BBC News – Prince Harry 'thrilled' to marry girlfriend Meghan Markle next year – It's "tax colonization through marriage" https://t.co/Y8xrH1mVnJ
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) November 27, 2017
The mainstream media along with Isaac Brock poster “Mike” informs us:
“Breaking news!: With the upcoming marriage of Prince Harry with an American, the British Royal Family will now have to pay American taxes.. Maybe somebody in the government will wake up at that point. Meghan Markle is too rich to renounce without getting an unaffordable exit tax.”
And I bet they both have no idea.
Without Ms. Markle renouncing U.S. citizenship, it would seem that Ms. Markle will give the IRS a port of entry into the finances of the Royal Family. Think of it:
“Tax Colonization through marriage!!”
Clearly both Prince Harry and Ms. Markle need advice. In your comments could you please give them your best wishes and a bit of advice.
What should Prince Harry do?
What should Meghan Markle do?
What should the Royal Family do?
Again Megan Markle has lived in Toronto for many years. The house she lives in is not far from where John Richardson has done has various tax seminars and where the CBT Kirsch debate was held. Either she has been compliant with the IRS while living in Canada or not compliant. I don’t find this subject nearly as exciting as everyone else.
Many of you are falling into the media’s stupidity. The US centric media constantly has to mention the US centricity of every story thus they are playing the American angle of this story for all the can while ignoring the Toronto/Canada as much as they can.
@Heidl
I am certain of the fact Megan Markle has had a bank account in Canada for many years. Whether she has complied with the US Canada IGA is up to her. I personally if I knew her would have encourage her not to. Most people here have not complied with IGA as have most Canadian including members of Parliament who voted in favor of the FATCA IGA.
@USCitizenAbroad
Again you are falling into the media’s stupidity. I don’t find you fake dialogue very funny. This is the same type of shit the American left wing made up during the UBS scandal.
This whole story is not a productive line of enquiry.
Ms. Markle may have lived in Toronto but she was a American citizen working on an American TV production; she grew up and was educated in the US. Fairly certain she’s not the IRS-busting non-compliance hero you’re looking for.
Either (1) she renounces or (2) the British Crown hire a specialist in-house accountant for the purposes of United States taxation.
In all honesty, could the Queen ever be considered a so-called “U.S. Person” should she be financially connected to the Prince?
She could renounce without certifying IRS compliance, then enter the USA on a diplomatic passport.
@TimSymth
Ms Markle may have complied or not in Canada, (and I guess she did as she has been working in the US) but any NEW accounts she may open in the UK will not give her a choice.
I expect she will be fast tracked and required to relinquish and of course the the tax word will not be mentioned, it will be described as all “done for love” as was Tina Turner.
“Which means Meghan becomes, in effect, co-owner of the Principality of Wales”
So she won’t be a Minnow? No wonder the IRS will leave her alone.
“That [renunciation] would be expensive for her and what if the marriage didn’t survive”
‘Oh noes! Then she’d have to live with being a UK citizen!’
If she loses all her foreign citizenships when she becomes a princess, she’ll be Canadian only. I wonder if she’s prepared to live there.
The message I’m getting is there is absolutely no problem here, she just needs to file separately and all US taxation worries are gone.
@Mike
“The message I’m getting is there is absolutely no problem here, she just needs to file separately and all US taxation worries are gone.”
Of course, simples…just like all those other lucky US persons living abroad and married to ‘Aliens’.
It’s all very amusing but unfortunately for us will probably come to nothing. I imagine she will renounce as she joins the royal family (relinquish) and meanwhile file separately. The IRS will treat these returns as it does Trump’s : put them in a vault in a secure room and leave them alone.
This post on a U.S. person “Meghan Markle” is surprisingly the most active on Brock, so I have posted this here.
This text is from the Republicans Overseas FB site (from a Politico article I can’t access) on what U.S. Representative Holding is considering for people deemed to be U.S. persons who live overseas (apparently this does include RBT itself):
“…According to Holding, the citizen-based taxation system they continue to face is outdated, complicated and costly. Expatriates pay $4,000 on average to file their taxes annually, a factor, along with burdensome bank reporting requirements in the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, in prompting some to renounce their U.S. citizenship, he said.
