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.
@Wondring, I know what you really meant to say was that, you had your red,white and blue tattoo removed. Your dog has not left the race!
BT is one affected, which seems to be true — s/he uses the same ‘alias’ but not the same address. As well, s/he wants only to comment with name-calling and insult instead of debate. That sets us backward in trying to educate someone who doesn’t realize of how US citizenship-based taxation, US-defined *US Persons* and other-countries’ IGAs allowing US FATCA law as the tool of enforcement to blend and ruin many regular folk’s lives — regular persons living, working, paying taxes, saving for retirement, disability, education in the countries in which they choose to live — who are not the *tax evaders* resident in the US that it was said the US was looking for (though as we can see from recent documentation found that we are intended target as well).
What!?
We were the intended target? REALLY?? I canNOT believe THEY would do this!
BT – I am coming over to YOUR side!
@ Native Canadian
“Clearly, there was an error on the part of the IRS to locate all expats and educate them on USA laws after they leave the USA”
You have hit the nail on the head. This is why I am so mad. My parents were clearly told that their children had to make a choice at age 22, to “claim” this US citizenship. I did not. I made my choice not to claim it. The laws where changed and the US did not tell anyone. I lost my chance to renounce as a young adult with no assets, now 50 years later I find out they are claiming me as a citizen again.
The US should have had a duty to inform, they could have used the media, otherwise we should be all off the hook. Information packages could have been given to the parents of border babies, and exiting citizens. Changing laws and expecting us to know about them is not reasonable. Clearly they never thought anyone would not want their citizenship.
Mark Pack:
According to your site, I should not use too many caps or exclamation points. I agree, but you don’t indicate what type of chocolate you like, so I may not be able to fulfil that request.
Let me tell you a bit about myself.
I’m a UK/US dual citizen, living in the UK. I’ve lived in the UK for many years.
I am a pensioner.
I live in a decent home, paid for, but below the ‘mansion tax’ level.
I have prepared for retirement. I have some decent pensions. I have some savings. In other words, I do not receive any ‘social benefits’ from the UK government. None. I collect a UK State pension, but I did contribute to it, to the maximum, for many years.
I pay a reasonable amount of tax to HMRC every year.
I am also compliant, as much as one can assume since you never know for sure, with my US tax and informational filings (you won’t know much about these, but we may be able to clear that up as we go along).
I have lost the privacy rights for my UK financial accounts which are guaranteed under UK law and FCA regulations simply because I am still a US citizen. The Conservatives, Labour, and the Lib Dems signed those rights away.
And now, the hardest confession: I supported the Lib Dems in the last European elections.
I’m very (temptation to use caps there) undecided as to how I will vote in the upcoming election.
You’ve made several comments here, and you’ve (possibly rightly) taken a few swats at several other commentators, but you have not explained why you find the situation of a dual UK/US citizen to be a simple, straight forward consequence of their own making.
So I have a proposal for you.
Are you willing to discuss with me, here, on a public forum, your thoughts as to why you find this particular situation of a US/UK dual citizen an obvious open and shut case?
I have some rules as well. We are not discussing Boris Johnson; neither the man nor the Tory politician. Instead, we are discussing the problems created for dual UK/US citizens in the UK. Boris just happens to be one. If the Lib Dems have any thoughts on this particular issue, we would be most interested to hear about those as well.
I should add to my above post to Mark Pack, I’m not the only UK person following this thread. There are many UK souls on this site and 300,000 UK/US dual citizens and US citizens resident in the UK awaiting your wise words.
URL is businessweek, yet says news from Bloomberg:
No Taxes, Please, I’m British, London Mayor Tells IRS
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-11-21/no-tax-please-i-m-british-london-mayor-tells-irs
Comments open.
@theOAP – Most Americans wouldn’t even what OAP stands for.
The only way forward is to set up a UK version of IBS and get FACTA/IGA in the courts.
The Govt of the day won’t care.
Boris makes it on Russia Today news channel.
…at least an intended target, for anyone who missed these posts…
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/11/14/can-anyone-review-documentation-obtained-by-a-law-firm-in-their-freedom-of-information-foi-request/
and
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/10/27/the-real-intent-of-fatca-you-are-not-collateral-damage-you-are-the-target/
@Mark Pack
It would seem a simple question as to why Boris Johnson doesn’t just renounce, but it becomes more complex when you realise that the very act of renunciation involves a full confession of one’s Americanness, which, in turn, provides the IRS justification to run roughshod over one’s finances.
@ kermitzii
I was in Vancouver a couple years back and know what you mean about the housing prices. It’s pretty much the same here. If you live in a crumbling terrace house in Sydney’s Paddington, a bungalow in Melbourne’s Toorak, or any hovel within 6km of the Perth CBD, you’re living in a million dollar house (though hardly a mansion). The homelanders can’t begin to understand this, and for them it is further proof that we are all rich tax cheats.
Boris would be subject to exit.
