Author Archives: MuzzledNoMore

A reader here at Brock has approached me with the suggestion of instigating a Human Rights Complaint at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). This reader was aware of my involvement with the United Nations Human Rights Complaint against the United States and its policy of citizenship-based taxation which was filed in August 2014. That Complaint is still awaiting discussion at the UN but I am of the firm belief that our issue must be driven home in every possible forum available to us.

In Europe the ECHR is such a forum. The process by which one makes an “application” (the ECHR term for “complaint”) is described in English in a video tutorial available at the right hand side of the web page. The video can also be viewed in other languages.

The process is daunting and not for the faint-of-heart. The United Nations process was a cakewalk in comparison. However, the matter we face as an international community is of the gravest concern and there may be Brockers who reside in EU-member countries who may wish to take this fight to their governments. Continue reading →

LM has proposed a separate thread for us to post our suggestions for anti-FATCA/CBT action in 2015.

Perhaps there could be a new IBS page on which we all can list our IBS/FATCA/ADCS new year’s resolutions as to what we WILL make an effort to accomplish. As part of that, maybe there could also be a review what has and has not been successful so that we (1) don’t keep spending our time/energy attempting approaches that end up just being a waste of time and (2) see what has worked and encourage more of that.

Along with helping to organize a John Richardson evening presentation (Hamilton, Ontario – March 26), one tack that I am starting to take is to connect with other US Expats around the world to let them know about IBS and, more importantly, ADCS and the only-currently-active-litigation-against-FATCA. This is being accomplished through joining EpatBlog (http://www.expat-blog.com) and starting conversations on forums as well as some messaging to specific active Expats there who have indicated their US origin. Is this “gentle spam”? Maybe, but we’ll see what expanded support can be garnered…..

As well, I continue to hand out my FATCA flyer to lots of people as I go through day to day life. For example, when my plane-boarding was delayed an hour just before Xmas, I handed these out to lots of folks at the airport; I quietly, respectfully walked around with a file folder boldly labeled “Are you a US Person or do you know anyone who is?” and anyone who looked up and seemed interested, I handed them a flier. Had a few good conversations…

Let’s follow LM’s lead and fill our “comments section” with more great ideas on which we can, and will, take action!

I am posting this on behalf of a group of Brockers led by Charl that has written and posted a hard-hitting, to-the-point article on Naomi Wolf’s “Cloudt” Facebook page. Naomi Wolf is the author of a book entitled The End of America which lists ten steps that are bringing America ever closer to the brink. The article informs readers of an “Eleventh Step” hence the title of the article as posted at Cloudt: “The End of America”: The Eleventh Step. For publishing here at Brock and elsewhere Charl, LM and MuzzledNoMore have chosen an alternate title: America: Behind the New Berlin Wall. They want to thank their editors for their assistance as well as Gwen for her technical expertise.

https://www.facebook.com/naomi.wolf.author/posts/1497154923896906

Continued from Part III

Solution

This article was written in response to a request for a step-by-step explanation of FATCA that would help Americans understand what it is all about. I would like to conclude with an illustration similar to the one with which I began. If you were born in California but moved to Massachusetts in your 20s and lived there the rest of your life should you have to pay state taxes to California until the day you die? If you lived in Denver at one time and then moved to Atlanta should you have to keep paying municipal taxes to Denver for the rest of your life? Your answer to both questions, I’m sure, would be a resounding, “No! That’s ridiculous!” Of course it’s ridiculous and so is having to pay taxes to a country in which you no longer live. Continue reading →

Continued from Part II

Who Does FATCA Affect?

The short answer is: just about everybody. At the top of the list are those who carry U.S. indicia and who live outside of the United States. In Canada these are estimated to represent approximately 3% of the Canadian population. Add to that their spouses and family members with whom they share accounts and a much larger figure is indicated (perhaps, as has been suggested by some, as great as 12%.) Publicity about FATCA has served to educate not only “overseas US Persons” about CBT (citizenship-based taxation) and FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report) but also those who employ them or otherwise associate with them. US Persons are being asked to vacate positions with signing authority. Some couples are reconsidering marriage plans and getting divorced due to the understandable unwillingness of non-US spouses to have their personal and financial information shared with the government of a foreign country. Banks, particularly in Europe, are refusing services, including such basics as mortgage renewals, to “US Person” customers. The list of abuses is lengthy and I refer you to the reference links that I provide in Part IV. Continue reading →

