UPDATE January 24, 2015: THIRD OF FIVE LEGAL BILLS PAID
[We now have a NEW POST taking us up to May 1, 2015. This post will be retired from service.]
On August 11, 2014, Constitutional Litigator Joseph Arvay filed a FATCA IGA lawsuit in Canada Federal Court on behalf of Plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen, the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty (en français), and all peoples worldwide. Read Alliance’s Claims and comment on our Alliance blog.
Chers amis et donateurs,
Ensemble, nous avons atteint notre but : ramasser les fonds nécessaires pour payer la troisième des cinq factures légales de notre poursuite judiciaire.
Ramasser 300 000 $ provenant de petits dons est un exploit tout à fait extraordinaire et nous invitons notre gouvernement canadien, ainsi que tous les autres gouvernements qui ont piétiné les droits de leurs citoyens, à en prendre bonne note.
Chaque jour, nous nous rapprochons de notre but. Déjà, nous avons ramassé plus de la moitié des fonds nécessaires pour payer les frais légaux de notre poursuite contre le gouvernement canadien et l’entente FATCA.
Si nous avons parcouru un si grand bout de chemin, c’est grâce à nos deux courageuses plaignantes, Ginny et Gwen, à nos donateurs provenant du Canada et de partout dans le monde, ainsi qu’aux administrateurs des sites Internet Isaac Brock Society et Maple Sandbox. Ils permettent tous à nos voix d’être entendues.
Merci !
L’équipe de l’ADSC
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Dear Friends and Supporters,
Together we have reached our goal of paying off the third of five retainer fees for our Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit.
Raising $300,000 from small donations is a pretty amazing achievement and we ask the Government of Canada, and those other governments who have also tossed away rights of their citizens, to take notice.
It’s still a marathon, but we are more than half way to pay off the Federal Court legal costs.
We have come so far because of our brave Plaintiffs, Ginny and Gwen, our Canadian and International donor-supporters, and the administrators of the Isaac Brock and Maple Sandbox websites who make it possible for our voices to be heard.
Thank you all,
—The ADCS-ADSC team
Thanks for this link, nervousinvestor. Interesting commentary on the coming GATCA emanating from FATCA.
See Patric Cain Global News article linked in post above.
Cain actually provides the text of the Alliance’s Claim and the Government’s response in the article.
More good news indirectly related on the litigation front.
“For that reason, it may come as little surprise this morning that I have agreed to represent the United States House of Representatives in its challenge of unilateral, unconstitutional actions taken by the Obama Administration with respect to implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Jonathan Turley”
What does this have to do with ADCS? Simples, the IGAs are ultra vires by the Obama Adminstration….just like everything else…..
A defeat on the ACA implementation is a win for ADCS!!!
Pingback: Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against FATCA | Duke Law Firm International Tax and Asset Protection Blog
On the litigation and US legislative front, some have been wondering what the US Congress can do stop the IGAs…..
More lessons to be learned from the kings immigration amnesty plans….
The key for us on the IGAs is defunding and we need to ask Mike Lee to persue just that from his new post.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/11/17/GOP-Strategy-To-Stop-Obama-s-Executive-Amnesty-In-Government-Funding-Bills-Emerging
Good news in the EU……..
Two major FIs that post July asked place of birth now no longer ask place of birth.
One now asks Nationalitie(s) in the plural.
Other asks Are you a US Citizen?
@ Steven
Most of the people on this site do not live in the USA and here in Canada, in particular, we’ve got a lot on our plate just dealing with the betrayal of our own government regarding the FATCA IGA which is not so much about taxes per se but about privacy and sovereignty. However, I’ve followed the issue you are bringing up here and I hope you get more judicial break throughs down there. So many causes, so little time. (And in my case so little energy.) Elimination of US income tax, a US fair tax, even true US tax simplification would be a boon to Americans, inside and outside the USA, but as a Canadian I have to stay focused on Canada. Meanwhile I truly hope for the best in the USA.
I am exactly in the same case as you are in Canada.
I live in France since 1975, left the sates when I was only 7 years old.
Got a letter form my bank 3 weeks ago telling me I should fill out a W-9 form!!!
What the…
I never new about CBT
My first reaction was a furious and angry one for injust taxation on ordinary american citizens working and living abroad (even though I’m really not concerned because I don’t earn more than 97 500$ a year).
I’m a webmarketer. So it didn’t take me long to discover you guys in Canada and a lot of other things.
I feel much better now, knowing that FATCA is illegal because taxation of any american individual wherever he lives is illegal. The 16th amendment WAS NOT ratified.
I’ve exchanged a few mails with Frederic Lefebvre here in Franc who is a french deputy.
The french have 12 deputies representing them abroad and Frederic Lefebvre is the deputy representing french citizens for northern america.
He has pleaded several times in the french parlement against FATCA, defending the french people who had ounced worked in the US with a green card or those who have lived in the states long enough to become a citizen and also those who were just born in the US and who now live in France. They are all affected by FATCA, just like me and you.
I’m asking for french citizenship sooner than I thought and, something i’d never thought of doing before, thinking of giving up my american dictator citizenship.
