Our own Noble Dreamer in the news. Wall Street Journal reports:
Expatriate Americans Break Up With Uncle Sam to Escape Tax Rules
By LIAM PLEVEN and LAURA SAUNDERS
“Ms. Moon is among record numbers of Americans cutting ties. U.S. offices abroad reported that 1,001 U.S. citizens and green-card holders had renounced their allegiance in the first three months of the year, according to Andrew Mitchel, a lawyer in Centerbrook, Conn., who analyzes Treasury Department data. That figure puts 2014 on track to top last year’s total of 2,999 renunciations, he said, which was the most since the government began disclosing the data.”
Damn fine article. Bravo to Marvin and Patrica for telling their stories. The info from the National Taxpayer Advocate’s office kinda says it all, doesn’t it?
One of the best articles I have read. It really brings home the terror of the penalties involved.
Excellent (but of course very sad) article. It clearly shows how vicious and vindictive the USA is towards anyone who goes abroad.
US Exceptionalism is turning all your ex-pats against the country. Senators Schumer and Levin should be ashamed of themselves.
The US is in decline and often ex-pats are better off abroad than staying in the US.
The last best hope for mankind has in just 6 years become the trash heap that Ronald reagan said the Soviet Union would become. Let’s fight back and throw the current administration and all encumbents out.
No mention of any other group except Americans abroad and their families. No mention of PFIC. Still very good to bring attention to the issue. On the front page of my paper copy.
Well a positive article on the Huffington post which is amazing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-savage/fatca—-the-global-reach_b_5502322.html
A great article. Well done Noble Dreamer!
Well, I have to say, Liam and Laura worked long and hard on this story to try to understand the issues. I was impressed how many times they called me back to fact check and to be sure of the accuracy of what they were saying, but I never knew for sure what it was they would write or how much of my ‘penalty’ story they would tell.
You don’t get a chance to edit an article or approve of it before it is published, and there were a couple minor things that could have been better said.
Now that I am a homelander, I think my story was only provided as an adjunct fill to show the extreme nature of the penalties being applied. It helped give context to the graft and some of Nina’s statements. In my case the original ‘in lieu of” OVDI penalty was 808% of the tax failure over 6 years.
An important term for the mitigated penalty, $172K reduced to $25K, was left out. It should have said “nonwillful” penalty, as that is, especially for me, an important distinction. But, often I don’t think people (even reporters) understand the nuance of a ‘willful penalty vs a ‘nonwillful’ one. You must be guilty of something if they are fining you! I think it is kinda like how avoidance and evasion get merged into peoples mines as the same thing. That is why “tax cheats” is such a toxic term as it makes no distinction for the realities of tax failures.
But, when you talk with reporters you do take a risk that they will miss state sometime or leave something out, and I figured since my story is public enough here at IBS, why not help the larger cause of education of those that care to learn about how the IRS is conducting its offshore jihad.
One important point, I am sure regular readers will have noted, and that was a misstatement about U.S. taxation early on in the story. They said..
Unlike other developed nations, the U.S. government taxes citizens on income they earn anywhere in the world.
I pointed out in a subsequent email this…
Other countries DO tax citizens on income they earn “anywhere in the world” (for instance, Australia, New Zealand and Canada do) but ONLY if they are still resident in the country where they are a citizen.,
If they are resident abroad, (like my [Aussie] wife who is resident in America) they then are NOT taxed, nor to they have to file forms, like FBARs, to report the bank accounts they have in countries where they are now residing. So, a better way to have said what you were trying to say, would have been this…
Unlike other developed nations, the U.S. government taxes its citizens on income they earn no matter where they reside in the world. America practices Citizenship based taxation, and every other developed nation practices Residency based taxation.
Haven’t yet read the WSJ comments, (mustering my courage this morning) and so assume there will be a few ignorant ones. Not sure if I will comment there or not.
Tricia and Marvin, I appreciate your bravery and being at the point where you can put your names and stories into another WSJ article by Liam Pleven and Laura Saunders. I hope the understanding expands with each person that is able to do what you’ve done.
Bravo and thanks from all of us! And thanks to Mr. Pleven and Ms. Saunders for continuing their important work on this — showing some of the many real people who are so affected by US citizenship-based taxation and the FATCA intergovernmental agreements implemented in foreign countries. That we as the huge group of individuals and families are now controlled by this as by any other bully is hard for people to understand. You have added to that understanding.
Ditto what Calgary just said! Thank you, both!
