Despite all promises and recent signs of hope, we “Americans overseas” (and those deemed to be such) have been ignored once again by the government that claims ultimate power over our lives. Now, and for the foreseeable future, we remain the only human beings on Earth who have an income tax imposed on them simply for who they are. We have been left out of the current tax reform plans developed by both legislative houses in spite of the huge efforts mounted collectively by those suffering under US tax oppression around the world.
While I am grateful to those individuals in the US government who have recognized our plight and plan to continue to search for ways to introduce the world standard of Residence/Territorial-Based Taxation to the United States, I fear that the efforts are too little, too late.
Except for the various lawsuits still pending (which could take years to resolve), domestic recourse has come to a crashing end. Our one remaining avenue of attack is in the international arena.
A Human Rights Complaint was filed with the United Nations in August 2014 and is presently awaiting assessment for acceptance into the complaints process. (Those not familiar with the history of our Complaint can find information on the link at the top of the sidebar.)
We have waited long enough. It is beyond time for our plight to be recognized by the international community as the forerunner of an entirely new form of governmental abuse perpetrated by a combination of outdated law and 21st century cyber-surveillance. Human rights in the computer age extend well beyond the food, clothing, and shelter issues which the UN has traditionally championed.
In preparation for “reminding” the world of our United Nations Human Rights Complaint against the United States for its triple policies of CBT, FATCA and FBAR (as applied to “overseas” residents):
- we would like to invite those who didn’t have an opportunity to sign the Complaint to do so. Those interested may make a request to read the Complaint by emailing calgaryfouroneone@gmail.com. You will be sent a link and a password. After reading the document, if you would like to have your name appended to it please let Calgary know. Your name will remain utterly confidential and will never be revealed to anyone in the United States government. ANYONE affected by US extra-territorial tax policies — citizens, renunciants, spouses, business associates — ANYONE who has or has had a stake in this issue — is welcome to sign!
- we need help from people in positions of power and/or influence who are sympathetic to our cause. Is anyone in contact with Sophie int’Veld, for example? There are several individuals in France such as Keith Redmond who have done a stunning job on behalf of this community. Do any of these folk know anyone who can lobby for us at the UN and get this process sped up? We desperately need this sort of help.
- we need ideas from all of you as to how to proceed and get our efforts publicized accurately while under the UN’s publication ban. Silence is no longer an option. If you think the UN is a waste of time, we need to hear that too!
- and a special request to those on Twitter and Facebook: please post links to this thread on any and all sites concerned with this issue. We need to reach everybody!
Every year on the anniversary of the Complaint’s submission (August 7) we have sent a “Support Document” which details testimonials of harms suffered due to US tax policy and reported online over the previous 12 months. In 2017, with tax reform a very real possibility, we decided to wait until now to send this year’s document. It will be sent to the UN next week [postponed to mid-December to allow for a new round of efforts in Washington to prove successful or not]. It would be terrific to send them more signatures as well!
This fight will be over when the United States of America abolishes CBT.
I always manage to leave something out! This “reintroduction” of the UN Complaint is a great opportunity to unite the efforts of the various groups who have been working so hard. We have ALL lost. NOBODY’s RBT/TBT/TTFI (or whatever) plan has been adopted by Congress. But groups like AARO, ACA, DA, RO, etc. are peopled by many with the expertise we need to make our efforts finally prevail. It would be amazing to have the assistance of those who have become “household names” here such as Solomon Yue, Michael DeSombre and Jackie Bugnion (to name only a very few!)
Tweet it or scream it … just please help get this effort known out there!
I had very little faith in the UN at the time I added my signature to the complaint. I have no faith now. As far as I’m concerned, it is a useless money pit that should be dissolved. I highly doubt we will receive any action on our complaint, as there’s no money in it for anyone connected to the UN.
The Mom: I respectfully disagree. While we may be disheartened, things do change eventually. We must continue to make ourselves heard.
@Fred (B), I remain with you on making ourselves heard as I will NOT quietly go off into the night.
I have now gone from making myself politely heard to bring about change to making myself heard not politely at all for purposes of scorched earth.
All things have a “cost” in life and there is indeed a cost in maintaining CBT and FATCA.
One of the “costs” is the shame that shall be brought upon all these people.
The other is the DEMAND that with taxation comes the benefits and we DEMAND Obamacare exchanges so me, you and all else can get free or subsidized health insurance. We also want Pell grants and loans for our kids. We demand VA mortgage loans for American Veterans so they can buy homes. We demand food stamps.
IF they want us…they get us…..
Cook v. Tate states; “that government by its very nature benefits the citizen and his property wherever found.”