Although his current tax problems won’t be solved by dumpinf the passport, if he wins the seat in Parliament, he’ll relinquish claiming working for a foreign Govt thus avoiding the exit tax.
Don,
Boris was born a dual citizen. If he completes Form 8854 and other required filings on time, June 15 or extension in the year after expatriation, including renunciation, he would not be subject to the Exit Tax. http://hodgen.com/chapter-1-a-quick-overview-of-the-exit-tax/
@Don
Not as simple as it seems. I became a naturalised Australian 20 years ago and have committed at least three expatriating acts. In 2013 I visited the US on my Aussie passport to help my ageing mother. I was told by immigration that since I was born in the US (stated on my passport) that I would have to have a US passport if I wished to travel there again. I was left with a choice of procuring that document or not seeing my mother again before she died. I did what I was told and got the US passport (like Boris). On my attempt to relinquish I was told that I would have somewhere near zero chance because my possession of this document proved that I wished to be an American. They even decided that my last twenty years of not being an American didn’t count, along with whatever oaths I took.
@ProudAussie -The fact the US makes it problematic to shed US Citizenship, raises the fee to $2350, a foreign court may take the view the US is trying to handcuff people to the system. The US Govt may find this will backfire as FATCA/IGA is taken in front of foreign courts.
The government of Canada has repeatedly told us that the CRA will not collect FBAR penalties and will not collect US tax liabilities if a Canadian citizen at the time of the US tax liability (I know that some believe that these protections may not hold up but that is for another day).
Do Boris Johnson and other UK/US duals currently have this same protection in the UK? If so, then the IRS has no real way to collect this supposed house sale capital gains tax from him.
@Mark Pack
I voted lib dem last time (maybe not next time due to tuition fees). I understand very well why people like CBT, but U.S. citizenship-based taxation unfortunately is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The more I dig, the stranger it gets. If you are interested, I will send you papers after they are published, explaining it all.
@theOAP
nice to see you back here!
300,000 US expats in UK?
Any chance we can chat about trying to organize something over there?
pls let me know
nobledreamer16 at gmail dot com
@Bubblebustin
I was only asking questions; didn’t intend to imply anything.
Sorry, Tricia, was just trying to dig into what your impressions were of what an alternative to claiming a home as something other than a principal residence might be.
PS, am hoping Rob Wood will write a piece about 1031 exchanges and treating a home as an investment vs a principal residence.
@WhiteKat
Understood! While I am no longer a so-called “US-person”, I am a damn sight far from feeling alright about this issue.
I’m a Canadian citizen who immigrated to Canada decades ago. However, unlike Canadian citizens from anywhere else, I had to be able to prove I have severed the ties of citizenship to my place of birth in order to have the same rights as any other Canadian.
I’m a pragmatic realist – my partner’s Jewish ancestors fled Nazi Germany to survive – so I did what I had to do. But I’m still a damn sight far from feeling alright about it.
I play recreational hockey with diverse groups of people – it’s refreshing to hit the ice a few times weekly and forget about this crap for an hour. One of the privileges of this is that I skate with Canadians of many different national origins: 1st and 2nd generation Canadians with national origins ranging from the UK, Europe, Asia, South America, and beyond. However, I am the ONLY person in the locker room who had to file complex legalistic paperwork severing their citizenship from their place of birth.
That really sucks. I did it because I realized that for all their tough talk about crime and militarism, the Harper Conservatives were too cowardly to protect my sovereign interests in this matter, even though I’d been a loyal Canadian citizen and taxpayer for decades.
But it still sucks.
The minnows are now the intended target because all the whales have gotten away, since $10,000 per account per year is too affordable a penalty for them. Had the penalty been, say 1% of maximum balance per account per year, some of them might still be around. Even better, the penalty for the minnows would not be so life-shattering and egregiously unconstitutionally disproportionate.
This law was another case of ‘pass it first to see what’s in it’ kind of law. Unfortunately, even if it turns out to be an egregiously unjust law which lets the whales get off light but squeezes the life out of minnows, it does not get corrected even if all it takes is a stroke of the pen from the Treasury. And the general perception is that “the law is the law” and it must be followed and enforced regardless. How has the U.S. gone down so low?!! God save us from the evil that has taken hold of this government!
@Wondering, Yes, it is the immorality of ‘US personhood taxation’ that drives us, regardless our dissimilarities.
@Charlie re: ” God save us from the evil that has taken hold of this government!”.
Our FIRST DEFENCE should be the government of the country where we live and are citizens of (this is where George comes in). Why is our government not protecting us from something harmful and foreign? – something that we have tried to defend ourselves from, but have been unsuccessful at?
WHY IS THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT (and other governments) FACILITATING this information plundering leading to FINANCIAL PLUNDERING of made in Canada assets? WHY is the Canadian government ignoring our pleas for justice?
OK, so I live in a world of idealism, that’s why. As BT would say, F them. We won’t back down.