original article in French HERE
reposted from Anmerican Expatriates Facebook Group
ACCIDENTAL AMERICAN’: I LIVE HELL. I HAD TO GIVE UP MY DUAL NATIONALITY (I.E. RENOUNCE MY US CITIZENSHIP)
Keith Redmond says:
Thank you Fabien Lehagre or making sure this injustice stays in the press! The homeland US press refused to report on it. I know Caroline and her story is one of millions where the US government is ruining the lives of people outside the US.
English translation below.
Caroline, 37, was born in the U.S. of French parents and lived there for two years. Franco-American, her dual nationality was unfavorable to her when she discovered that she had to pay taxes there. The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world to base the taxpayer’s status on nationality and not on place of residence. Stuck in a legal imbroglio, it tries desperately to regularize its situation.
Caroline says:
I was born in 1979 in Los Angeles. My parents were French, but they were expatriates in the United States for professional reasons.
All my life, I had dual French-American nationality. Even though I only lived for the first two years of my life on the other side of the Atlantic, I always found it amusing to have this double status. I was the only one of my siblings to have this peculiarity.
I remember returning to the United States when I was seven, then in 2008 with my husband. Always with my French passport since I never redone my American identity papers.
A legacy blocked because of “my clue of americanity”
Since July 2014, France and Switzerland have undertaken to disclose the tax data of their US residents. For the moment, this device is not reciprocal. As a lawyer, I had heard about the Fatca (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), a law to combat tax evasion, but I never thought I would be directly involved.
I have always paid my taxes in France, and since I have never really lived on American soil, why should I have had to pay taxes in the United States? I was wrong. In reality, the United States is one of the only countries in the world to base the taxpayer’s status on nationality and not on place of residence.
I understood it in September 2014, a few months after the death of my father. The succession had to be settled. I thought there would be no worry, but I received a letter from my father’s bank, BNP-Paribas, to point out that I had a “clue of americanity” because of my place Of birth. So I was concerned about the famous Fatca law.
To unlock the legacy, I had to prove that I was in good standing with the US Treasury (the IRS). In the meantime, the succession would be blocked.
It was the cold shower. After cashing in, I thought I wanted to be in order. If I were to pay, no worry, I would do it to live in peace.
I needed my US tax number. I have never had
I contacted the American Embassy to inquire. I was asked what was my tax number (Individual taxpayer identification number)? I did not have any. What to do ? I had to provide them with a US Social Security number. Same, I never had one. My father never used it because he was an expatriate.
By searching the internet, I learned that to obtain my social security number, it was necessary to have an extract of birth certificate. Immediately, I thought to myself. It’s good, the situation will soon be resolved. In France, it is obtained in a few clicks, but in the United States, it is another pair of sleeves.
To obtain such a certificate, I had to go there because the American embassy in Paris did not issue the required notarized document. No power of attorney was possible. And even if I did, I had no guarantee since I no longer had any American identity papers.
At the foot of the wall, I had to give up my dual nationality
This administrative imbroglio impacted not only me but all the members of my family. It was impossible to mourn the loved one whom we had lost. The situation was totally blocked.
I was also pressed for time: my husband and I had to move to Switzerland in January 2015.
After finding out, I realized that I could never open a bank account in Switzerland – a sine qua non for working in the country – without proving that I was in good standing with the US IRS. It was the snake biting its tail.
I checked with tax lawyers. I was asked 5,000 dollars to take my case. Can not imagine. During all this time, I harassed the US embassy which was unable to give me a solution. One day I came across a woman who said to me:
“If you do not want to do anything about your American nationality, the easiest way would be to give it up.”
At the foot of the wall, that’s what I did. Out of spite, I renounced a right because I saw no other way out.
It cost me the modest sum of 2,350 dollars
The American Embassy sent me a 25-page file to complete, written entirely in English in an indecipherable technical vocabulary for a non-bilingual person. I was asked to tell my story, to explain the reasons why I had to give up my nationality before stating a list of incredible consequences.
Once the form was completed, I got an appointment at the embassy. When I arrived, I was installed in a room with protective glass. I was not allowed to drink, to eat and my laptop was confiscated.
An official entered the three-square-meter room. She spoke with a hallucinatory flow. I did not understand anything. I asked to be assisted, that was refused me. Clearly, she did not care what I could live.
