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.
“Thick skulls” was more fitting, Victoria 🙂
Thank you, Calgary (and Em)!
Informal but I hope informative. 🙂
@ calgary411
Thanks. Loved Victoria but found worrisome bits in the rest. For one thing, not being American, I can’t grasp the concept of being bashed over the head with CBT, FBAR and FATCA and yet still being so eager to send your overseas earned money to a US bank so the US bank benefits from your deposits but your local bank does not. I suppose it could be for safe-keeping or ease of IRS reporting or whatever BUT why would you want your assets so easily accessed by the US gov’t?
Some sympathetic lip service from politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, but the bottom line is the same.
FATCA is here to stay — CBT and FBARs forever! Expats must be punished for living outside the Homeland.
See John’s comments starting at 1:02:54 – he was a bit frustrated too. “We need to get more agressive,” he said.
I wonder if AARO has many dual citizens or are they mostly Americans-only? Victoria’s response to the question of renouncing is priceless. I hope it never has to come to that for her. It should not have become essential for anyone. Although in my husband’s case, he embraces simplicity so relinquishing was the best way to cut some complexity out of his life. Soon Springtime will be nothing more to him than kayak season and not (groan) US tax season too.
And in the Q and A section at the end we talked about their reactions to the renunciations. 1:11:49.
LOTS of duals, Em. AARO was founded in 1973 and came out of another organization, one called the Association of American Wives of Europeans – AAWE – which was founded even earlier in the 1960’s. (You can read the story of the Founding Mother of both organizations, Phyllis Michaux, in her book The Unknown Ambassadors). We are talking long LONG-term residents outside the US (like 30+ years abroad). Phyllis herself first came to France in 1946.
Most of the people I meet these days are duals. Not all but most. I also suspect that these days FATCA/CBT has a lot to do with the diminishing number of American-only folks abroad.
Thanks Victoria,
Interesting video. One thing I just thought of on the FBAR is asking specific law enforcement agencies how much they use the information and how much do they use it regarding Americans abroad specifically. In particular State law enforcement agencies. My hunch though is the State Police have some type of filter applied vis a vis non residents.
I found it extremely interesting to hear the accounts of the reactions of people in America. Nina Olsen sounds so great and it is nice to know there are some in the political arena who are sympathetic to the plight of Americans overseas.
You are so damned intelligent Victoria! Wonderful! And I must add- your hair looked GREAT ( cut and colour- ah France!) LOL
@ Victoria
Thanks for the additional information about AARO. Now begin to blush — you are wonderfully poised and speak with great confidence and ease. I suspect that’s a combination of being a natural communicator and working for years in management positions.
“FATCA is here to stay — CBT and FBARs forever! Expats must be punished for living outside the Homeland.”
Americanism is a cult.
What do all cults have in common? Look at how they treat their apostates for the answer.
I am an apostate simply for caring for my wife, all because I crossed an imaginary line, separating the believers, and the non-believers. And now, my nationality only serves as the chains that bind. Those cultists, now more of a threat.
God give me the strength to break these chains, so that I may be free. I still keep counting the days. The goal is getting closer….
Guess which country isn’t knuckling under to the FATCA bullies:
http://rt.com/politics/160764-russian-banks-fatca-ban/
AARO made a conscious decision to not discuss renunciations. Lets see how long that lasts.
The “thick skulls” in Washington will understand only one thing, the threat of losing their beloved chairs in the House, Senate and/or Presidency. Their weakness is that they are drunk on power and live for those chairs.
The number of renunciations among expats is on the trajectory of becoming a national embarrassment (and deservedly so). Things will change for the better when the opposition party is able to point a finger at the ruling party to assign blame for the embarrassing number of renunciations.
In the mean time, the activism by the hard working people of ACA, AARO, FAWCO, IBS, MS etc will continue to lay the foundation for change — which will only occur when the thick skulls in Washington have their own “OMG moment.”
But that activism needs to be focused on the complete abolishment of the “peculiar institution” of citizenship-based taxation. Anything less than that will be only treating the symptoms of the underlying disease.
The persecution of Americans abroad will only stop when CBT is defeated once and for all.
@ FromTheWilderness
Eye on the demise of CBT — absolutely!
Interesting video, however, it seems like they spend more time ‘sleeping with the enemy.’. Of course they must seem pro-American, however the reality is all the dual citizens in that bunch should be aggressively forming groups to collect money for legal challenges and EU lobbyists.
Putting all your eggs in the US Congress and trying to make them change is not going to work. They admit to themselves that they have no political power in the US so get on to the EU.
They’re EU citizens and force the EU to enforce their rights.
The whole thing seems more like a social drinking get together than producing results. However 34 Avenue du New York has a nice view of the Eiffel Tower for all the good it will do them.
