Glad to post, Em:
Overseas Americans Week – Recap from AARO
As we tune in, thanks, Victoria and AARO — especially videographer, Mathieu.
Glad to post, Em:
Overseas Americans Week – Recap from AARO
As we tune in, thanks, Victoria and AARO — especially videographer, Mathieu.
I learned in elementary school (2nd or 3rd grade) that the American colonists were righteous for rejecting CBT from Great Britain. But the teachers didn’t tell us that CBT from America is supposed to be righteous as well. Perhaps they didn’t tell us because we would have asked too many questions.
Fight to end CBT, renounce and get a CLN, or go underground. Taking action to free oneself from tyranny is what matters.
@SamuelAdams
Yes- it is absolutely shameful.
@Polly
Thats why the increase in renunciations bothers them. It illuminates the scale of the injustice which interferes with their dirty agenda of trapping and raping expats. They want to be able to do it quietly.
@Polly, as much as I worry, I still Believe the IRS will focus on egregious cases due to budget constraints. Aggressive audits would cost more than what most Expats would owe in double tax, especially if they had to pursue them through the foreign courts, especially if a major push-back occurs. I would have thought that a minimum of $50,000 would have to be owed to make it worth their while.
It now seems to me that the banks and predatory compliance professionals (especially some greedy attorneys milking this for all it’s worth) are the biggest threat.
I’d imagine that in a worst case scenario that some banks might freeze accounts with US-indica until the client can either prove non-US personhood or demonstrate full tax compliance if so. In the meantime I will be eating popcorn.
@monalisa1776, I tend to agree with what you just wrote.
Unless you live in one of the countries that have a Mutual Collection Treaty, you are uncollectable.
But what it does likely mean is that they could persue some action in the USA and make it extremely uncomfortable for you if you ever enter the USA. So Schumer and Reid will win be default in that regard.
I can not see freezing accounts anywhere, other than in CHF. There is no lawful basis nor treaty to do it.
The compliance professionals are problem number one, the politicians are problem number two.
Also I remain convinced that the easiest victory is to get each host nation to formally state the master nationality rule which makes ANY other nationality entirely moot.
@victoria
I liked that they encouraged people to visit their reps in their home districts. I know from another policy that this is a highly effective approach, much more so than visiting them in Washington.
The midterms matter could matter a lot to FATCA. Midterm voting, particularly voting in the midterm primaries matters a lot because the turnout is ridiculously low. This is why the tea party rules in off-year primaries: they turn out when noone else does. Most Americans abroad who vote probably vote in the presidential general elections only, where the importance of the vote is diluted. I have made my representative aware that I am registered for the primary and am not happy with his support for the repeal of the foreign earned income exclusion.
:@charl
One thing that is needed is much better monitoring of proposed legislation. The nasty stuff tends to get slipped in and we don’t notice it. It is much easier to block than to repeal. If we knew what was going on, those of us who are actually Americans could write to our representatives and flood their mailbag. Personal letters. Politicians nowadays filter out mass mailings because they get so much.
Possible Achilles heels:
a) The U.S. is dependent on importing talented people from abroad, since the school systems are not very good. Many Americans abroad are in education and could make a point of informing young people of the real tax traps of the greencard.could get the government to act on this issue.
b) The World Trade Organization would probably not be impressed by PFIC rules and Europe or India might take the issue on.
c) confiscatory fines probably unconstitutional.
@George
Shocking that a speaker at the ACA event thought to push the U.S. financial products. In any event, there are major complications in buying U.S. financial products while in the U.K., so this is not a solution for all.
I understand your argument, but I have read there are some countries, like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where one NEVER can become a citizen, so it might not be practical in all cases.
@All
I will add that I have some limited first hand knowledge that even within Democrats Abroad they are some splits on this issue. They are actually some people in Democrats Abroad that I think are close in sentiment to many here at IBS while others are like the person Victoria ran into in Paris. I will note also note this is something I did not know about until quite recently.
