New York-born London mayor Boris Johnson refuses to pay US tax bill http://t.co/MaKDcZnTnM via @guardian U.S. London Emb won't pay con "tax"
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) November 20, 2014
Read the complete article here.
It includes:
Boris Johnson has revealed that he is refusing to pay a tax demand issued to him by US authorities – despite previously lambasting the US embassy in London over its failure to pay the congestion charge.
The mayor of London, who was born in New York and holds a US passport as well as a British one, visited the country last week to promote his book and said during an interview with NPR (National Public Radio) that he had been hit with a demand for capital gains tax.
He said the US demand related to his first home in the UK, which was not subject to capital gains tax in England.
And for the absolute and total U.S. hypocrisy:
Johnson has continually pressed the US embassy to pay unpaid fines it has incurred for the congestion charge. The embassy has refused to do so, claiming the charge is a tax and therefore its diplomats are immune. During a visit to the UK by Barack Obama in 2011, Johnson reportedly asked him for a £5m cheque for unpaid congestion charges but the US ambassador intervened before the president could answer. By last year the amount the US embassy owed in congestion charge fines had risen to more than £7m, the most of any diplomatic mission in the capital.
@Don, Cameron with the help of Labour and the Lib Dems, did not throw so called “dual citizens” under the bus because there is NO SUCH THING as Dual Citizen under UK Law UNLESS you are referring to being an EU Citizen or a Commonwealth Citizen that is part of and insuperable from being a British Citizen.
Cameron and Company threw at least 57,417 BRITISH CITIZENS, Loyal British Citizens to HM Queen Elizabeth II, who have CLINGING NATIONALITY from some god forsaken place, under the greyhound bus!!
He threw a member of his own party under the greyhound bus, a man who whose blood runs red, white and blue and I mean the colours of the Union Jack!!
From the UK 2011 Census
Born in the USA 177,185
Of those…
UK Passport 57,417
US Passport 106,364
No Passport 3,003
Other Passport 10,401
Born in UK but Carry US Passport 7,312
Born in neither UK or US but carry US Passport in UK 12,654
Number US Persons in UK 177,185 plus 7,312 plus 12,654
According to IRS number of tax returns filed from UK 31,599
Don, STOP using the phrase dual!!! Its clinging nationality just like gum or dog shit that is stuck on the bottom of your shoe.
Notebook: An American expatriate shares Boris Johnson’s tax pain
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/456dec30-7372-11e4-a257-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3K7P5KJ8M
@ Tricia
If there is an IBS set up in the UK will it be called the Irritated Brits Society? Sure hope they get organized across the pond and beyond. CBT/FBAR/FATCA needs worldwide push-back.
With the UK, I would think we might be able to get UKIP, the SNP and Plaid Cymru onboard if the right argument is made.
That argument being British, Scottish and Welsh Citizens are being thrown under the greyhound bus.
There is not going to be pity for the long term Indefinite Leave to Remain USC but there will be concern about fellow citizens.
I would also think that Bojo provides a thin wedge to maybe get the Torries to rethink and maybe say that FATCA was never meant to impact British Citizens in the UK.
@George – Clinging nationality sounds better, however, for those of us still clinging it feels like dual, but I agree clinging sounds more emotive in the debate. For those of us who still have relatives Stateside, it feels as if Levin & Co are using them as human bargaining chips to push people into compliance.
The UK Census understates FATCA’s impact when you add in, for example, people who have to pay £hundreds just to prove their not a ‘US Person.’. Also as FATCA’s rules change, oops, I wasn’t affected today and I wake up and suddenly under FATCAman’s shadow.
UKIP was emailed – no response. Labour probably won’t care and Plaid Cymru probably does know what FATCA is even all about. What wonder what FATCA would be in Welsh?
Cameron may have thrown 57,000 UK citizens under the bus, but what he really did was to allow the US access to all of the UK’s banking data and give the Yanks the power to change FATCA’s rules at will.
Unless FATCA is viewed as ‘everyone’s’ problem rather just than an ‘American in London’ problem, the issue will be more difficult to gain traction.
If Cameron ever comments on FATCA, he ought to say ‘Today the Government decided to give our country’s banking data to the American IRS.’. Cameron is so fond of using ‘our,’ ‘we,’ and other inclusive pronouns it gets to the point his tosh becomes predictable.
Try contacting the political parties yourself and get zero feedback from them. The UK needs to set up IBS UK (what would it be called? Isaac Brock UK, London Tea Party, The Boris Johnson Society? Who knows)
I wish the ACA would get more involved with actually speaking out against FATCA rather than walk the political tightrope as to not offend any of the DC boneheads.
@Tricia Moon – I will email you in a few days.
@All – People have been talking about the $250,000 exclusion for Caps Gains on house sales, you can only claim that once every 5 years making it more complicated. So if House 1 was sold in 2014, you can claim the exemption again until 2019 or thereabouts.
