Intense Focus on Foreign Accounts – Beware the Whistleblower! https://t.co/RrJxDwySuH
— V. La Torre Jeker JD (@VLJeker) December 29, 2014
In addition to all the invasion of privacy we now experience directly via the NSA (phones, internet, email) and indirectly (FATCA, etc-anything with an intermediary involved), we can now count on our fellow family members, friends, co-workers and neighbors to see dollar signs when considering whether to turn us in to the IRS.
Mind you, most of us minnows will not meet the monetary standard for being turned in ($200,000 income per year or taxes, penalties, interest and other amounts in dispute exceed $2 million). However, an image of a much-disliked previous next-door neighbor deliciously phoning the IRS in order to get back at me brought memories of the tv-show The Prisoner as well as the oft-quoted Orwell novel 1984. In this episode, Number 2 is trying to extract “information” from Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan)
From Fear And Terror Caused by America:
What is required in order to obtain an award?
The law provides for two types of awards. If the taxes, penalties, interest and other amounts in dispute exceed $2 million, and a few other qualifications are met, the IRS will pay 15 percent to 30 percent of the amount collected. If the case deals with an individual, his or her annual gross income must be more than $200,000.
The IRS also has an award program for other whistleblowers – generally those who do not meet the dollar thresholds of $2 million in dispute or cases involving individual taxpayers with gross income of less than $200,000. The awards through this program are less, with a maximum award of 15 percent up to $10 million.
All whistleblower claims must be submitted under penalty of perjury.
Individuals must submit information on f211 application for Award for Original Information.
Would anyone with knowledge who did not turn in anyone be guilty of Form Crime?
Form 211’s would have to be completed in FATCAspeak or, if truly advanced, via Form Dreams.
Or perhaps, our salvation lies in being Whistleblowers ourselves? In case you need instruction, go here.Just imagine, we could meticulously figure out who among us would be the smallest possible victim, adding up the awards as we worked our way up the scale and in the end, fund the lawsuit against CBT!
Hat tip to US Taxation Abroad (@TaxationAbroad)
@ rob my family is in the same boat. We also came to Canada as young children, born to Canadian parents, fifty years ago and were also told that we would lose the US citizenship unless we claimed it after the age of 21. We found out about the law change this year. We are victims of a law change that never considered that some people did not want US citizenship. We have no association with the US other than place of birth. I think there are a lot of us in the same position in Canada. The US is aware of people like us (and border babies) and has responded by offering “Streamlined” and a hike in the renouncement fee, in other words, add to the punishment for having a US place of birth. We are required to buy our way out if we wish to shed the US imposed citizenship. We will be penalized for having RESPs, TFSAs, Cdn Mutual Funds and RRSPs if we enter the US tax system. We are victims of a foreign government and our own Canadian government refuses to help us.
@ Portland PLC The IRS will discover us when the US demands that our banks request birth certificates from every account holder. We are one of the groups of “US Persons” that cannot hide. Some overzealous financial institutions are already demanding proof of non-US status from exisiting clients although FATCA requires it only on new accounts at the moment. Unless FATCA is stopped we will be subjected to the harassment of the IRS. It is clear that the US does not care who it hurts and how its behaviour looks to the outside world. How far the IRS will go to attempt to collect taxes is unknown, they certainly do not have the resources to go after everyone. We also can never set foot in the US again with a US birthplace on our other country passports. I have no desire to go there anyway.
Heartsick. It’s quite a stretch to think the US can demand that Canadian banks ask for a birth cert. The sun might not come up tomorrow. There are people here who frequently go to the US with canadian passports and a US birth place. I just want people to avoid panicking and making unnecessary errors.
@ Portland Not really a stretch. I don’t want people to panic either. I am trying very hard not to do so myself. Everyone needs to consider their own situation very carefully. I have been told to make my decision not based on lawsuits or potential changes. The reality is our Canadian banks are required to identify “US Persons” due to FATCA, one of the questions appearing on some new account forms is “place of birth” There has been quite a discussion here about lying on such forms. I don’t have a crystal ball. It is possible in the future the banks may ask to see the birth certificate to prove place of birth, it is a worry. My sibling was asked a couple of years ago for her birth certificate (useless as ID since she was married) in order to obtain a Canadian mortgage. As for crossing the border, there are more reports of problems with a US place of birth on a non US passport. At the moment it is hit and miss. Many people are being told they must enter only with a US passport, some are being told a note will go on their file, barring entry to the US in the future without the US passport. It is a US law. No reports of anyone actually being barred yet, but there is an increased awareness at the border of the situation. If not tax compliant, customs holds at the border are being discussed. Many feel the days of easy crossings into the US are numbered. This is the new reality of the policies of the US.
@Rob,
No, I am not saying that because I do not know what will happen. However, those two references are what we have had to go on and so far, nothing has changed.
You may want to take a look at this thread regarding your wife’s situation:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/10/27/cheryls-claim-for-relinquishment-based-on-ina-1952-350-the-case-of-a-dual-citizen-at-birth/
Rob and Heartsick
This was in a comment to Ms. La Torre Jeker’s quoted whistleblower article.
My definition of a “minnow” (as a retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer and sometime consular officer and a retired tax attorney is this: someone who was born (like Boris Johnson) by accident in the USA and hardly ever went back, or someone born abroad perhaps of one Amcit parent who has no assets, income or heirs in the USA and has never lived there and perhaps has never visited their either……. the IRS is not interested in those who have an arguable case that they never were, or ceased to be, an Amcit……. . The IRS is a collection agency similar in some ways to any other. Let us not overstate their sovereign power.
He makes sense.
… déjà vu …
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/06/24/bounty-hunter/
“Or perhaps, our salvation lies in being Whistleblowers ourselves? In case you need instruction, go here.Just imagine, we could meticulously figure out who among us would be the smallest possible victim, adding up the awards as we worked our way up the scale and in the end, fund the lawsuit against CBT!”
Tricia, far be it from me to speak out in anger, but you might consider the ramifications of doing such as you suggest.
A suggested change to the Canadian Citizenship Act under C-24 was the following: “If you have domestic and/or foreign criminal charges and convictions you cannot get Canadian citizenship.” In whistle-blowing your compatriots who are in this position, you sever any chance for them to get a Canadian citizenship, should such a provision as suggested come into play into the Canadian Citizenship Act. After all…tax evasion is a criminal offence according to the US Code.
See here the suggested changes via Bill C-24.
http://citizenshipcounts.ca/citizenship-act-changes
@The Animal
It was a joke. ;-P
Considering that for some of us who don’t have the ready resources to fund “our escape” from CBT and the onerous demands of US citizenship, that joke falls flat.
@Animal
sorry
Oh Please, everybody, Tricia’s joke was good, in fact I was thinking the same thing when reading the article. Let us keep our sense of humor. The graver the situation, the more it is needed.
Lots of humor and common sense … the first steps away from US citizenship!!
Add fearlessness and they’ll probably let you renounce for free!
It is pretty obvious what the reward should be for turning in someone who didn’t even know they were a U.S. citizen: 30 pieces of silver, but only if the accidental American is identified to the IRS with a kiss on the cheek.