to deal with this. My voice is but a small one for them.

    They may be able to “stay under the radar” but they may not be able to. Why should they and their families have to any way hide from the US and its Citizenship-Based Taxation law? Why should our Canadian banks be able to turn their financial information over to the US IRS? Will Canada stand up for these, its most vulnerable citizens? Or, will they be an ugly part of the discrimination of US Persons in Canada, truly second-class Canadians? Will the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms have any protection for them — and the rest of us? Will their families have to represent them in class-action suits that will result with the waiving their rights? Although I am now freed from US citizenship and have my CLN, I will be part of any class-action suit in trying to protect the rights of my son and other US Persons in Canada with any type of mental incapacity.

  5. My son was born in Canada too. I’ve been on bank accounts with him. Will he have to prove a negative to the bank, that he’s NOT a US citizen because he could potentially be one?

  6. @bubblebustin

    I can’t confirm what a bank might do in the future…
    But I can tell you my experience with TD Waterhouse and my Canadian born daughter.

    TD Waterhouse pegged me as a US Citizen based on my Canadian Passport saying birthplace = USA
    This I am working to clear up…(as I naturalized in 1967, albeit as a minor)
    However, my daughter opened a trading account and showed her Canadian Passport and no reaction was taken…(even though the sympathetic clerk knew of my situation)..she has opened an account, no problem.
    The issue of a joint account though rests back on your status…
    In any event, my daughter is NOT a US Citizen even if I were deemed a US Citizen because I left the USA at age 5 1/2 and cannot transmit US Citizenship as per the residency requirements after age 14…

    .

  7. Good to hear, Benedict Arnold be me, that your scourge of birthplace didn’t set off alarm bells for your daughter at the bank. I no longer share accounts with my son, but I once did.

  8. Well, I have joint accounts with my son. I have to! He really cannot manage on his own. I will take my name off that one and only have my husband on it. That’s going to take some wrangling. I just spoke with WSJ. I guess I’m using my rl name again. This is just so scary but, I feel that for a publication with U.S. readership there isn’t much credibility if I don’t use my real name. I do feel like I wish I had a valium at times though and I hate that kind of thing but, I don’t mind saying I am a nervous wreck.

    Also, feel like an abused wife who is so foolish she has shed tears getting out from under this ill treatment when really there ought not be one tear shed over this. I was given NO choice in this matter. The only positive in this is that I can say, I did everything I could to protect Canadian family and put them first. Maybe one of these stories will change some people’s minds about what FATCA is doing and to whom it is doing it!

  9. Good work, Atticus. Feel the fear but go with it. Yes, you are doing EVERYTHING you can to protect your Canadian family and put them first!

    We are swarming, pesky mosquitoes, per Victoria’s wise words.

    I think this is better for our self-worth (in the abusive spouse comparison) than rolling over and being completely submissive. I, for one, cannot do that. Something else just drives me.

  10. @Calgary, I know about feeling driven. My back ground and ironically who my American grandparents and parents were will NOT let me be silent about this. I sometimes wish I could…do not wish to be made a target of but, so many have done far, far more. Yes, it’s much better for self esteem to say something rather than sit silently. I don’t even think this issue has reached critical mass. Hardly anyone inside the U.S. understands it yet though articles like the most recent ones will help with that. Then as those renunciation numbers rise they won’t be able to hide what they have done. There’s just no way.

  12. A translated comment to the NZZ article “Ex-US Citizens Adversely Impacted”, mentioned by DF above:

    “As a Swiss, I re-emigrated from the US after 40 years there. As I was to become resident two years ago in Switzerland, the tax advisers discouraged me to do so because I would pay more in taxes as a whole. That has proved true. However, the problem is not the tax rate or the total tax, but the excesses of FATCA. As a US citizen I can make no securities transactions in Switzerland. Also I can not go to any bank without extra paperwork because I am being treated as a “U.S. citizen”. That’s why dual nationals give up their US passports. Switzerland has not managed even to protect Swiss-US dual citizens in the US tax agreement from discrimination in their own country. That is the worst part of the whole.”

    This may of course come to Canada and elsewhere.

  13. “Fiscal motives alone aren’t the cause for the dramatic rise in citizens renouncing their U.S. citizenship, argues Anne Hornung-Soukup, a board member for American Citizens Abroad. She is also the wife of Genevan lawyer Douglas Hornung, who defends Swiss bank employees targeted by the American tax authorities.”

    I’ve noticed that Anne Hornung-Soukup’s comments often include a mention (disclosure?) of what her husband does for a living. She’s an outstanding spokesperson for Americans abroad, but this could potentially be a real lightening rod for her among homelanders and politicians who already view us with suspicion.

  14. ACA suffers the curse of location, due to history of that location being the center of NGOs and lots of other such intl activity where it has been crucial to be.

    ACA established an office in Wash DC, which hopefully will become known as its primary address in the media.

  16. In the interest of full disclosure I will also add the Anne herself is a registered independent investment advisor in Switzerland. That is different than being a banker or even a Canadian investment advisor. Swiss investment advisors give their client the choice of what bank to use(Thus the bank is the one completely responsible for tax issues). Most Canadian ones are affiliated with a single bank RBC, Scotia, CIBC etc.

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