JC asks that the following be highlighted and discussed in its own post here at Brock.

@8888 Makes this interesting point about Citizenship Based Taxation

http://disq.us/8o0buo on the Washington Times article.

What is a tax? A tax is a government imposed LEVY on the Treasury account holdings of those who receive benefits and or compensation denominated in the none interest bearing debt instruments of the government’s treasury. This means that although all residents pay taxes not all tax payers are citizens. The only common denominator that obligates both citizen and non-citizen to pay taxes is, residency which gives both direct access to the treasury.

Expats have no such access to the U.S. Treasury because they receive their benefits and/or compensation under the jurisdiction of another Treasury and therefore are not under the taxation supervision authority of the I.R.S. Citizenship taxation is a fiction that exist only in the minds if those who don’t understand this basic principle of taxation. The U.S. is really taxing the Treasuries of other nations. This is something that is illegal under international law because all nations are equally sovereign. And no nation can tax another because that would subjugate one nation to another.If the U.S. cannot tax it’s nonresidents on their foreign account holdings with another treasury then the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion is equally fictitious as is any credit or liability that is connected to the income of nonresidents.In the end all taxation is residency based.

Perhaps we are doing some disservice to the cause by reinforcing the name “U.S. Citizenship-Based Taxation” as that name may get wrapped in the flag by patriotic *Homelanders* – the name including “U.S. Citizenship” triggers a patriotic response.

@8888 points out that in the U.S., anyone resident is taxed and you don’t have to be a citizen. So this “Citizenship-Based Taxation” does not describe what is going on. Something like this may be more descriptive and a better presentation:

America like all other nations of the world practices Residence-Based Taxation – they tax all residents whether citizens or not.

A key difference between America and all other developed countries is that America taxes its “persons” (including citizens and green card holders) resident in other countries as if they live in the U.S.

Makes sense to me — I have benefited from the wisdom of *8888* for several years now. I can add this to my list, the reason our *foreign financial institutions* are searching for *U.S. Persons* (not just *U.S. citizens*).