BREAKING: Happy Holidays! https://t.co/AJ8RC4YHhb

— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) December 21, 2019

In 2019 Helen Burggraf suggests Santa Claus may be an Accidental American – owing millions of dollars of back taxes. In 2011 Petros (writing one of the first and most important posts coming from the Isaac Brock Society) suggested that Santa may indeed be a U.S. citizen (possibly naturalized). Either way, it’s clear that:

Unless you can prove that you are NOT a “U.S. Person” you are subject to life problems!

That’s the bad news. The good news is that with or without the U.S. Government, the Holiday Season comes every year at this time. A good moment to include a recent comment from Embee:

Brock commenters (past & present), Brock post writers, Brock moderators, trial plaintiffs, legal teams (then & now), ADCS board members, trial fund donors (near & far) and so on …

I started to try to name all of them in order to wish them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year BUT the list got very long and then I worried I’d miss someone.

Soooooo … MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to EVERYONE who makes the Brock forum helpful, supportive and informative and to EVERYONE who made it possible for Canada to be the first country to challenge FATCA in a courtroom. SURGITE!

and response from Badger:

@Embee, may I heartily second your best wishes;

“..MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to EVERYONE who makes the Brock forum helpful, supportive and informative and to EVERYONE who made it possible for Canada to be the first country to challenge FATCA in a courtroom. SURGITE!”

(Hope this message is considered an acceptable diversion from the main post. I believe that even little things like this can be powerful – to foster and maintain human connections – creating and cementing important bonds – particularly important when our contact and interactions here are only virtual. The early connections and sharing in a cooperative way forged strong bonds which are a large part of the reason IBS was so successful, in addition to the information sharing and problem solving re USextraterritorial CBT, FBAR and FATCA and is part of what keeps people reading and following here even when their US status and its concomitant burden was excised.)

Thinking back to the beginning of Brock in November and December of 2011:

This is a reposting of one of Brock’s first and best posts. It was written by Petros and was posted on December 24, 2011. If you go to the original post you will comments from some of the original contributors at Brock. In any case, it’s just as valid today as it was exactly eight years ago. This is also a good moment to recognize and thank the original founders (as in December 2011) of Brock (who I believe include) in no particular order: Petros, Pacifica, Deckard1138 and Calgary411. I don’t know whether Patricia Moon was an original founder, but she surely – for many years – provided the foundation upon which Brock rested, as the Premier forum for educating “U.S. Persons Abroad”.
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U.S. Federal agents arrested Santa Claus earlier today at the North Pole. Special Christmas Edition (Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!)

A police composite sketch of man arrested today at the North Pole known as Santa Claus

The United States Department of Fish and Wildlife has arrested Santa Claus, an elusive figure with many aliases (e.g., St. Nicholas). On the morning of 24 December, 150 heavily armed Fish and Wildlife special agents raided Claus’ North Pole compound, seized several tons of exotic woods forbidden by the Lacey Act, arrested Santa Claus and a female accomplice identified only as Mrs. Claus, and liberated thousands of diminutive slave labourers known only as “Elves”. Claus has been charged with multiple counts of money laundering, illegal exportation of currency, illegally importing into the United States toys made of contraband–rare woods, ivory and other banned substances. He has also been charged with violations of slave labor and child labor laws, hundreds of patent and trademark violations, and illegally entering and exiting the United States. Indeed, Fish and Wildlife agents also seized an unidentified aircraft called a “sleigh” which had numerous secret compartments holding the contraband. Fish and Wildlife agents charged Mr. Claus with animal cruelty with regard to the caribou that he used to launch this “sleigh”.

Special Agent Hugo Smith, Department of Fish and Wildlife

Special Agent Hugo Smith said, “We arrived just in the nick of time. A moment later, and the caribou would have launched the sleigh and Claus would have escaped with the illegal materials. By now, he would be in the United States, breaking into people’s houses and selling this stuff.”

The United States Department of Immigration and the Internal Revenue Service have also had their eyes on Mr. Claus. An immigration official who also attended the raid said that they were able to obtain several dozen passports. He said, “It seems that this Santa Claus character has a different name in every country–his EU passport says, ‘Father Christmas’ and his Canadian passport says, ‘Père Noël’. We have, however, determined with certainty that Santa Claus is a United States citizen.” Apparently Claus worked in Hollywood during the 1940s and 50s making autobiographical films, such as Miracle on 34th Street. During that time he applied for and received U.S. citizenship.

Douglas Shulman, Commissioner of the IRS, has released the following statement:

IRS Commissioner, Douglas Shulman

At long last, the notorious tax cheat, Santa Claus, has been apprehended. He has been living in a foreign country for the last 50 years and during that time he has not filed his US taxes even once. It has become clear, however, that he has run a lucrative business at the North Pole and has never reported any of the income. In addition to criminal tax evasion, we intend to charge Santa Claus with 190 counts of criminal failure to file Foreign Bank Account Reports (FBAR), as we found evidence in his papers that he is operating or has signing authority on bank accounts in 190 different countries. It is our contention that the fines alone could help us bring billions in revenue into the United States government.

According to United States law, all United States Citizens are required to pay taxes to the IRS and to report any foreign bank accounts. Failure to obey these filing requirements may result in civil and criminal penalties including imprisonment.

The Obama administration declared that they were very pleased with the news. “It is about time,” Obama said from his Hawaian retreat, “that the United States returned those who have fled the country just because they don’t feel like paying their fair share anymore.”

The Republican candidate for president, Ron Paul criticized the raid, “The United States has neither the authority nor the right to go into another country and enforce its laws. Santa Claus is a citizen of the North Pole and it is overreach for us to go there and arrest him.” Also running for president, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich responded to Paul, “The United States must reserve the right to arrest terrorists and to violate the rule of law in order to provide safety for the People of the United States.” Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada said that his government did everything that they could to help the United States, even to the point of allowing the use of Canadian air space. “We are cooperating with the good faith efforts of the United States to eliminate terrorists in order to maintain the safety and security of all Canadians.”