But, now that I know that the 16th amendment was not ratified, meanig that it is illegal. Maybe I won’t have to after all.
But anyway, don’t worry, there will be no reciprocity regarding FATCA. The bank accounts in Delaware will never be revealed wich means that the US does not respect the IGA agreements they have signed.
Countries like China, Taïwan and Russia are allready taking action against FATCA, they don’t exchange in us dollars anymore and they are creating their own currency. China is selling US bonds fast and buying gold massively.
FATCA will precipate the fall of the US dollar and it’s happening now.
The US will not be able to use guns and arms to stop it like they’ve allways been doing in Vietnam, Irak, Afghanistan…
Republicans will repeal FATCA as soon as they can because they are the ones who have the money and it is economically starting to hurt them worldwide.
Obama launched FATCA thinking it was a frisbee, but in reality, it’s a boomerang that is going to come back and cut his head of, literally speaking of course.
Steven: Re: your quote from H. Skip Robinson: I went to the “We the People” website just a few days ago and their last update was in 2012. If I’ve somehow managed to find an old version of a site that is still there and operative could you post a new link for them? Thanks.
@Steven (and anyone else interested) – might I gently suggest that the 16th amendment-all-income-tax-is illegal crowd take their discussions to another site (of which there are many)? Personally, I’d rather not dilute our message with that distraction. It has zero chance of success in the US and is of no interest to any court in any other jurisdiction on the planet. There are several people languishing in jail right now for having followed this line of thinking and now a few in Canada as well (although we don’t have and never did have the 16th amendment issue!). I am certainly not trying to pick a fight – I don’t have a dog in that fight as the saying goes. I was curious enough to look into it a few years ago, found the arguments unconvincing and, more importantly, discovered plenty of cases where the courts have thrown the book at the proponents. My only suggestion/point is that THIS site is not the place for THAT debate. If somebody wants a link to pursue it on their own, Wikipedia the 16th Amendment and follow their links to your heart’s content. It is a pretty good article and will give any interested party all the google search terms they may want to wander down that path.
Thanks, Anne. I agree – this site is for an entirely different discussion and we must keep it focused on FATCA, the enabling IGAs, FBAR, and litigations regarding the same. I will put those all into “Pending” and let others decide.
@MuzzledNoMore
Yes I know. Here are the last articles of H. Skip Robinson on that issue :
http://rsjexperiment.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/410/
https://fundanything.com/en/campaigns/the-book-the-tax-slayer-a-case-for-fraud-and-treason?col=-43386
http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2013/05/13/tax-court-judge-slams-irs-over-whistleblower-case/
The 16th amendment is just not legal.
The state taxes pay for the infrastrucure and state services
The VAT amongst other taxes on companies for example, pay the taxes of the federal gouvernment.
The IRS is a private agencie working for a private federal reserve bank.
But, things are changing fast in the world and FATCA is accelerating them, just watch and discover why more and more countries are giving up the us dollar :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SROw5-p4AKY
The United States need money deperatly, that is why the Obama administration created FATCA,
Tageting tax evasion is perfectly ok for me. But targeting ordinary citizens who live, work and allready pay taxes abroad is injust and unfair. It is also very descriminating for us americans who find it difficult now to just lead an ordinary financial life. We are not tax evaders, We are not cheaters, we declare and pay the taxes to the country where we live in. What services do we get from the federal gouvernment while living abroad ? None.
Therefore FATCA needs to be repealed.
@Anne Frank
Agreed, your site is to fight the IGA about FATCA that your gouvernment signed wich violates your, like many other’s, constitution.
The us dollar is soon going to collapse soon anyway, they’ll have other problems to think about and no money to pay people to get after us. It’s all a real shame.
If the 16th Amendment is illegal, it’s been given squatters rights.
I am not sure that this is the appropriate thread for a question I have. Apologies if inappropriate.
Withholding is generally used for collecting taxes. Withholding under FATCA however is used for punishing non-compliance (or encouraging compliance; call it what you like). I seem to recall reading somewhere that this novel use might be illegal under international law.
Does anyone have an informed opinion on this?
One big issue involved is that banks in USA only offer accounts in US dollars, and “nobody” seems to care because the US dollar is accepted everywhere, so businesses can simply specify that everything is priced in US dollars, and “everybody” is happy clearing transactions through New York. This will change after the lawsuit. If somebody opens a bank in Canada that won’t comply with FATCA, they need to offer accounts in many currencies, and that bank can clear transactions around the world among businesses that would open accounts at that bank.
The term “withholding tax” is misapplied in the case of FATCA. A classic withholding tax is where X “withholds” an amount of money owed to Y and pays it to the government to satisfy Y’s tax obligation. Your employer withholds tax on your pay and sends it to the government, but in satisfaction of YOUR obligation.