One thing I’ll disagree with the video on is I think many DC who are not that aware of the issue and by definition have less on influence on tax policy are fairly sympathetic. However, those who actually do understand tax policy and at least some ability to influence the IRS and FINCEN are TOTALLY unsympathetic and very defensive of the status quo.
The bullshit justifications for keeping CBT are steadily being exposed for what they are — pure BS. We must keep writing and commenting on articles written by influential journalists as well as e-mailing them. They read the comments which help shape the narrative for future articles.
The die hard CBT supporters will continue to resist change until they see pendulum swinging against them. Then they will suddenly become overnight champions of RBT. Until then they will continue to hold the line in support of CBT.
It will be like when the East German border guards started taking sledge hammers to the Berlin Wall. Until then, they were quite content shooting fellow citizens caught trying to climb over the wall.
@Publius
In regards to education, very true. My British-born kids are getting a much, much better state education in the UK then I ever got in the States.
Also, I have noticed in the past 10 years the States is no longer the default destination for young Brits in science, hi-tec wanting to further their careers/training. Singapore, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and of course the ease of travel to EU member states like Germany are potentially out-competing the US as a favoured destination.
@George
Accounts have already been frozen in Israel. The banks don’t want to be left holding the bill.
As for CBT, only IF America contends that CBT is bad for business ( their own ) would they ever consider change. But it would also involve a massive loss of face to admit it. I`m guessing they would also need statistical valid evidence/proof.
In the end, the point I am trying to make is that something needs to be done, and we can`t talk ourselves into “it won’t be that bad”.
A general rhetorical question regarding DA. Does this organisation work to serve ANY interests of American expats or is it just a party machine to get the votes out during US elections? 10 years ago DA was on the airwaves in the UK trying to get “Americans who had fallen out of American life” (i.e., expats who had assimilated and become British citizens) to vote in the 2004 election. There didn’t seem to be any interest in issues affecting expats or those that had fully assimilated in their adopted country. That was the last time I heard anything from DA until the current situation, and even now the line is “the most important thing for expats is the mid-term elections”. I have to give credit to RO. At least they are standing up on an issue that will significantly affect (is affecting) the lives of expats. The attitude from DA appears to be “just be good and vote for us in the mid-terms and then we can forget about you again”.
@Creature outside
Democrats Abroad exists for the sole purpose to advance the interests of the Democratic Party (and the Obama administration) outside the United States.
“To be perfectly clear” (as Obama would say):
Democrats Abroad do NOT and are NOT for the purpose of assisting Americans abroad.
Speaking of Democrats Abroad and old movies:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/12/19/democrats-abroad-are-like-the-stepford-wives/
@CreatureOutside
Americans abroad as a whole will not survive in the long term, and as a result DA will quickly become irrelevant because of their refusal to support concrete measures to stop it.
At the same time, consular services will become increasingly more oriented toward the disposal of US citizenship than the support of it.
Democrats abroad is an official branch of the DNC. As such, they deliver exactly as the DNC specifies, centrally. THere is no dissent allowed.
I don’t think Republicans abroad is so formally structured.
@CreatureOutside
Individual members of Democrats Abroad have been boiling mad, but the purpose of both Democrats Abroad is partisan. The purpose of Republicans Abroad is also partisan. I read in one blog earlier in the year some very unpleasant stuff from a Republican about using Americans abroad as a weapon against the Democrats in retaliation for the way that the Democrats used Americans abroad against the Republicans under Bush in 2004. Both sides are quite willing to play us like a cheap fiddle, although at least the Republicans are playing a pleasant tune for now.
