It certainly would be significant to get the attention of someone like Commander Chris Hadfield. I wish you all the best in your attempt, JC. He became a hero to Canadians, someone for Canadian children to look up to. Will he recognize some of our Canadian children who are defined by the U.S. as having U.S. citizenship and all of the same U.S. tax compliance consequences he will have?
@Calgary411
Request for IBS Feature: Contact with Chris Hadfield
By Tuesday 18 Nov: I will attempt contact with Commander Chris Hadfield – very high profile Canadian with US personhood (snowbird rules). Hadfield has flown two space shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station.
He also sang the Canadian anthem during the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens game on 18 January 2014. He is famous for a rendition of David Bowie’s Space Oddity which he sang on the International Space Station and posted a popular video on YouTube, among many videos.
This may be subject of IBS commentary the message and the medium for such contact. He only has 1+ Million Twitter followers so I thought about contacting him there. Here are three Tweets that I thought of sending starting Tuesday (that might get modified tweaked depending on comments):How best to appeal to him without scaring him away? Do we send him to just the home page of IBS?
@Cmdr_Hadfield Esteemed Canadian/US needed for mission: Ground Control to Uncle Sam. Re: unjust US taxes http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/ #FATCA
@Cmdr_Hadfield Esteemed Canadian/US needed to highlight unjust US tax laws applying to Canadians http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/ #FATCA
@Cmdr_Hadfield Canadians Ginny & Gwen need support to fight American Financial Imperialism/Savings Confiscation http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/ #FATCA
I also found out that he has his own website with potential for attempted e-mail contact: http://chrishadfield.ca/
Will Commander Hadfield have completed all necessary paperwork for his times in the USA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hadfield — Form 8840 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8840.pdf for his Closer Connection Exception Statement for Aliens? Canadians here hope so!
Another thought is what to link to in a preferred Tweet. I thought IBS, but now ADCS:
@Cmdr_Hadfield Canadians Ginny & Gwen need support to fight American Financial Imperialism/Savings Confiscation http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/ #FATCA
@Cmdr_Hadfield Esteemed Canadian needed to highlight unjust US tax laws applying to Canadians http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/ #FATCA
Some appeal to Canadian patriotism, making it personal
Or, perhaps a video is better. Such as: http://dld.bz/d2b6S
@JC @calgary411
I understand. Perhaps I didn’t realize the extent to which Cmdr Hadfield is seen as a national hero in Canada. I’m still not clear why he gets a thread of his own, though. Is he literally the greatest Canadian hero in existence these days? Or is it because of his supposed US ties?
@ Dash1729
I’m always leery of the hero title but with Cmdr Hadfield there’s just so much to admire. He’s a man of many talents, very highly respected and really, really likeable. It would be truly wonderful if he could be persuaded to help our cause in some way. I’ve got my fingers crossed that someone can connect with him.
Dash,
The post JC wanted is for the possibility that someone (i.e., some “famous folk”) will join our cause. We have tried. It hasn’t happened. One of these days, we may get lucky.
Much of who is affected by all of this seems to be the luck of the draw in how the US defines our citizenship — not how WE define our citizenship. I.e, I define myself as a Canadian only after going through the tortuous and expensive path to renounce and sign off officially with a Certificate of Loss of Nationality and that final assault of having to have the US not determine me a “covered expatriate” (despite the fact that I now show up on their ‘Name & Shame List’. I also define my son as a CANADIAN – ONLY, (born in, raised in and has only ever lived and received benefit from Canada) however the US Department of State, Legal says I am only a parent, a guardian or a trustee and my definition means diddly-squat. The luck of the draw (and much education and hard work in the career of Chris Hadfield) may deem him not affected by all of this. Why the difference in rights for those two extreme examples?
@calgary411
I agree it would be good to get some high profile supporters. I believe that someone like Hadfield is more likely to support ADCS if he and his wife have children trapped in unwanted US citizenship than based on their own ‘U.S.-defined U.S. Personhood by “Snowbird Rules”’. Did they have green cards in the USA or were they on temporary visas? I think it is likely that given that it seems that, despite Hadfield’s long stay in the USA, he was always “representing” Canada, they would NOT have had green cards. That would make the return to Canada from a successful career abroad to a successful “retirement” job in Canada quite smooth–but kids trapped in unwanted US citizenship might be a different story.
@Neill
http://www.bragertaxlaw.com/files/lbI_doc_7.pdf
That document is quite a tome. I love the quote from page 76:
“On October 31, 2008, [Howard Humboldt] gave in to his urge to return to his motherland.”
They make it sound like returning to a country outside the USA is some kind of a character flaw or vice on a par with drinking too much booze or smoking too many cigarettes.
Dash1729,
If JC or someone else is able to make contact, perhaps it can be asked whether or not Chris Hadfield’s children would have any way been affected by the taint of a US citizenship.
There is now a new post for this subject. http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/11/14/can-anyone-review-documentation-obtained-by-a-law-firm-in-their-freedom-of-information-foi-request/
Further comments should take place there. Thanks!
@Dash1729, @Tim in the post above says that because of his special status as Canadian Government employee that Chris and his family may have exemption from US personhood. The plus of this would then be less fear of the IRS to support ADCS.