“That’s a base erosion of human capital,” Holding said.
In addition, switching to an RBT system would harmonize the U.S. with much of the rest of the world, and it wouldn’t overly burden the IRS with new rules since it already applies RBT to nonresident aliens in the U.S.
But Holding hasn’t decided on exact language for a bill, which according to some estimates could result in $20 billion in lost revenue over a decade, Norquist said.
Among options Holding is considering would be legislation to allow full RBT, or instead changes to the foreign earned income exclusion…”
ACA is presenting its own version but won’t say who it is talking to:
“,,,In the more immediate term, the group is pressing for a Senate floor amendment to get RBT included into the Senate bill next week, though Serrato declined to identify members who might introduce such amendments. Whether RBT gets added to the Senate tax bill or tacked onto entitlement legislation, Norquist said American expats deserve to be next in line.
“We’re talking to interested parties on the Senate side and we’re making our case,” Serrato said.”
@ Heidi
I assume you are being sarcastic in what you’ve written to Mike. Would you please elaborate on it in plain English? Thanks.
I don’t remember that filing separately worked all that well, especially when the other member of the couple is the one making the money. I am sure a public figure such as Miss Markle is completely up to date with filings and payments so it’s either an eventual (but not compulsory and very probably not desired) relinquishment and the subsequent exit tax or the intrusion of the IRS into the accounts of the Royal Family. She certainly cannot disappear into the woodwork and even if it’s just her accounts, she will be suffering from the extraterritorial reach (her income will tick all the “bad” boxes and be subject to the exchange rate) so it will be interesting to see how the Royals feel about it.
I’m sure the only tax break the IRS gave Boris is accepting him into Streamlined (no penalties). He then would have provided an extra two years of filing, allowing him to renounce in 2016 without being covered. Had he not opened his usual big mouth about selling his house in 2009, he might have gotten away with that, but who knows.
He should have renounced back in 2006 when he first threatened to.
Will she be able to get a bank account in the UK though, this is a big question. It would be funny to see the look on the Royal Family’s faces when she is rejected because she’s an American.
News in UK says she will become a British citizen, so, presumably, if she wishes to, she can relinquish at that moment.
But will she? And if she does not, she still has to tell the banks, hey, yes, I have a US passport! Highly doubt she will renounce unless forced to, and it seems it may end up like this, but will we know the true reason for her doing so? Speculation only.
CNN International reports she be keeping her US citizenship and that it may take years for her to attain British.
@senior epat
Yes, of course, I should have added a smiley face but you could have got your clues from my earlier posts on this thread.
If I were the couple’s adviser. i would say develope a new royal wave . use the middle finger and use it whenever they encounter American Official.
@Bubblebustin
re “CNN International reports she be keeping her US citizenship and that it may take years for her to attain British”
I think CNN are just stating the situation as the law stands. ie 5 yrs as a tax resident (3 if she marries a Brit.)
The British Government somehow managed to make Zola Budd a British citizen overnight so she could compete for Britain in the Olympics back in 1984. She was declared a national treasure.
This is the Royal family we are taking about, where anything is possible.
Markle has stated she is a proud American so it may well be emotionally difficult for her to relinquish, I suspect she will become British before the wedding but we will not be informed if she has retained her American passport.
I don’t understand this,
“Madonna has had to apply for a UK Visa to return permanently, as she is not longer a British citizen by virtue of being married to Guy.”
Could the source possibly mean she never had British citizenship, and was only granted permanent residency because of her marriage to a Brit?
I suppose being the Queen of Pop’s not as good enough.
the US may give back her American citizenship if the marriage doesn’t work out. who knows. i read more than once that she will be given British Citizenship when she marries Harry and that she will relinquish US citizen. She does not have to but she will. Prince Philip also naturalised as a British Citizen before marrying the queen, and relinquished his previous citizenship. i believe Prince Philip relinquished his Greek Citizenship to marry the queen.
i do not believe she will stay american. i can not see it happening one bit. only a common wealth citizenship is allowed i am sure.