She asked me a few questions. I asked her if my tax situation would be in order after this waiver. She replied that it was not her problem before I exposed all the consequences of my act: it would be much more difficult for my children to study in the United States and not sure that I could ever get A visa if I were to settle there.
She’s gone for an hour so I can think about it. When she came back, I explained to her that my decision was made. I was then asked to go to the cash to pay the processing fees: it cost me the modest sum of 2,350 dollars!
I still have this sword of Damocles above my head
I waited almost three months to get my act of renunciation. The first barrier was crossed, it was necessary from now on that I am working on my regularization with the American tax authorities.
To the extent that I was going to receive an inheritance over 50,000 euros, I risked being taxed by the IRS. No worry to pay, I just wanted to no longer live with this sword of Damocles hanging over my head.
I have contacted them many times, but as I do not have a tax number or a social security number, I have not been able to find a way out of this impasse. No one was able to tell me whether I was going to pay a fee or not. I was even advised to continue “going about my business”, waiting for a providential outcome.
Regarding my father’s inheritance, the situation did not unlock overnight. The bank asked me to complete form W8-BEN, but again, I had to provide a US tax number. My act of renunciation was not enough.
Tired, furious, and accompanied in my steps by the collective “Americans accidental”, I decided to send emails to the governor of the bank of France, various government advisers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc. I do not know what happened, but one day the BNP called to tell me that the situation was going to be unblocked.
It took two years to glimpse the end of this story. But I’m still not reassured. I know that at any time, the IRS can fall back on me and ask me to pay taxes with retroactive penalties. The sword of Damocles is still there.
The feeling of being rejected on all sides
What is rather comical is that it is not the first time that I have to fight to prove my nationality. In 2008, I had a hard time renewing my French passport. Two years earlier, Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, had passed a law requiring foreign-born persons of parents born abroad to provide proof that they were French.
My father was born in Morocco, my mother in the Congo, at the time of the colonies, both of them French, but that was not enough. It was necessary, although in possession of a national identity card and a French passport, that I recover the birth certificates of my family over three generations to prove that I was of French nationality!
With this new misadventure, I feel rejected. For two years I have lived a veritable calvary, and my family, too. My mother even told me that if she had known, she would have returned to France to give birth.
I am not the only one in this situation. The “accidental Americans” would be close to 50,000 people. Some have disbursed several thousand euros without getting out of business. Maybe it’s time to create a cell to regularize our situation? For, at present, no solution exists.
Red Cabbage: The US Citizens retired abroad I know get their income (SS and others) from the US paid to US accounts. They continue to file in the US as they have all their life. All they need is a local account and to decide what to tell their host country (and depending on that how to transfer the money for daily living). It can be kept simple if you sort of your financial life in the US. Use CBT to your advantage, in a way.
@Fred
Getting harder to do that. As of 2011, all residents of Japan must now report assets held outside the country. There probably are reporting threasholds, but as I have no assets, I have not looked deeper.
On the subject of various kinds of “Americans abroad” here are my comments on four of the major categories:
1. The retiree, etc. who has decided to physically live in another country due to lower cost of living, climate, etc. who still sees him or herself as American first and foremost. Obviously this expat is less likely to consider naturalizing in his or her adopted country, let alone renounce US citizenship. Since this expat probably has minimal financial accounts abroad, FATCA/CBT is probably no more than a minor nuisance to this perspective (and the “TBT” proposal would probably have little or no effect on said expat’s taxes).
2. Someone who was born and raised in the US, but has chosen to take up a life elsewhere (whether it be due to a spouse, job, politics, etc.). This expat, unlike #1, is more likely to have established a financial history in his or her adopted country, and in many cases naturalized as a citizen of said country. How much FATCA/FBAR is an impediment depends on their job, what kinds of assets/accounts they have, and with CBT the tax structure of their chosen country (whether or not FTCs would be useful) and how much income from what sources (whether or not the FEIE would be useful). Unfortunately this is also the kind of expat who is caught between the USG’s evil and the attachment to their US citizenship (with the consequence that they may not be able to see family, attend a school reunion, etc. if they aren’t compliant or have renounced and are deemed inadmissible to the US).