In the case of FATCA, it is simply a tax that is taken. Unlike most taxes, it is one designed NOT to be paid. The whole intent of FATCA is to THREATEN people with expropriation without compensation (isn’t that what Castro did when the US got all mad at him?) in order to force them to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. In this case, it is register with the US government and turn over all your US Persons for interrogation and extortion. The people they want are US Person. They want to get them by threatening to “withhold” tax from other people (Foreign Financial Institutions) until they turn them over. Everyone here always calls it extortion because, well, that’s what it was INTENDED to be by DESIGN. The only way an FFI gets the withheld tax back is by proving they were registered and, of course, turning over their US Persons to the USG.
Taxation always has an element of confiscation to it. As Oliver Wendell Holmes said, the power to tax includes the power to destroy. Anyone who confiscates 30% of capital (not income) from EACH and EVERY transaction, will soon have confiscated 100% of the property of all affected people. It is intended to be a gun and they have not been shy about admitting it.
@Anne,
Can you suggest any precedent in history for this particular type of FATCA threat imposed by one country on all other countries worldwide?
More specifically I suppose, a (unilateral) threat of harm that would “force” countries to revise/ignore their privacy, constitutional etc. laws to comply with the threat.
@ Steven
“Obama launched FATCA thinking it was a frisbee, but in reality, it’s a boomerang that is going to come back and cut his head of, literally speaking of course.”
I like that line and hope FATCA boomerangs soon but I also know that when/if the USA falls we will all fall with it. Horror of horrors, last night I discovered that on a list of 100 countries with gold reserves Canada came in at a pathetic 91st place. How’s that for lack of foresight? Anyway, sorry I assumed you are living in the USA but pleased to know that we have another person in France who knows the score with CBT/FBAR/FATCA.
@ Anne Frank
I was trying to gently suggest what you suggest. I’m totally trying to focus, focus, focus on ADCS. Your explanation of the U.S. “withholding” threat is exactly as I understand it — only I couldn’t put it into words that well. It buggers belief the chutzpah the USA has displayed with the worldwide economic shakedown it is attempting. It shows contempt for the “others” but also a degree of desperation I think.
@ Stephen Kish
FATCA does seem to resemble what happened in Roman times … “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.” … And we know how well things worked out for that empire.
FATCA won’t “literally” decapitate Obama unless of course ISIS gets ahold of it and somehow manages to fashion it into a sword and get close enough to him to use it!
Thank you @Anne
If I might comment on Stephen’s question (full disclosure: I’m not a lawyer!)…
Nearest thing to the FATCA threat that I can come up with is international, in particular economic, sanctions. FATCA withholding amounts to a ban on trade, in particular foreign investment in the US. It might in fact amount to a virtual ban on Canadian exports to the US, if these transactions were paid in US dollars which were subject to withholding. (I don’t believe we know yet exactly what is meant in FATCA by US source income.)
It would be interesting whether FATCA might be challenged under international law, especially trade law, which has real teeth.
@ Bubblebustin
Actually the “best” of the beheaders is Saudi Arabia, a current BFF of Uncle Sam. Of course BFF means nothing to Uncle Sam since he’s a use ’em and lose ’em kind of guy.
@embee, I checked the Jim Sinclair’s Mineset website (that my DH follows regularly) and saw what you are saying, that Canada is 91st place acc. to the data on “World Gold Council” on tonnes of gold held. Ouch! Anyways, I noticed on that website the following post dated November 11, a good example of how one country is protecting itself from U.S. intrusion:
This past week Brazil announced that it will be building a 3,500-mile fiber-optic cable to Portugal in order to avoid the grip of the NSA. What’s more, they announced that not a penny of the $185 million expected to be spent on the project will go to American firms, simply because they don’t want to take any chances that the US government will tap the system. . . . [also] the government of Brazil has banned the use of Microsoft technologies in all government offices, something that was also done in China earlier this year.
The Red, White, and Blue Scare has now replaced the Red Scare of the Cold War era. And it comes at serious cost. From Brazil’s rejection of American IT products alone, it is estimated that American firms will lose out on over $35 billion in revenue over the next two years. Thus, as the foundation of the country’s moral high-ground begins to falter, so does its economic strength.
The irony should not be lost on anyone; on a day when Americans celebrate their veterans’ courage in fighting against the forces of tyranny in the world, we find yet another example of where the rest of the world sees the source of tyranny today.
It’s amazing how much things have changed.
In the past, the world trusted America with so much responsibility. The US dollar was the world’s reserve currency. The US banking system formed the foundation of the global banking system. US technology became the backbone of the global Internet.
But the US government has been abusing this trust for decades. Today the rest of the world realizes they no longer need to rely on the US as they once did. And in light of so much abuse and mistrust, they’re eagerly creating their own solutions.
Just imagine—if Brazil is building its own fiber optic cable to avoid the NSA, it stands to reason that they would create their own alternatives in the financial system to directly compete with the IMF and the US dollar.
Oh wait, they’re already doing that too. Fool me twice, shame on me. http://www.jsmineset.com
@Jan
Re: the Nov. 11 blog you found….
“The Red, White, and Blue Scare has now replaced the Red Scare of the Cold War era. …. The irony should not be lost on anyone; on a day when Americans celebrate their veterans’ courage in fighting against the forces of tyranny in the world, we find yet another example of where the rest of the world sees the source of tyranny today.”
ADCS for sure is on my Christmas list.