We WANT the benefits and we want them now.
To be honest…..IF we had Obamacare, Student Grants and Loans for our kids, food stamps, VA Loans, I would be THRILLED and be a happy tax filer!!
We demand the “benefit” wherever “found.”
Simply put you can not have CBT without the benefits that come from Government in accordance with Cook v. Tate….”wherever found.”
The minute the US Government started excluding the benefits and I will use Medicare as an example the link between benefits and taxation wherever found was SEVERED.
@Muzzled……I would make one minor change to the thought process;
“we remain the only human beings on Earth who have an income tax imposed on them simply for who they are.”
TO
“we remain the only human beings on Earth who have an income tax imposed on them simply for who they are witthout the social benefits provided by the payment of those taxes.”
We need to become HATED not because we are “sipping wine on the Med” but HATED because we are moochers sucking on the government tit ungrateful in the demand of benefits.
Solomon Yue and Michael DeSombre are now in a difficult position. To be blunt they need to resign in disgust as frankly they have been the most lied to and spat on.
We were simply lied to in writing, they were lied to face to face.
I would love for those two guys to support this but if they stay at RO how can they do it?
Fred (B),
Three years later, the complaint is still waiting to be ASSESSED, to be ACCEPTED into the complaint process. In other words, inaction of any type from a bloated, bureaucratic, money-sucking operation.
This Canadian from birth made herself LOUDLY heard in the Toronto consulate when I renounced. I made myself heard in my scathing written statement included with my renunciation. I made myself heard with a written statement to the IRS with no tax forms, but the 8854. I’ve made myself LOUDLY heard in my Canadian bank at every opportunity, educating bank employees at every level. I loudly make myself heard to many I come in contact with throughout the world. I’ve made myself heard with what I could donate to the Canadian lawsuit. And I have boycotted the US since shortly after renouncing in…2012?
No one gives a crap, not politicians on either side of the Canada/US border, not bureaucrats, not banks, and not individuals. Friends and family continue to say, “Oh, yeah, you have that US thing.”, like I was some kind of criminal or moral reprobate when I was repatriated to Canada in diapers.
Eventually has already been a very long time for me. In 2010, when I discovered this reprehensible shackle, I never would have dreamed it would still exist, unchanged SEVEN years later!
@ George
“Solomon Yue and Michael DeSombre are now in a difficult position. To be blunt they need to resign in disgust as frankly they have been the most lied to and spat on.”
I guess they could do that (wouldn’t blame them) but then who would be left to continue to press for justice for American expats? What if the void left by their resignations was filled by unsympathetic or simply disinterested persons? James Jatras has many causes on his plate so he might have to eventually drop ours. There’s our intrepid Keith Redmond but lordy one man cannot do this alone. Attrition of our leaders plays perfectly into the hands of our oppostion.
Attrition of we, the troops of resistance, is already putting a strain on those who remain. Again, I can’t blame anyone for bowing out of the battle because once most people have that CLN in their hand they just want to put it all behind them and enjoy their lives. Thank goodness we still have those like our badger who battled through the process of her own exit from the system but kindly continues to stay in the fight because there are so many who haven’t found release or relief yet and she cares about them.
@ MuzzledNoMore
It’s a good thing you had the foresight to submit this human rights complaint to the UN when you did. It’s obviously such a slow process and if it were only now being launched, well the time ahead of us would be longer by 3 years. I have no suggestions. I think the UN just moves in slow and mysterious ways and it looks like you are doing your part brilliantly to prod them along. Thank you.
@ The Mom
I always get a lift when I read about your feisty, loud and beautifully irreverent protestations of this horrible, “Made in the USA”, policy of enslaving even those who have long ago left the plantation, forcefully drafting all financial institutions in the world into the IRS shock troop divivision and pissing on the sovereignty of every nation who harbours anyone with a US taint. We need more like you. More who “Do not go gentle into that good night.”
We should take the government to court on the grounds that we have the taxation without the representation. We should demand representives in line with our population.
Once we get that, we then elect peoplr who are neither republican nor democrats. Then we should, when possible, make sure legislation fails to pass.
Then we will be in a position to have the reform we want.
@ The Mom
Go Mom!
Well done! This hypocrite “I am not renouncing because of the IRS at all..” that we think we are forced to say has gone to far.
Hi MuzzledNoMore. I’m glad that you started and are continuing with the UN process. I’ve already signed some time ago and would encourage others to do so now.