If the AARO can’t publicly admit that they’re lobby a foreign government to trash US policy than form a separate group and support it on the side to get on with the job of creating a ‘carve out’ for dual EU citizens.
Hey Hillary…….go jump in the lake. I’m voting for Victoria!
This is my first time posting on Isaac Brock, so I apologize if I am not doing so correctly.
Below is a “letter to the editor” from yesterday’s Calgary Herald. In my view, the writer’s thoughts perfectly reflect how many U.S. persons feel and is one of the best I have read to date.
A link to the letter was posted yesterday by pacifica777, but I fear that many readers may have missed opening it. Is it possible for an administrator of the site to post the letter in its entirety in a more prominent place . . . perhaps as a major heading for May 22 or 23?
Protect U.S. citizens
BY LAURA FROST, CALGARY HERALD MAY 21, 2014
Re: “Egregious privacy breach attracts little attention,” Karin Klassen, Opinion May 17.
Karin Klassen is to be congratulated for pointing out the enormity of the FATCA legislation effective July 1st. Millions of Canadians have ties to the U.S.
I was born in Saskatoon to a Canadian father and a mother who was a U.S. citizen. Previously, I was denied U.S. citizenship because my mother had not registered my birth before I was 18. Now that money is involved, I am a U.S. citizen for taxation purposes.
A friend is spending $30,000 to renounce a citizenship she never thought she had, to protect her assets. I have written Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and Finance Minister Joe Oliver about this and have received only the blandest of replies. The Canadian government needs to protect the assets of Canadians who are U.S. “tax cheats” by accident of birth. The outflow of money to the IRS is unconscionable, in addition to the terrible invasion of privacy this bill condones.
Laura Frost
Canmore
Welcome, Sasha.
I’ve updated the original post of Karin Klassen’s article: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/05/18/is-lazy-journalism-the-fault-of-the-journalists-or-are-they-just-giving-us-what-we-ask-for/
Thank you Sasha and welcome to Brock. I missed that.
@ All: Here’s the link:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Protect+citizens/9862159/story.html
I have to admit that I am deeply disappointed to see the extent to which AARO members seem to be willing to entertain measures that could make CBT acceptable. You can’t win if you concede even one point of this injustice because if you concede on one point you will actually be accepting all of the others. CBT has to be seen for what it really is, which is an act of FRAUD perpetuated through U.S. unilateral intimidation and imposition of economic sanctions.
Wise words and I agree, whole-heartedly, recalcitrantexpat.
Where I sit on all this: I’m a proud member of Isaac Brock, member of ACA, member of AARO, member of AAWE/FAWCO, a huge fan of the Maple Sandbox (Go, Lynne!), Tax, Society and Culture, Mopsick and of course the brilliant Phil Hodgen. My honest take on all this is that everybody is doing what they can in their own way using whatever contacts, methods, ideas and resources they have. Each organization has strengths, weaknesses, limitations and areas where it can act and where others can’t be as effective. There is surely going to be disagreement about where the emphasis should be and what overall strategy/tactics to use.
I am more and more convinced that one of the most important factors driving whether we win or lose is going to be our ability to work together for change. That is something I hear privately from people who are watching us closely – Can we get it together? Can this loose network of different organizations and actors become something that drives change? Or is all that potential going to crumble under the weight of diaspora politics? (I suspect that the US government is betting on that happening.)
To be clear people looking at all this from the outside see so much possibility inherent in this movement. I see it, too and I live in hope that it will be realized. That’s why I work with EVERYBODY.
@Polly, Thank you! As a I watched the video I realized that I look and sounds like a cross between my mom and my Canadian aunt. The hair was, oddly enough, a nice byproduct of the chemo and my meds. It grew back completely different after it all fell out and the meds I take these days thin it out.
@Em, Yikes, I am blushing. Thank you. I LOVE to speak and do interviews and stuff like that. I used to have to do it a lot in my job and I was a regular speaker once upon a time at the MBA program at the French engineering schools, Ponts. It’s just the most fun and I get so energized when I’m asked to do it. I wish I could do it more.
@Chears Big Ears, Blushing more. Thanks. Wasn’t there one year where Andy Sundberg (ACA) ran for president? I sure would have voted for him.
Gripping video. Planned to watch just a bit, and ended up following the whole thing. Really good to see the reports from all the adventurers back from the belly of the beast.
Kudos to all.
I liked John’s idea to target e-mail campaigns at selected people. I’ve tried sending individual messages to “my” representatives, but got nothing meaningful back, so clearly they don’t really consider themselves to be my representatives. Maybe they’d sit up and pay more attention if they got tens or hundreds of messages on the same topic, rather than just one?
Like slavery, CBT is morally wrong. Trying to make CBT more palatable is just selling out.
RBT or bust!