3. Someone who does not have a USC parent, but whose parents were living in the US temporarily when they were born and got US citizenship just because of where they were born. We’re now getting into one of the two main types of “Accidental Americans” who have lived little to none of their lives in the US but have nonetheless been subjugated to the USG’s evils. Compared to the group below since they’ll always have a US birthplace it may be hard to hide from FATCA, but luckily without any familial or other emotional ties to the US compared to the group above, renunciation is an easier pill to swallow.
4. Someone who was born abroad but got (or qualifies for) US citizenship via one of their parents. This group compared to #3 has it easier because their POB itself doesn’t indicate possible US personhood, but may have the issue of extended family they’d be separated from if they renounce (but usually not as bad as #2). In fact, some argue that if the birth was never registered with the US, that they can safely ignore their claim to US citizenship and go about life as if they weren’t (but if they ever do want to claim it there may be troubles).
Am I the only one who has little or no fear of what the IRS will do to me, can’t squeeze blood from a stone, but am VERY concerned about what my banks will do due to their fear of the IRS?
This may another of the “unique” qualities of Japan but no hiding here, registered birth or not.
@ND
“Brown hair and blue eyes aren’t a dead giveaway, even though racists make an unwarranted racist allegation that they can’t possibly be Japanese.”
So, you got a “hafu” kid? If not….ya don’t have an F’n clue. Daily F’n occurance, DAILY. “Aaaa! Kawaii!!! Hafu mitai!” If you don’t understand that, don’t F’n comment. If you do understand the words, don’t fool yourself into thinking you understand the reality.
Whenever my spouse and children go out without myself, damned near every person the meet on the street says the above and inquires of my spouse where the other parent, me, is from. It IS a dead givaway, even for those whom are Japanese, like my children.
Kelly. With regards to your category 2. There is no evidence that someone who is non compliant or who has renounced has been or will be deemed inadmissible. This idea should not enter into the decision making process.
Thank you to all the commenters on this thread. I specifically asked Tricia to post this after I came across it. This type of article and this woman’s situation is precisely what makes me lose sleep ( NOT being a plaintiff, never lost sleep over that) and incenses and motivates me.
And makes me, frankly, bloody angry. No one should have to live like this just for the accident of their place of birth or US citizenship howsoever incurred or applied.
I lived there for five years, she for about two. Some have never and still are subject to this nightmare.
And I can never understand any of this because it makes no rational sense and is more than draconian.
Instead of moving back ( back when you have never lived there?) as the only supposed solution, how does the USG not see or care about the entrapment, slavery, call it what you will they are subjecting people to when no other nation does this?
As I said, it makes me livid. SO DAMN LIVID!!!!! All because they think they are the best nation on earth.
I have really tried hard to have empathy for those of you who felt forced to renounce to protect yourselves and loved ones and found it difficult to give up your US heritage. Honestly, I have tried. Can’t do it so you’ll have to pardon me. And I will go even further and tell you I don’t care who the POTUS is because the injustice continues in each consecutive administration.
I do not respect the USG. Take that IRS, come and get me. I am not one of yours and don’t want you in my life. I can’t imagine why you want me in yours.
How many more of these tragic stories do we need to come across? How many more suicides and personal devastations must occur? How much more blood?
And in order to be equal : damn you too Canadian government, especially, for selling us out.
Yup, I am mad and haven’t even turned on the tv or watched the news today, nor will I.
@Ginny et al
I am one who can not renounce but not due to attachment to my US Heritage. True, as a 6 year veteran of the US Navy, I enlisted for six years, and one who has a limited edition print depicting General John Reynolds beckoning the Iron Brigade to follow as they swing into action on the first day of the battle of Gettysburg, moments before a southern bullet felled him gracing the wall of my home in Japan, it is no easy thing to break communion with such people.
But it was not fidelity to whatever laws those who benefit from the legacy of such men pass, nor was it loyalty to those who elect those who pass those laws that motivated me to serve for 6 years of my life. It was the principles that men such as General Reynolds and the brave souls under his command sacrificed their lives to protect. Sadly, the United States of America no longer values these principles.