Many have posted here over the months about trying without success attempts to get high profile Canadian/US persons as supporters of ADCS. Instead of posing the question generally about attempting to enlist these people – the Chris Hadfield post is more of a case study approach. I’ll try to contact, I’ll probably not succeed yet from this post and comments I believe I will increase my odds (such as not inferring that Chris is a US person). Other names have been dropped in the comments. @NativeCanadian potentially has an inside contact to Chris.
JC Double Taxed @JCDoubleTaxed 21s21 seconds ago
@Cmdr_Hadfield Esteemed Canadian needed to help 1 million abandoned by Ottawa against unjust US tax & #FATCA http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/
Hello Chris Hadfield
Re: Canadian Patriot needed to help 1 million Canadians abandoned by Ottawa against unjust US tax, compliance, and financial account reporting laws.
I’d like to share some stories of Canadians with you:
Patricia Moon a Canadian Citizen and US person lived in Canada for decades with her Canadian only husband. A few years ago she found out that the US government required that she file US tax returns and report any joint accounts with her husband to the IRS.
She worked part time. The most she made in any one year was $12,000. She paid all of her Canadian taxes. In her joint accounts with her Canadian only husband she never held more than $102,000. The accounts weren’t intentionally hidden and she did not owe any US tax. She received $0 in services from the US government over the decades she lived in Canada. Yet she figured that she could owe the US a potentially bankrupting $455,000 in fines on unreported financial accounts – with myopic US laws assuming any US person financial account outside of the US is set up for the purposes of US tax evasion.
Patricia Moon was terrified that she would lose everything she had. Patricia ended her US citizenship after a “Houdini Act” required confidential by the IRS, and after considerable compliance and penalty expense not to mention financial terror and the emotional confliction of dropping US citizenship. This is a true story as reported by The Wall Street Journal (“Expatriate Americans Break Up With Uncle Same to Escape Tax Rules” Wall Street Journal, 16 June 2014).
While Patricia Moon ended all citizenship ties with the US, many other Canadians are financially trapped or trapped by the rules themselves, which some have called Orwellian. Some fear entering the US and fear they may be kept from seeing US resident relatives or to attend to a sick or aging relative. Many can not afford the $2,350 fee and tax and compliance involved to rid themselves of US “personhood.” Many have trouble getting an appointment with the US Embassy, now with over an eight month wait period for Toronto.
Calgary411 is a Canadian Citizen and has a US person son who lived his whole life in Canada. Calgary411’s son is mentally disabled. Calgary411 wanted to plan for the financial security and welfare of her son yet found that the Canadian special tax deferred fund for disabled persons is taxed by the US on the annual gain – removing and penalizing any benefit for such fund. She wanted her adult son to relinquish US citizenship to: be able to take advantage of the Canadian fund and give to give her peace that her son would not be disadvantaged by US tax and compliance laws. However, the US will not allow her son to drop US citizenship as they say her son does not have the mental capacity to relinquish citizenship.
Some commentary at The Isaac Brock Society (http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/) was that while you and your family lived in the US for decades with distinguished service to Canada, humanity and the advancement of science, that as you were a Canadian Government employee that you and your family are exempt from the US tax and compliance laws. Other comments: while you may not be personally impacted by the US rules, this means you are free to speak out for Canadians without fear of the IRS.
Many others are not so fortunate. Consider the story of Canadian Cop, who lived in a border area with the US and was born in a US hospital as that was closest. He was in Lubec Maine just a few short days yet finds out the US wants tax returns and account reporting from him. Soon the US FATCA law which Canada adopted as Canadian law in an IGA Agreement, requires Canadian banks to report the account details of all US persons.
As Canadian Cop had not previously filed US tax the US requirements would include a minimum of three years of returns and five years of FBARs and many thousands in tax advice to become compliant. For what US government services?
On Canadian Remembrance Day, Canadian Cop lamented: “I find out that my government does not consider me to be a Canadian, but has rubber-stamped the US designation of me as a US person who just happens to be living in Canada. “
Chris, do you believe it right that such Canadians be required to report their financial accounts to the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, as if they were criminals?
Many Canadians have no idea of these laws and the implications of having their financial accounts and balances reported to the US IRS. Many Canadians have no idea they are supposed to file US tax returns and report their accounts, even if they owe no US tax, because the US has not gone out of their way to tell them and because it does not make sense.
America wants their laws to extend to an estimated 1 million Canadians and impact them and their families as if Canada is US territory – and tax them as if they lived in the US (with some relief from the Canadian-US Tax Treaty), as if part of the US vision of ‘liberty and justice for all’ is to make these Canadians live a tax and compliance nightmare without any effective representation in the US Congress, without any concern for their welfare or fairness by US bureaucrats who make the US laws, without any US government services in exchange, and without a Canadian government taking responsibility to protect them as Canadians.
The Alliance for the Defence for Canadian Sovereignty http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/ was formed to fight American tax and compliance laws from flowing across the border. ADCS has launched a legal claim against the Canadian Government laws making the American FATCA law Canadian law through an IGA Agreement, requiring Canadian banks to hunt down and report the financial accounts of Canadians with US personhood living in Canada (also for financial accounts of some Canadian businesses who have employed US persons with account signature authority).
