reposted from MapleSandbox
by Lynne Swanson
#FATCA Americans overseas: Do NOT allow US tax pros scare u into entering US tax system. Many have no business entering!
— Keith REDMOND (@kredmond_global) January 19, 2017
Backing up the above tweet, Keith Redmond posted the following on Facebook:
Dear Members: I just had a lengthy, robust call with an individual who spent 25 years in upper management with the Department of Treasury IRS Criminal Investigation. He confirmed what I thought about the IRS. There is more bark than bite. He stated that there are many, many Americans overseas ho have no business in entering the US tax system and that Accidental Americans UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should enter the US tax system. He confirmed that there are MANY US tax pros who prey on Americans overseas and Accidental Americans through fear and falsehoods. (e.g. you will get arrested, etc.). Any US tax professional who pushes and scaremongers these individuals to comply are not professionals and should not be used! He confirmed that the IRS is NOT going to go after you in your country of residence (most especially if you are a citizen of that country) and the IRS is NOT going to arrest you at the US border. The IRS does not have the resources to do this plus they go after those who have committed a crime not the average American overseas. He stated that Americans overseas need to not succumb to the fear. Excellent conversation and I am glad my views have been validated.
This reflects what I have long believed. Unfortunately, there is still the nightmare of FATCA to deal with. In some countries, anyone born in the US cannot even get bank accounts. We are treated as criminals just for banking where we live.
I asked Keith how his contact explains and justifies this.
Keith replied:
He can’t. He finds the whole situation abhorent…
Retweet this far and wide. Let this Canadian traitor know he’s still on our radar.
The_Animal.
https://adcsovereignty.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/u-s-law-professor-ffis-turned-out-to-be-treasurys-best-lobbyists-for-fatca-cdnbankers/
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=2&DocId=6597204
Note: http://www.parl.gc.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members/Mike-Allen (no longer a Member of Canadian Parliament)
@Bubblebustin –
” I believe with the possible repeal of CBT now on the now current government’s platform, the law can change. We’ve never had a better chance.”
Repeal of FATCA, not repeal of CBT. Is it even possible to repeal CBT? There’s no actual CBT law, as far as I’m aware. Unless I’ve missed something?
If non-US-resident USCs are liable to file US tax returns and pay US taxes simply because there’s never been any legislation to exempt them from doing so, what kind of legislation would be needed to switch to RBT? Could it be done just by redefining who is tax-resident?
@USCitizenAbroad
Thanks. Those who know me know I don’t support CBT, nor the enforcement of CBT.
I’m not angry that other’s aren’t paying their “fair share”, it’s a matter of the US taxing me when I’ll never get mine.
@iota
Aren’t constitutional amendments repealed?
I prefer actually a “return” to Residency Based Taxation over anything else.
Which amendment? Excuse my ignorance, I moved away a long time ago. Was there a time when US-residents were required to file but non-US-residents were not?
Calgary411,
And his response if I recall correctly was the following:
“That’s why we signed the IGA.” without a word of objection. I still hold him accountable…and I still hold him responsible I also consider him a traitor.
As an MP he had a duty to uphold the protection of Canadian citizens (whether dual or single status) because of their Canadian passport. Any less and the result was the creation of second-class citizens.
In my books…the correct response should have been. “Tell your Congress: GO TO HELL!” Anything else is TREASON.
I apologize to any Brockers who might be offended (and you know I love all of ya and stand by your side), but on occasion my Canadian-born, Canadian patriot side comes out in full form and laughing its ass off:
To American Homelanders:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2pBW7FXUAALHa9.jpg:large
Sorry, can’t help belling the cat.
So, I’ve been reading the history of taxation on the ACA website (https://www.americansabroad.org/history-of-us-taxes-abroad-from-1787-to-2001/)
Basically cbt seems to have been assumed right from the 16th Amendment in 1913.
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
It just gets more and more clear, as the tax law increases in complexity, that non-resident citizens are taxpayers too. From time to time exemptions for various amounts of foreign income are proposed/passed/argued about/taken away/restored/reduced or increased, but at no time (as far as I can see) are non-resident citizens declared subject or not subject to US taxation. It’s just assumed that all citizens are subject to US taxation.
So it seems repeal is not possible. They’d have to bring in new legislation – not just exempting foreign income, but exempting non-residents from filing returns.
@iota
This article splains it better than I ever could:
…”For one thing, it is rooted in war. Specifically, citizenship-based taxation dates back to the American Civil War (1861-1865).