Continued from Part I

The Crash of 2008 and the 2010 Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act

In 2008 the world endured the most disastrous economic event since the great depression. It was largely caused by foolish banking practices (subprime mortgage lending resulting in the collapse of the real estate market, etc.) in the United States. At the same time America had an influx of veterans returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan and many were ending up unemployed and homeless. In response to this crisis, in 2010 President Obama signed into law the “Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act” which, on its surface, appeared to be a necessary and humanitarian piece of legislation. However, within its pages, and largely unnoticed, unread or ill-considered by Congress, was a section relating to the matter of how the provisions of HIRE were going to be paid for. This section was, and is, called:

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)

FATCA was inspired by the US government’s “takedown” of the Swiss bank “UBS” and was supposed to enable the US government to recoup money it was losing to overseas tax havens. However, in addition to catching big fish living in the US who have actually hidden money offshore, by virtue of CBT (citizenship-based taxation) it has trawled in all “Americans” of every ilk who are just normal, middle class folk living their lives in countries outside the United States. Continue reading →

I am a US-born Canadian citizen who is personally impacted by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a US law that was passed in 2010. The Canadian perspective will dominate this article but the reader should be aware that FATCA affects the entire world. The full brunt of this ill-considered addition to the US tax code falls heavily upon people who live outside the United States. For this reason I ask the reader to take a few moments to stand in the shoes of a person who is associated with the United States, in my case through citizenship conferred by birth, and whose life has taken her to live elsewhere.

Canada, like the United States, is a land of immigrants. From diverse backgrounds we have come together here in North America and made our lives, having contributed to and benefited from our wonderful countries in a myriad of ways.

Like Americans, many Canadians have maintained family ties with the lands of their heritage and many have made visits to their ancestral homelands. We have probably never questioned our right to return providing we did not immigrate from countries with despotic or totalitarian governments. Within our countries we take for granted our right and ability to move freely from one state or province to another.

Now, imagine for a moment that you were born in Pennsylvania and moved as a young child to Illinois. You grew up in Illinois, prospered there, raised a family and retired there. Then one day over the dregs of your morning coffee your eye is riveted on a small headline in the back pages of the newspaper that says “Native Pennsylvanians in Illinois Beware of Little-Known Tax Law”. To your horror you read that everyone born in Pennsylvania, even if they haven’t lived there for decades must file Pennsylvania tax returns and “out-of-state bank account reports” annually for life. The penalties for not doing so are draconian and could include jail time unless you enter a special “amnesty program” which would reduce the “failure-to-file” penalties from 50% to 27.5% of your assets and allow you to skip your stay as a “guest” of the state.

It sounds like a bad plot for a novel yet today this ridiculous domestic scenario is actually playing out on the international stage for people who are unfortunate enough to hail from one particular nation. Sadly, that nation is the United States of America.

The following will help to explain what is happening and why the issue so desperately needs the serious attention of everyone.

Citizenship-Based Taxation (CBT)

To understand the origins of our current situation we need to explore the concept of “citizenship-based taxation” (CBT). Continue reading →

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UPDATE December 23, 2017: Please see the following post for the latest information: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2017/12/15/un-human-rights-complaint-quadruples-its-signatures/

UPDATE November 28, 2017:

Also, see MuzzledNoMore’s updated post, United Nations Human Rights Complaint: Seeking Advice and Additional Signatures

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UPDATE November 23, 2017:

UN Complaint Final July 29 2014 – updated links November 23 2017

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UPDATE JANUARY 10, 2017:

From MuzzledNoMore:

Just letting everybody know that we’re still waiting to hear from the UN about the status of our Complaint. With any luck we’ll have the matter taken care of within the next few months by the new Republican administration in Washington. Who knows? Maybe the UN is watching and waiting to see what happens as well. In any regard, the UN has informed us that it can take up to three years for a Complaint to reach the stage at which it will be considered or rejected.

If a “domestic” solution is possible, there will be no need for the UN to address the issue. When we filed the Complaint nearly two and a half years ago we could never have believed that repealing FATCA and switching to residence-based taxation would have made it to the 2016 Republican Party Platform. Now it remains to be seen if the party will follow through with its promises.