This information is to be sent to the CRA to be sent to the US IRS, by Canadian law! The Canadian government has adopted the American laws in disregard of Canadian laws on privacy and in disregard of the Canadian Charter that says there may be no discrimination on the basis of national origin, and in disregard of them as Canadians.
Chris, what you may do to help. You may contact ADCS and ask what you may do to help. A Stephen Kish leads ADCS and I believe would be happy to discuss. I have copied him on this e-mail. Patricia Moon is also on the Board of Directors. You may reply to all.
In the words of Canadian Cop: “If there actually are now degrees of Canadianness, to me those who are “most” Canadian are those who are going above and beyond the call of duty to force back the IRS barbarians at the gate that the Canadian government left open for them.”
Chris, there is this new mission you may accept: This time not involving the fictitious “ground control to Major Tom,” yet in reality involving communication from proud Canadian, Commander Hadfield to Uncle Sam.
Thank you for your consideration.
Regards, JC
US citizen living overseas, self associates with The Isaac Brock Society, http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/
There are 7+ million US persons paying taxes where they live overseas.
JC Double Taxed @JCDoubleTaxed 7m7 minutes ago
@Cmdr_Hadfield Patriot needed to help 1 million Canadians abandoned by Ottawa against unjust US tax, & #FATCA http://tiny.cc/patriot #G20
JC Double Taxed @JCDoubleTaxed 4m4 minutes ago
@JCDoubleTaxed @ADCSovereignty @NOTOFATCA @USCitizenAbroad @FedupUSExpat @StopFATCA @FATCA_Fallout Requesting retweet on last tweet #FATCA
What an excellent letter. Oh how I wish that Col Hadfield will respond positively.
E-mailed letter to Robert Wood of Forbes
E-mailed letter to:
Kathy TomlinsonVerified account
@CBCGoPublic
National investigative news segment based in B.C. All our stories come from people who write in – gopublic@cbc.ca
Who else?
The link to this letter is here: http://tiny.cc/patriot Maybe someone reading this may forward to others.
Trying to get others on Twitter to either rephrase my tweet to Commander Hadfield.
JC Double Taxed @JCDoubleTaxed 6h6 hours ago
@Cmdr_Hadfield Patriot needed to help 1 million Canadians abandoned by Ottawa against unjust US tax, & #FATCA http://tiny.cc/patriot #G20
It appears others have more firepower than my account on Twitter, such as
Tom Dooley @JahMekAWail 5h5 hours ago
@JCDoubleTaxed @Cmdr_Hadfield Patriot needed help 1 million Cndns abandoned by Ottawa re unjust US tax, & #FATCA http://tiny.cc/patriot #G20
This Tweet has stuck in the Top list of Commander Hadfield. I have asked others to either rephrase and retweet, favorite this tweet, or retweet it.
JC Double Taxed @JCDoubleTaxed 19m19 minutes ago
@Cmdr_Hadfield Esteemed Canadian needed to help Canadians Ginny&Gwen against unjust US #FATCA http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/ http://tiny.cc/patriot
I understand that Cmdr Hadfield will be signing books early today at Costco at Kenata (wherever that is). If any Brockers live in the area perhaps you might buy a book and try to get a minute or two to politely speak to the Cmdr without pushing like a pest.
Speaking of Commander Chris Hadfield, here is an item on taxes for astronauts — Nobody escapes U.S. taxes – even astronauts (CNN Money, December 7). Does he or doesn’t he have to file US taxes? Was that ever determined?
As I stated before, COLONEL Hadfield would have been subject to the same status as other Government of Canada employees who are seconded to the US on official duties performing on inter-government agreements. I was under the same status four times in my military career whilst serving with US forces. This would apply when he was still a member of the Canadian Forces, and after beginning a second career with the Canadian Space Agency, up until he completed duties under the status which can be renewed indefinitely. Various status codes are contained in the USCIS document Section 12-7 at: http://www.sccgov.org/ssa/cp/cpchap12.pdf In short, Colonel Hadfield and his family members would have been exempted from taxation under their status.
Thanks, Leonardo.
You know what might be interesting. Out of the six months that the astronauts spend in space; how much percentage is spent flying over other countries’ airspace which would essentially subject them to FATCA since they are “Americans abroad”? So how do you calculate six months in orbit with a percentage each orbit flying over foreign airspace?
…but then of course since they don’t have a bank account on foreign soil… unless they’re a foreign astronaut (from a different country) flying for NASA. Hmmm…things to ponder.
By the UN Outer Space Treaty of 1967, a nation’s borders do not extend into space, so the answer is easy: 0. In practice, space begins at 100km by one definition; we aerospace types define it is the point at which an object can make a circular orbit without re-entering, and that is affiliated with an orbital period of approximately 88 minutes. The object therefore must be traveling at a velocity of approximately 17,500 mph at an altitude of about 99 miles. So you complete 16 orbits per day – remember the earth is rotating at approximately 1,000 mph below as well.