Also what’s also unfair is I believe if you sell House 1 at a profit and ‘rollover’ the gain entirely into House 2 inside the 5 year period than you can avoid Cap Gains.
Perhaps someone else would know the answer. I doubt the IRS would allow a ‘rollover’ on foreign property.
@Don
The rollover no long applies for principal residence, gone in 2006, I believe. You can however rollover investment properties under a 1031 exchange, apparently.
I’m not sure where to post this, but the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party is coming up – Dec. 16. Can we organize some worldwide protest of our own? Photos of dumping Starbucks or Coke or some other iconic US symbol?
It’s difficult to do as a group as we’re dispersed all over the world, but we should be able to come up with a way to do a mass protest over the internet.
Any takers?
@EmBee
I wlll be sure to pass that on with appropriate credit!
@Kathy
Sounds like a plan to me! Maybe we could organize a video…each contributing our bit and have someone splice it together? Make a YouTube smash hit! Maybe we could retitle this video (yes, I know NOTHING about copyright laws) FATCA: Least We Forget https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4uSkHAT7A8
Maybe Boris could lead the charge by dumping his US passport into the Thames.
We have a Thames River in my London (in Ontario) but it may be frozen by December 16.
Has everyone who needs it taken their blood pressure medication today?
Really annoying Roger Cohen piece in the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/opinion/roger-cohen-get-real-boris-johnson.html?_r=0
There is no possibility for comment, unfortunately, as far as I can tell.
Thanks for the link, Publius.
While I wish my US relatives’ families (and Neill’s and all of our Brocker and other families who find themselves really *residing in the USA*) a Happy Thanksgiving — I will never give thanks for the US taxman who reminds us that we’re all in this together. Rubbish!
https://twitter.com/nytimescohen
Send an email to Roger Cohen: https://myaccount.nytimes.com/membercenter/emailus.html
New York Times is telling Boris to: Get real…Get over it…Pay up.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/opinion/roger-cohen-get-real-boris-johnson.html
Tweeted the twit!
It’s a pity that he got a US passport – looking at his Wikipedia page I can see various points where he could argue for a backdated relinquishment. The 2001 British general election is the most obvious one.
Troy Bramston @TroyBramston 12h12 hours ago
In @australian Fri I talk to Boris Johnson @MayorofLondon about #TheChurchillFactor and WSC’s relationship with Aust.
I sent him a few tweets to try and get him to ask Boris Johnson about FATCA. Latest:
@TroyBramston @australian ASK @MayorofLondon how The Churchill Factor would respond to US #FATCA & #CBT http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/890215.shtml …
I also sent a few Tweets to @NYTimesCohen
FATCA: Boris Won’t Pay His US Taxes
Another timely article from Lynne/Blaze – mentions the ADCS legal challenge, and the irony of the US and UK positions in light of the Boston Tea Party:
http://www.tax-news.com/articles/USA_Went_To_War_With_UK_Over_TaxingSee_The_Irony___572358.html
Contributed by Lynne Swanson
November 28, 2014
“London Mayor Boris Johnson has a taxing problem. The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wants Mayor Johnson to help fund that country’s massive deficit.
Why? Simply because Mayor Johnson was born there to British parents….”….”Now, a Canadian woman has written to Mayor Johnson telling him “I know just how you feel.” Ginny Hillis also points out the “USA went to war with the UK over off shore taxing in the first place. As in the ‘real’ Tea Party Revolution. I assume you well know your history? And that you see the irony?”
Fantastic article by Lynne (Blaze)! Thanks for posting it here, Badger! Boris has certainly provided us with very high-profile fodder for the cause!
A new one about Boris and he won’t pay his US taxes. Get Real says the NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/opinion/roger-cohen-get-real-boris-johnson.html?ref=international&_r=0
@nothernstar
The Cohen article you posted does not accept comments however he is getting blasted on his FB page: https://www.facebook.com/RogerCohenReporter?fref=ts
Please go over there to help enlighten this poor lost soul.
Boris was interviewed on CNBC (the European stuff) last night. He refused to say anything about his tax problem. So he must have decided it was a mistake to talk about it.
From Roger Cohen at NTY:
“whining about how he hadn’t lived in the United States since he was five and paid his taxes in Britain “where I live and work.”
“It’s Thanksgiving, a day to give thanks, even for the taxman, who reminds us that we’re all in this together.”
Roger Cohen was born in the UK and later naturalised in America. One would think that an educated (Oxford) person like him would be perceptive enough to recognise the injustice of taxing people based on where they are born rather than where they receive government services.
I wonder what Roger would have to say if the UK (where he was born) demanded taxes from him?
I love those comments at Roger’s facebook. I wonder if he will look at them. I cannot add anything other than that he should have been educated no in Oxford but Evergreen State College in WA state. It snowed 2 cm in Vancouver just now!