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UPDATE MAY 21, 2015:

Today we received official confirmation from the United Nations Human Rights Council that our Complaint has been received and is in the queue pending approval (or not) for admittance into one of the Working Groups. The next session of the Working Group on Communications is scheduled from 17 to 21 August 2015. Further information will be shared with us after that date.

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UPDATE NOVEMBER 6, 2014:

From MuzzledNoMore:

We have finally received confirmation that our Human Rights Complaint against the United States has been received by the United Nations. This is great news! But let’s not pop champagne corks just yet. There is no indication that the Complaint has been read or considered for acceptance into the complaints process in any way. That is all yet to come. But we have made a huge step forward! That deserves a few cheers all round … even without the bubbly!

UPDATE OCTOBER 27, 2014:

Permission has been given a university researcher to access to our UN Human Rights Complaint to analyze ethical assumptions on FATCA. That access will be used for academic purposes, content not to be released (as the UN has not yet acknowledged receipt of this UN Human Rights Complaint).

We view as a significant step that this document will be studied for moral dimensions and ethics. We continue to anticipate the time we will be able to publicly release contents of the Complaint, likely AFTER the next scheduled meeting to review such complaints, sometime in April 2015.

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UPDATE SEPTEMBER 10, 2014:

“JC” commented, and he’s right:

Whenever that text for the human rights complaint comes out that, I believe, will be a big help at raising awareness.

The text of the Human Rights Complaint will be published when we know the UN has received and considered it. There has been no confirmation that our submission was considered for the meeting in August (…our submission was sent just before the August meeting so, just by number of other submissions received before ours, our Human Rights Complaint may not have been considered in the time allotted). It looks like the next UN meeting to consider Human Rights Complaints is scheduled for April of 2015 — that Committee meets twice a year.

In the meantime, our fundraising must be pinned to its stand-alone legal claim and importance which absolutely addresses our human rights issues.

Donate Now: http://adcs-adsc.ca/

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August 7, 2014 UPDATE:

The Human Rights Complaint has been submitted. Thank you to those who worked on the document and made this happen. A very special thank you to all who came forward to put your names on this important document. We had a total of 41 signers, representing the countries of Canada, Germany, Japan, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Estonia, Switzerland and Belgium.

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August 5, 2014 UPDATE:

Note: there is a confidentiality clause in the document that your name / nationality / country be kept confidential. My name and address will be the only one that might not be confidential. I wanted to share with you two notes waiting for me this morning:

Hi Carol,

I am very disappointed that more people did not come forward and sign this document, I do not understand why people are afraid to speak up for what they believe. People are so afraid of the bully acts of the USA, We must stand together, I am asking all people that the US government deem US citizens to step forward and stand up against the US and the Harper government for allowing FATCA into the Canadian banking system.

I am not on facebook or twitter. I give you permission to post this.

Disappointed
XXX

Hi Carol,

I am surprised that so few people have signed. This makes me uneasy. People must be frightened. Do you expect repercussions against the signers? At the moment I don’t have the strength to deal with any more troubles. Would you please put a hold on my name until I can evaluate your assessment of possible repercussions.
Thank you,
YYYY

I answered YYYY:

Absolutely. I can take your name off the list of signers if you are not comfortable with that — you must be OK with your decision. We will probably be sending the Complaint on Thursday, August 7th .

No, we don’t expect any repercussions against any of the signers. We will ask for confidentiality in one of the clauses.

As with everything else of this with this (persons on blogs, getting together for protest, etc.), people are afraid to step forward. The US weapon toward its people always is FEAR. That is what we see here. That is our biggest obstacle and what may defeat us in the end.

Dr. Stephen Kish, Chair of the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty signs his name on behalf of the millions of *US Persons* Abroad who are afraid to sign.

Thanks, YYYY.

FEAR: the most effective tool the USA has at its disposal is at work in all we see regarding US Persons Abroad coming forward in unison to fight the good fight. If anything defeats us, it will be our FEAR.

As you all know, I fear too for my son’s name to be out there as it is my duty as a parent to protect his best interests. Because of my own fear, I went through all the complex back US tax filings through use of professionals in the US compliance industry. That was my choice as I could absolutely not do it myself and I so wanted this behind me, to stop the leak of my hard-earned retirement funds to be passed to the US IRS. I’m still in this game. I replied to a commenter at Isaac Brock yesterday and Stephen Kish picked part of what I said to update the ADCS-ADSC Charter Challenge post yesterday:

UPDATE August 5, 2014 (http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/06/01/its-time/)

Carol, an ADCS-ADSC Board Director, explains why she donated to this lawsuit:

The purpose of the lawsuit, to me, is to stop the obscene injustice of all of this, regain rights waived by the Canadian government’s implementation of the US FATCA IGA, thereby putting the financial institutions before individuals and families who are being criminalized!