It is not attachment to a government and people who have abandoned the principles of their exceptional founding, the only nation FOUNDED on the principles of governing with the consent of the governed, the State being the servant of the citizen, of the citizen having more rights than the government-the true meaning of American Exceptionalism, that keeps me an American.
This realization makes it easier to reounce but leaves a very scary question unanswered, if these principles are no longer being defended by the US, who is defending them? Certainly not any of the countries represented by those of us here at IBS for if they were we would have no reason to be here.
Regardless, I simply lack the resources necessary to free myself from them nor will I give them the data they demand on the nonAmerican members of my family even if I had the resources. As things stand, I have future with no ability to receive any pay due to being locked out by banks.
I have yet to find myself in any of the ‘There are X kinds of “Americans Abroad”‘ lists. I doubt very much that my situation is unique.
Thank you very much Japan T for those comments. I found them very moving. Yes the USA stood for great ideals and principles at one time. Sadly, little evidence of that lately that I can see.
How they treat their expat citizens, especially those of you who served your country is reprehensible to me.What seems entrenched now I feel is the prevalent attitude of Us versus Other.
If you are not a Homelander you are treated as second class citizens just as some of us Canadians are by our government.
I do not intend to renounce my Canadian citizenship and Americans should not be forced to do so either against their will just to survive.
Thank you for sharing that perspective with me. You have lowered my blood pressure faster than any doctor could :-).
“Brown hair and blue eyes aren’t a dead giveaway, even though racists make an unwarranted racist allegation that they can’t possibly be Japanese.”
‘So, you got a “hafu” kid? If not….ya don’t have an F’n clue. Daily F’n occurance, DAILY’
As I said, they aren’t a dead giveaway that the person is non-Japanese, despite the racist belief of racists that they are. Racists will continue to be racist, they won’t allow a Japanese person into an onsen even though he’s Japanese because he doesn’t look typically Japanese, but they will allow a Chinese person into an onsen because he does look typically Japanese.
Even in World War II, when the Japanese government figured out that someone they’d jailed because of racial appearance actually was Japanese, they released him from jail and drafted him instead.
By the way the threshold for reporting overseas assets is 50,000,000 yen, but if your assets are in Japan you don’t have to do that report anyway.
By the way Japan isn’t the only country with racists.
My bitterness and anger came out full force today on Facebook: Here is the result.
The happiest day in my wife’s life will be when she receives THIS (accompanying photo of a Canadian passport). She has contributed to Canada for over 10 years since her landing sixteen years ago and has helped to support this family. After she receives her Canadian citizenship, she will no longer have to deal with the self-entitled types back in the country where she was birthed (It’s not home anymore) who expect her to pay her “fair-share” while she receives no benefits, no representation…or anything connected with the United States; who lift up their hands in self-entitled greed backed by statute, expecting that she will pay their way when it would take food off our family’s table and the clothes off our children’s backs.
She has paid her FAIR SHARE to Canada, for 10 years and counting, for the roads that she uses, for the sidewalks that she walks on; for the education that our children (born in Canada) have received, for the health-care that she and our family receives in Canada and all for the love of our family.
And like my father who took out his Canadian citizenship, 50 years to the day that he landed on Canadian soil (because he chose to give his life with work and paying taxes to Canada before receiving his benefits – he did not feel entitled to take out citizenship before retirement – his exact words were, he “owed Canada for providing him and his family a life”); after emigrating from Japan in 1956 and he died a Canadian in 2009. My father would be ashamed if he could see HIS Canada today, the country that he loved because he wanted his beloved daughter-in-law to have the same rights that he did that he worked so hard for. My father was a simple man, he worked hard and provided for his family and in turn he helped my family while I was getting on my feet (that is the love of an Asian father). My father never had the chance to vote as a Canadian yet he paid his taxes to Canada throughout his life. My wife wants to be a Canadian so that she has the full rights of being able to vote in this country that my father was unable to (because he died before he could exercise his right to vote); to exercise the rights and freedoms provided by the Charter of Rights & Freedoms of Canada. My father loved this country, yet our country fails to protect the daughter-in-law that he loved, as much as I love.