In 1861, Congress passed the first personal income tax in order to finance the Civil War expenses of the North. The Revenue Act of August 5th, 1861 set a flat rate of 3% on individual incomes over $800. The tax applied “to every person residing in the United States” but it was not collected; the Act had been slapped together in a rushed manner and it carelessly contained no enforcement mechanism.”…
…”Then, a dramatic change in taxation occurred in 1913 with the ratification of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution which stated, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived…” The Amendment de facto overturned Pollock. It was the beginning of the modern federal tax system. And, again, it applied to all American citizens at home or abroad.”…
More:
https://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2013/01/14/citizen-based-taxation-thank-war-for-it.html
@iota
Oops, you beat me to it.
@iota
I don’t care how they do it, as long as they figure out how to do it.
@Bubblebustin – I’m not optimistic. We’ll have to wait and see, I guess.
@iota
All I have left is optimism, when everything else seems improbable.
“among the several States”
Other nations are NOT a State of the United States. They can go kiss my “tailfeathers”.
From what I gather here no matter what historical amendments to the taxation law,they were never vigourously ,if at all,enforced,specifically vis-a-vis expats.
The question alone of deciphering of who is or isn’t really a US citzen ,which has been been discussed at length, would entangle the IRS no end. Also the question of accidentals who have no ties to the US other than birth being subjected to a ridiculous law would in time embarrass the IRS
and the US. All to say that what Keith Redmond wrote about standing back is the wisest course of action.
How many “us persons” who have not ensnared themselves into FATCA been actually penalized ?
How many “us persons” have been refused entry into the US?
Based on this site not very many,if any.
So it seems that applying the fear of God and the IRS has generated a cottage industry of shark lawyers,as well as,a windfall of cash from expats.I don’t, for one moment, believe that FATCA isn’t profitable.The extortion fee plus the exit fees,etc and at same time saving expenses by providing little or no assistance overseas while adding a few more millions returns to digest DOES’NT LOOK LIKE a lossing proposition.
“maz57 says
January 20, 2017 at 1:53 pm
Well, now that Obama’s out and Trump is in I’ve just started my stopwatch re: the repeal of FATCA and the elimination of CBT. Anyone want to place a bet on how long?”
Even if FATCA and CBT were repealed, I wouldn’t want my (DIY relinquished) USC back– the US is a failed experiment that I want no part of. What I do I want US laws to stop at US border with no extraterritorial reach here into Canada. I want Justin to grow a pair and actually live by his words that “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.” Even Canadians with US heritage. In the absence of this, I look forward to Joe Arvay and our courageous three plaintiffs teaching the lesson to Monsieur Trudeau in court.
P.S. My guess– just under a year for FATCA repeal, never on CBT. I do hope I’m wrong on my CBT guess.
Sorry for the missing words/grammar errors– I need to stop typing with my iPad. The autocorrect is brutal.
My anger boileth over:
Severely pissed off at jingoistic people who posted crap on my timeline saying “Support Our President” and anti-Trumpers.
If people try to take food for my kids off my table… God Help Them.
https://www.facebook.com/johnburk1775/videos/1764210767240635/
“Anybody tries to take food for MY KIDS off MY TABLE, is going to get their fucking head kicked in. Be My Guest! And I don’t need no jingoistic jackwagon telling me that I have to “support the President.” Do your fucking job, Do what you were elected to do…and keep your FUCKING CAMPAIGN PROMISES! And don’t look at EXPATS as a ever increasing wallet so you can fill the other pockets of your scumbags who don’t want to fucking work!
And just another memo for you granola-munching, Starbucks-sipping, flag-waving, “fair-share” spouting, gun-totin’, let’s go FUCK SOMEBODY UP dipshits: “I make MY DECISIONS after careful assessment of the situation and HOW it affects me or my family. If it does affect my family then nothing in hell is going to change my position. So SAVE YOUR FUCKING BREATH or your FUCKING FINGERS or both…BECAUSE…as George Carlin said: I DON’T GIVE A SHIT!!! and GO FUCK YOURSELF!”…”
Pardonnez-moi le langue… This is a bilingual country.
On the flipside: I don’t agree with what these little punk-@$$es in Washington DC are doing right now either:
“There’s one thing that I agree with with the rant that John Burk went off on those “rioting pieces of self-entitled, hipsterfied, “fair-share” coveting, granola munching, Trump-protesting pieces of mother fucking shit.” Busting up windows and other bullshit like that isn’t going to do you any good. It isn’t going to take money out of Trump’s pocket. And above all, it isn’t going to do anything but harm the proprietors of the businesses that you fucking mouth-breathing pieces of shit threw the rocks through the windows of.
The differences between YOU pieces of shit and Expats protesting is that WE WORK FOR A FUCKING LIVING! You wonder when your next fucking welfare check comes in. Oh yeah…and WE DON’T BREAK SHIT.
And then YOU fucking lackwitted pieces of mouth-breathing shit have the guts to tell us to pay OUR fair share? I stand by my previous statement: GO FUCK YOURSELF!”