I’m in for that just as I’m on this blog, hoping people learn from all of the stupid mistakes I made along the way — I don’t want others to make those same mistakes.

It’s about people getting their lives back, along with their dignity and their mental and physical health and to stop the the handing over to the US a good portion of what they’ve saved for their retirements.

It is about wanting Canada to remain a sovereign country, not taken over by the USA. It’s about what I think is right and not wanting to silently stand by and let this happen. It’s because I believe in free speech and don’t want to be shamed into not speaking out, at this point especially for other families who have a family member with some developmental disability or some other ‘mental incapacity’.

My update for now and my regards to all,

August 2, 2014 UPDATE:

Thank you very much for everyone who has corresponded to me at calgaryfouroneone@gmail.com to request the password and give permission for your signatures to be added. Your supportive emails are wonderful.

He is what we have for signers to the Human Rights Document:

18 – Canada
2 – UK
1 – Australia
1 – Belgium (US/Dutch Citizen)
1 – Denmark
1 – Germany
1 – Japan
1 – Switzerland

Note that one of the Canadian signers is Dr. Stephen Kish (Canadian, US)–signing personally, and on behalf of the “Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty” Board of Directors, and the millions of U.S. persons living abroad who are too frightened to sign this document.

Also waiting to hear back from 4 in Canada (one from Quebec) and one from New Zealand.
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July 30, 2014 UPDATE:

Here is the FINAL Human Rights Complaint, available to those that are considering signing. To access the password for this document, contact and request from calgaryfouroneone@gmail.com.

Each person sending a request will receive a copy from calgary411 “in Confidence” with the CLEAR understanding that it is NOT to be published. For anyone who wants to have another person read/sign the document, that other person also needs to obtain it through the Isaac Brock Society or Maple Sandbox channels. Signatures will only be accepted from those who have gotten the document through calgary411. This stipulation is necessary to keep some lid on the proliferation of this information.

We will announce when we know the timing for the agency committee looking at this document for review. We will update on this post any feedback from the agency as it is received.

This document is the collaboration of contributors to both blogs and took over a month to write, discuss and edit in consensus with a group of 15 who have vetted and approved it in its entirety. It stands as presented to them. Bloggers can have their say but there will be no further changes to the document. It is what the agency says that matters.

Sign if you are in agreement and can do so by providing to calgaryfouroneone@gmail.com your name and your nationality and/or country of residence. The Human Rights Complaint will be submitted electronically. Submitters’ names and nationalities will be typed onto the lines provided on page 1. No physical signature is required.

If you are not comfortable with the document, you do not have to sign.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.

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Two dedicated individuals who participate at both the Isaac Brock Society and the Maple Sandbox blogs have prepared a comprehensive Human Rights Complaint that will be submitted on behalf of all *US Persons Abroad* the world over.  Others offered suggestions on how that information should best be presented in the constraint of number of pages allowed for the Complaint.  We appreciate the legal eye and suggestions for going forward with this Complaint from Professor Allison Christians.

The document now complete, I have been asked to post an announcement on their behalf. Unfortunately, because of their personal situations, they cannot lend their names to the document and this will be the end of Phase I, produced for all of us, with their great care.

I so appreciate the incredible work that has gone into this on behalf of all of us.  Here is what they say:

A group of writers from the Isaac Brock Society and Maple Sandbox blogs has prepared a document that challenges citizenship-based taxation (CBT) as a violation of internationally recognized human rights. This document will be submitted as a formal complaint to a major international human rights organization within the next ten days.

Any readers who would like to support this effort by “co-signing” (having their names added to the list of those filing the complaint) should so indicate by sending an email to: calgaryfouroneone@gmail.com. 

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The Canadian writers of the complaint hope to make this a truly international effort. Bloggers from all over the world are welcome to lend their names to this historic document.  Signers do not have to be US Persons.

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Signers should feel comfortable with using their own names (pseudonyms are unacceptable in this instance) and should provide their nationality and/or country of residence as well.

Client Invitation

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