I love my country, but my country has betrayed me twice: First when it interned my loyal maternal grandfather’s (grandfather, grandmother, uncles and my mother) family in Slocan. Second when it said to my wife and 1M+ other Canadians and permanent residents (those who have moved here with the intention of gaining citizenship in Canada) that they were second-class citizens) and that “Congress had spoken” as if Canada was a lapdog of the United States or even worse, the 51st State of the Union. I still LOVE Canada, with all my heart and soul, but I stand here a jaded man, bitter and angry, that the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives would relegate my wife and 1M+ others and their Canadian families to the role of second class-citizen.
So to anyone who would dismiss that loyalty, that love of country. who says that she is a second-class Canadian resident, and/or self-entitledly feel that she should give you something or scream fair-share due to the fact that she is of a citizenship (that she cannot shed fast enough) of a country that practices a taxation form that is only matched by that of a 3rd World Banana Republic and supports an administration that has persecuted her because of it: FUCK YOU!!!
To the friends-in-arms (who are going through this crap) like Suzanne Iclef Herman, Tricia Moon, Daniel Kuettel, Gwenny D and Peter W. Dunn who have been instrumental in becoming a support group and network and loyal friends, Thank you; you mean more to me and to my wife than you know.
To my friends from school who actually do understand the situation who knew me before I became this seething ball of rage, thank you for standing by me, for believing that I am still the same person you once knew in school as a caring and understanding guy underneath all this rage at this injustice and that all my rage that I have presented here on this page is mainly because I hate persecution, especially when it is unjust. I will not pay taxes to a government that I derive no benefit from and I should think that my wife feels the same. That is why my wife has no problems paying taxes to Canada because she derives benefits from being a Canadian resident. If you think anything different of me just because I rage at injustice, then as George Carlin once said, “I don’t give a fuck, Go Fuck Yourself.”
My wife WILL get her Canadian citizenship; she will become a loyal Canadian; she will vote for the next prime minister of Canada but the satisfaction of my beloved wife becoming Canadian will be bittersweet tempered because I know now that Canada is not the shining beacon of fairness and equality that it holds herself out to be.
@ND
So, how in the environment that you accurately describe, does one with brown hair and blue eyes escape from eventually being found out to have an American parent, Epecially with the family register system and now the my number system being paired with it?
@ND
There is not nor ever has been a singe society free from racism. Nor will there ever be.
Is it your point that racism in Japan is ok because it exists elsewhere?
While racism does exist in Japan, it is NOT racist to find who has ‘US blood” in them when your survival, financial in this case, depends upon it. It is easier to find us when the racism is commonplace but even witout racism, the need to find us remains.
My point was/is that there is no hiding the fact of US Personhood in such an environment and thus suggestions to do nothing and just hide this fact are meaningless here and perhaps elsewhere.
“There is not nor ever has been a singe society free from racism. Nor will there ever be.”
@Japan T Absolutely true. You get it in Japan, you get it anywhere. And every race is prone to getting discriminated against.
“My point was/is that there is no hiding the fact of US Personhood in such an environment and thus suggestions to do nothing and just hide this fact are meaningless here and perhaps elsewhere.”
Japan T, yes, there definitely is no hiding the fact that if your child has brown hair and blue eyes in a society filled with black hair and dark brown (almost black) eyes, your child will stick out and questions will be asked. And yes, unfortunately in Japan, you cannot “do nothing”.
“Even in World War II, when the Japanese government figured out that someone they’d jailed because of racial appearance actually was Japanese, they released him from jail and drafted him instead.”
@Norman Diamond. You sure that they weren’t just released from jail, and shoved into the kamikaze corps?
“Is it your point that racism in Japan is ok because it exists elsewhere?”
No, I said that brown hair and blue eyes aren’t a dead giveaway that the person is non-Japanese even though racists racistly pretend it is.
The “My Number” card will be a dead giveaway, as you posted elsewhere.
@Heather
“I was even told by one Congressman’s office, that they don’t represent U.S. persons living outside the U.S. and that I should just “pay my fair share” in taxes and penalties.”
Was this by chance in writing? If so, is it possibly to post a redacted copy of the letter? It would be a very powerful weapon against those who disregard our claims of being taxed without representation.
On their suggestion that we pay our fair share, yes, that is exactly what I want. For most, our fair share to the US is zero.
@ND
““Is it your point that racism in Japan is ok because it exists elsewhere?”