@Just me
The very few negative comments seemed to be so wildly inaccurate that they were ridiculous. The thing I found a bit discouraging about the below the line comments is that the left thinks FATCA is great because it hurts the wealthy who have gone abroad, while many of the anti-FATCA comments were about how those wealthy were justified in leaving, which is not what the article was about. Is reading comprehension in the U.S. that poor nowadays or is this issue so polarized that all news stories are simply a rohrschach test?
Yes
Great article – – and in the WSJ no less!!!!!
Before I saw it on IBS, my financial advisor sent it to me. HOORAY, maybe homelanders will begin (just a bit) to understand the rock-and-hard-place in which we currently live. We should expand this WSJ article (and authors) with +++ comments as well as forwarding it to all the homelanders we know!!!
Great Article, with some great comments!
@Justme
Now they have ” willful blindness” on top of everything else. Just so any verdict will always come out in their favour.
@LM– Front page of the WSJ to boot! This is excellent– you can bet the article will be read by many a US politician and policy maker. I’ve skimmed the comments and found the majority are ++ supportive of ex-pats. Very few snarky comments. A huge thank you to Tricia and Marvin and to the writers!
The lifeblood of every fascist regime is good propaganda like FATCA is all about fat cats. With this WSJ article, the fascists finally had a goal scored against them. Let’s keep this going
That picture with the article is not doing you rich folks abroad any favors. That coffee looks expensive. Pestle and Mortar? I am pretty sure only rich people have them. That drainer for the washing up can fool some people but not me. I doubt you wash your own dishes but instead have a maid who does it! Hand washed plates are probably better than using a disk washer.
That kettle looks expensive. No wonder your dodging your taxes.
thank you Trisha for your courage .
@Neill
ROTFLMAO!
WSJ has been buggy with allowing me to comment but I finally got one to post. I will try to put another one up later today.
“Ex-pat USC are renouncing their USC in droves due to the US Treasury’s insistence on citizenship based (as opposed to residence based) taxation, FATCA, And FBAR filing requirements. I asked a consular officer at the US Consulate in Vancouver recently if they were seeing an up-spike in renunciations due to the above. His reply– “Too many to process.” Get ready for a scandal when the 2014 numbers are released. Thank you to the WSJ for your high profile reporting of this very important issue.”
Tricia, I love the photo used in the article. It’s very warm and welcoming, just like your persona here on the Isaac Brock Society website. Thanks again!
@Neill, on top of that the article says she lives in a $800,000 house. Of course she’s a tax dodger.
Just kidding, but such details in an article like that doesn’t work in middle class people’s favor, even if she only paid $125k for it… An $800k house is out of reach to maybe 80% of people in the US.
All in all, a great article, but it doesn’t demonize enough citizenship based taxation. The point that should come across is that this would be totally unjust for her to pay taxes to the US since she doesn’t receive any services.
@All
Thanks for your kind comments. Much appreciated.I don’t feel “brave” or anything like that. I feel glad that I am in a position to do this. The comments are surprisingly positive. Although one scary one about the Expatriot Act not being enacted and expats being allowed in, only to be arrested upon entry. Although for what, I am not clear……….
As Marvin says, Liam and Laura worked soooooooo hard and soooooo long on this. I couldn’t remember so I looked for the first email with Liam and we have been talking since January. They both are exceptionally kind people and bend over backwards to understand what one is saying. I am very grateful to both of them.
@Neill,
Don’t know if this matters but maybe PFIC not there simply as a matter of I didn’t have any and it just didn’t come up. ??? I don’t know what you mean about the story only being about Americans abroad and their families. Who else should be included? Also, they were not after a story that outlined all the technical sides, this was meant to be given from an expat’s personal point of view. A human, experiential focus. I think they captured that very well.
@Tricia,
Would have been nice to have mention of the fact that on top of all that we have special punitive tax rules for you as well. Would have been nice to mention immigrants face exactly the same problem.
CA wants to let illegals vote but they have their own OVDP to take the legal immigrants to the cleaners.
When my father first came to the US he and my mom drove about. They filled my car up with gas. My father said the prices of the gas was so low he filled it up with the good stuff! That’s the only time it got the premium. That $10k limit is looking kind of small. In ten years you can image the IRS going after a an American kid in France. He can respond that he opts for the willful penalty so the government can afford a new golf ball for the president.
@justkidding,
Anyone who bought a house in Central Toronto 28 years ago is seeing that sort of gain. We have always had the junkiest house in the neighborhood. It is largely the neighborhood that determines that. The point of that info was to illustrate how unfair it would be for the US to collect capital gains on it. Anyone who lives in a major urban centre whether the US or Canada can understand that amount is not out of reach for common people.