Normally, I am not so into realpolitik, but desperate times call for desperate measures, so if anyone abroad normally votes in presidential elections, here is information on how you maximize the impact of your vote in 2014 that neither of the parties will tell you. It is not a deliberately partisan strategy, although it will hit the worst members of Congress hard and they tend to be Democrats unfortunately. 1) Google primary dates 2014 to see if you can still register for your primary, since that is where a small number of votes make the most difference. 2) If there is still time, find out your representative’s and senators’ names. Is your senator up for re-election? Note their parties. 3) Google their names and relevant terms like ‘Americans abroad’ and FATCA to get some sense of whether they are problematic. 4) If they are problematic, register to vote in their party’s primary and vote against them. This strategy greatly increases the opportunities of getting rid of the most problematic people.
Forgive the sarcasm: This FATCA bullshit is getting to me.
I am an Australian citizen with a disability who was born in the United States and who had immigrated to Australia as a child with my family when my father accepted a job here. The International Revenue Service (IRS) seems to have made me out to be a criminal on grounds of my disability. Over twenty years ago I returned to the US after living in Australia for some time and found out that I was an uninsurable second-class citizen in the US. I have epilepsy and associated neurological problems. I discovered that in the US no health insurance company would insure me because of my disability. There was no public health insurance system to take on the rejects of the private health insurance system. I was there when Clinton was meant to fix the health system. Nothing happened. It was not a safe place to be especially since I had epilepsy. So I returned to Australia and became an Australian citizen as soon as I could. I felt safer here with its excellent Medicare system. Plus I was not discriminated against when applying for private health insurance like I was in the US.
I am glad my daughter was born Australian and not American. My daughter was born alive. When I was pregnant with my daughter a routine ultrasound picked up the fact that I had vasa previa. Undiagnosed vasa previa kills up to 90% of babies at birth. My daughter is alive today because of an ultrasound, a public maternity hospital and the Australian Medicare healthcare system.
So all these years I was meant to be spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars filing out tax forms every single year to a country I could not live in. Are you serious? I am not a criminal. Does the IRS really think I should have stayed in the United States and quite possibly have given birth to a child who bled to death at birth? Oh yeah, I forgot, the disabled are not meant to have babies. Even though Obamacare exist now, it didn’t exist then. Anyway I have no faith in Obamacare lasting long term. My home and my family’s home is Australia.
And another thing, at the moment I am not making enough money to be taxed in Australia, why should I have to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars filing out tax forms to the US, a country I probably don’t owe any taxes to anyway? I was made redundant from work over a year ago. I cannot afford to become compliant with the IRS. I am not a fat cat. I have children to support. They matter more to me than a country that I cannot live in.
@ EllenDownUnder
Welcome. Awfully glad you found your way to Brock. We can all commiserate with you and although I’m not aware of any organized anti-FATCA movement in Australia I hope you will at least wish us well here in Canada as we struggle against the beast. I realize that Australia just doesn’t have the numbers of US persons that Canada does so push-back there is far more difficult to achieve.
Your story is so touching and presents yet another unique example of why US citizenship-based taxation is such an abomination. Hang in there and at least know this is one place you can express your frustration and be certain we all understand the reason for it. You’ve probably noticed it is hard to explain to anyone who isn’t actually living in the nightmare like we are.
Ellen Downunder, I welcome you here as well. Your story (and I feel there will be many others as yours as we get closer and into the implementation of FATCA IGA’s) highlights some of the collateral damage of US citizenship-based taxation, combined with FATCA. The US cares not the families it will destroy in this, no matter their wealth or circumstances, and our own countries support the US round-up. The US Congress could remedy so much by its change to residence-based taxation as the rest of the world. Why not?
@EllenDownUnder,
Have you investigated whether or not you meet the requirements for relinquishing rather than renouncing? That could save you a world of pain.
@Em, calgary411 & WhiteKat
I did live in Canada for a couple of years when I went to elementary school & I have family members who are now Canadians & I still have family in the US. I am too afraid to have anything to do with the US consulate in Australia because of FATCA. If I ever get enough money to travel to North America – it would only be to Canada.