No, I said that brown hair and blue eyes aren’t a dead giveaway that the person is non-Japanese even though racists racistly pretend it is.”
Sorry, I was referring to the video you posted.
But, my children ARE Japanese and ARE yet pegged as being “hafu”.
The “My Number” card will be a dead giveaway, as you posted elsewhere.
“Even in World War II, when the Japanese government figured out that someone they’d jailed because of racial appearance actually was Japanese, they released him from jail and drafted him instead.”
‘You sure that they weren’t just released from jail, and shoved into the kamikaze corps?’
When they released him from jail and shoved him into the military, I don’t know if it was kamikaze corps or not. He lived to tell his story in the 1980’s, but I can’t find it on the web.
‘But, my children ARE Japanese and ARE yet pegged as being “hafu”.’
Yes, exactly, they are Japanese, their brown hair and blue eyes are not dead giveaways of being non-Japanese, despite racists claiming they aren’t Japanese. Their US servitude is found from their My Number card not from their hair and eyes.
@ND
Their appearance prompts the question even when it otherwise would not arise.
Hafu Japanese have long had problems, long before FATCA and the My Number system. These long standing problems did not disappear because of these new programs. Instead, they render all attempts to stay hidden futile.
Not only is it their appearance but also their name. My wife now wishes she did not take my name when we married. As soon as she gives her name, the way she is treated by whomever she is speaking with immediately changes. Not hostile nor even unfriendly, but different. She is automatically treated as nonJapanese even though she is Japanese based merely on her nonJapanese surname.
This is Japan where the word “different” is the same as the word “wrong”. And the Japanese, just like everyone else in the world, do not like “wrong”. That is the starting point for my children. They are already “wrong” without FATCA and the My Number.
When certain wrongness, US Personhood, becomes a well known issue here, all non Japanese looking individuals will be repeatedly called upon to explain their “wrongness”. Thus, the “wrong” appearance of my children WILL lead to their US Personness” being discovered even in cases where their My Number need not be provided.
@ND
”
Their US servitude is found from their My Number card not from their hair and eyes.”
Our My Numbers are not tattooed on our foreheads and even if they were, without entering them into the computer they would not tell who is and is not a USP nor prompt the question.
Their appearance DOES. Notice, not will nor may nor might, DOES.
If it does now, which it does, why would it not in the future?
“Hafu Japanese have long had problems, long before FATCA and the My Number system. These long standing problems did not disappear because of these new programs. Instead, they render all attempts to stay hidden futile.”
Exactly. The social problem is the same as before, but the legal problem becomes troublesome because of the My Number system.
“My wife now wishes she did not take my name when we married.”
That makes it a Japanese name now, just like the name Son. When Masayoshi Son’s wife took his name, it became a Japanese name, so he didn’t have to change his name when he naturalized.
But sure, you might want to see if your wife, and you, and your children can take you wife’s former name. It won’t make any difference legally but it might help a little bit socially.
Meanwhile, the US tattoo on the backsides of you and your children is the same as the US tattoo on the backsides of Canadians who were born in the US or who had a US parent. If your entire family moves to Canada you’ll still have problems. The legal problem isn’t the social problem.
When a Japanese says that your children look half-American, remind them that Germany was Japan’s ally during the war. You don’t have to say they’re half-German, just let the Japanese get the message.
“That makes it a Japanese name now, just like the name Son. When Masayoshi Son’s wife took his name, it became a Japanese name, so he didn’t have to change his name when he naturalized.”
Law and social norms are not the same. This fact changes nothing. My name is of nonJapanese origin and will thus always be a nonJapanese name to the Japanese.
“But sure, you might want to see if your wife, and you, and your children can take you wife’s former name. It won’t make any difference legally but it might help a little bit socially.”
Might help for her but not for our children nor my self, we look different.
“Meanwhile, the US tattoo on the backsides of you and your children is the same as the US tattoo on the backsides of Canadians who were born in the US or who had a US parent. If your entire family moves to Canada you’ll still have problems. The legal problem isn’t the social problem.”
I am not arguing the legal problem. I am saying that the suggestion that one can just hide from it, while it may work in Canada, can not work here for many if not most.
“When a Japanese says that your children look half-American, remind them that Germany was Japan’s ally during the war. ”
To what end?