Regarding your statement: “Despite all promises and recent signs of hope, we “Americans overseas” (and those deemed to be such) have been ignored once again by the government that claims ultimate power over our lives.”, we need to keep up the resistance to this tyranny. Also my belief is that the downfall of the USA empire will eventually come from within due to debt, corruption, etc.
In the meantime, I’m relieved to be among those who have renounced and hope others find their own way out of this mess. Also good to have the lawsuit still in progress.
@EmBee,
I still regret not filling out the damned 8854 form in crayon, and enclosing a baby rattle in the envelope.
@Anonymous by Necessity,
I get why people may say that, one must do whatever one must to protect themsleves from those with the gold, the rules, and the power. I’m just too pissed, too stupid, or too damned opinionated to care when it came to my situation. Honestly, I’m a pretty nice individual in person, but I have a strong sense of justice and logic. (I made my teen kid claim her annual coffee shop tips on her CANADIAN tax forms when I was teaching her how to file…and I haven’t cheated as much as a dime on my own taxes to Canada in over 30 years of filing.)
I don’t want to diminish ANY of the efforts of people involved in this crappy situation. I just realized, as a result of my own situation, that those in power just don’t care, because there’s NOTHING IN IT FOR THEM. You can bet your ass, though, that if Sophie Trudeau was born in the US, and Justin had to provide his trust fund info to the IRS, it would all change pretty damned quick now, wouldn’t it.
@MuzzledNoMore, I will sign. Admins, including calgary411 have my working email.
Thanks for all your work sustaining this (and several other efforts) and updating the complaint annually.
And for those who may find their spirits flagging in terms of the time it has taken to have it be considered by the UN, I have had to remind myself regarding this whole endeavour that as USCitizenAbroad has said to us from the beginning, remember, ‘it’s a marathon, not a sprint’. Easy for me to say perhaps, as I have relinquished, and I am not bearing the brunt of the considerable ongoing work of sustaining the lawsuits, this website, the UN complaint, the submissions to Washington, etc. and I am not having to struggle with being denied banking or facing an exit tax, or forever tied to the US with a dependent loved one who cannot ever renounce or minors who currently cannot.
Anyway, as Brockers have said, ‘Surgite’! And also, I like ‘Tentanda Via’ – “the way must be tried”.
And to add another favourite Latin phrase to the uplifting exhortations mentioned above;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegitimi_non_carborundum#Variants
Ah Sophie! Where are you? Loved her when she angrily said “This is BULLSHIT”.
And although I agree to never give up and keep on hounding those who decide – isn’t it obvious that they don`t want to hear us? after giving it all we have got- written 1000s of letters that they even asked for so as to inform themselves – they still chose to ignore us.
I too am relieved that I renounced. I would probably be dead now if I had not. The stress was too much for me. But besides that, I am glad not to belong to such a hypocritical society anymore. Anybody else?
Cook v. Tate states; “that government by its very nature benefits the citizen and his property wherever found.”
That was written by a Supreme Court which by its very nature repeatedly fails to even affix first class postage to documents that it issues denying justice to persons and property wherever found.
Of course that’s small potatoes in comparison to the way other US courts and government agencies deny us “benefits” (such as due process for victims who get framed by the actual thieves) and our property wherever found. But it’s particularly on point because it’s the actions of that same Supreme Court.
Should it not say “We Americans and Eritreans remain the only human beings on Earth who have an income tax imposed on them, compounded by penalties for those whose income tax is zero, simply for who they are.”
“I think the UN just moves in slow and mysterious ways”
There’s nothing mysterious. I can’t find the actual quotation so I’ll paraphrase here.
When two small countries have a problem, the UN steps in and the problem disappears.
When one large country and one small country have a problem, the UN steps in and the small country disappears.
When two large countries have a problem, the UN disappears.
“I still regret not filling out the damned 8854 form in crayon, and enclosing a baby rattle in the envelope.”
Crayon? Why waste a perfectly good crayon?
You should have signed the way Baby Elle should sign her FBAR forms, using her own ink.
” You can bet your ass, though, that if Sophie Trudeau was born in the US, and Justin had to provide his trust fund info to the IRS, it would all change pretty damned quick now, wouldn’t it.”
‘Ah Sophie! Where are you? Loved her when she angrily said “This is BULLSHIT”.’
You’re confusing the two. One Sophie is on our side. The other Sophie is in our country. This makes an easy choice.
An obstacle is that those who direct resources to defend human rights will only direct their attention to a vary narrow set of persons and circumstances. One may think that all are covered by protections against human rights abuse. This is not the case.
@NormanDiamond
Sophie van der Veldt. I meant her.
I dont even know of any Sophie Trudeau.
is going through the calgary411 e-mail the only to sign the complaint?