Author Archives: pacifica777

Dr. Karen Alpert of the University of Queensland will be presenting this paper at a conference of Melbourne next week:

Investing with One Hand Tied Behind Your Back – an Australian Perspective on United States Tax Rules for Non-Resident Citizens

The paper is based on her posts on investment constraints at the Fix The Tax Treaty Blog, but much more technical (I still found it very readable and useful as a layperson).  It deals with both issues specific to Australia, such as superannuation, and issues affecting all US persons residing outside the US regardless of country.  Karen is the founder of Australia’s FixTheTaxTreaty and a frequent commenter here at Brock.

The suggestion, by Badger and Nononymous, for this new thread came from a comment by Elizabeth, which I’ve excerpted here and can be found in its entirety at this link followed by several comments in reply.

Please share your information and experience regarding estate matters for former US citizens both in reply to Elizabeth’s question and/or in a broader sense, and ask your own questions about these matters on this thread.

 Elizabeth wrote:  . . . My father, who was born in the USA and moved to Canada in [the 1980s], passed away recently. A little background… after moving here he was under the impression that he didn’t need to file taxes in the US if he properly filed in Canada . . .  He relinquished his US citizenship in [the 1990s] by taking the citizenship oath in Canada, along with the rest of our family. He never lived as an American after that, never renewed his US passport, never lived there. He did collect Social Security from the years he did work there, but that was it.   His accountants want me to file US taxes for his estate, but I don’t think I need to as he was not a US citizen anymore.

Thanks to Helen who has written this post on Re-instating US Citizenship after Renunciation.  It’s a topic that doesn’t have a lot of coverage, and your knowledge and thoughts will be appreciated.

*****

I was granted my CLN in Sept 2014, the last day before the price increase from $495 to $2350.

I need to try to re-instate my US citizenship due to schooling needs of my son, as I am not finding adequate provision for his special needs in my resident country overseas and would like to return to the US for him. He is a US citizen.

The CLN is a 2 sided document.  On page 2, the back side covers Appeal Continue reading →

We’ll be getting together for lunch Saturday, 18 November, at 2:00 pm at Montana’s BBQ Restaurant, 1750 Ogilvie Road, Ottawa.  Plenty of free parking on site, also accessible by city bus.

We’re currently expecting 10 people — hope you can come, too!   Please rsvp by posting a comment here or e-mail me at pacifica at isaacbrocksociety dot ca

Coming from Montréal?  A Montréal Brocker would appreciate a ride. I can put you in touch by e-mail

Thanks to JC for finding this information and for the text of this post, which he posted as a comment on the Media thread this evening:

Hatch Calls for Feedback on Tax Reform

The Senate Finance Committee is yet again asking the general public to send comments on tax reform. The deadline is July 17, and the email address is taxreform2017@finance.senate.gov.

https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/hatch-calls-for-feedback-on-tax-reform

Maybe I’ll just dust off my previous submissions to the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. Maybe ADCS should send them the fine multipart/multimedia submission sent previously to the Senate Finance Committee international work group on tax reform.

They claim that these submissions will be private. I don’t mind to have a submission placed on a website somewhere.

They don’t have a specific category that fits our case. #4 talks about international and competitiveness yet also has the words “preserve our tax base.”

I don’t see a “simplification” category, or a “fairer” category.

If we send submissions in perhaps they will be categorized under the 4 categories provided. Instead of getting drowned out in the individual person tax category, as I imagine there will be a vast majority from Homelanders in this category, maybe best to angle it as international, category #4.

Already a month has passed since this request. The 17th is this coming Monday.

Perhaps this call for submissions has not been broadcast widely. That would mean something less than a mountain of submissions, so more opportunity to impact.

Barbara posted the following, which she found posted by Heitor David Pinto on the American Expats FB site, as a comment on the general Lobby the New US Government thread.   I’m creating a new post for this as it’s particularly important to contact the House Ways and Means Committee right away!

“Congressman George Holding (R-NC13), member of the Ways and Means Committee, supports residence-based taxation and is trying to include it within the upcoming tax reform. Other members of the committee also agree with the idea in general, but are just not motivated to spend the time to study the subject and write a bill. I received this information from the congressman’s assistant.

It would be helpful if many people contacted the other members of the committee to show them the importance of the subject. I suggest giving personal examples of the problems and mentioning the solution (residence-based taxation). I know that many of you have already done this multiple times, but now there is someone supportive within the committee, apparently for the first time ever. For efficiency, I recommend contacting directly the assistants specifically assigned to taxes. The link below is a list with their names and email addresses (it will change slightly later this month). Thank you for your help

Contact list here as Google spreadsheet:
Current Finance Committee and Ways & Means Committee contact list “

Continue reading →

We’ll be getting together for lunch Saturday, 12 November, at 2:00 pm at Montana’s BBQ Restaurant, 1750 Ogilvie Road, Ottawa.   Plenty of free parking on site, also accessible by city bus.

We’re currently expecting 10 people — hope you can come, too!   Please rsvp by posting a comment here or e-mail me at pacifica at isaacbrocksociety dot ca

Karen is organising a group to take anti-FATCA/CBT action in Australia and has launched the website Let’s Fix the Australia US Tax Treaty!

The mission of Let’s Fix the Australia/US Tax Treaty! is to press for amendments to the Australia/US Tax Treaty and the FATCA IGA to eliminate discrimination against a subclass of Australian citizens that is also disadvantageous to all Australians. We plan to gather the voices of those impacted, including Australian-only family members, and highlight the obligation of the Australian Government to defend its sovereignty and protect Australians against US extraterritorial law.

The purpose of Let’s Fix the Australia/US Tax Treaty! is twofold:

First, to encourage affected Australians to write to their elected representatives to lobby for change on the Australian side of this equation. Australia has signed two agreements with the US that allow this to continue: the Double Tax Agreement (Tax Treaty) and the FATCA IGA. The Tax Treaty was last amended in 2001 and does not provide for US recognition of the tax-advantaged status of superannuation. There are other portions of the treaty that guarantee the double taxation of dual citizens resident in Australia. Our Australian government must put pressure on the US to come to the table an re-negotiate the Tax Treaty.

Second, to serve as an educational resource for both the affected dual citizens trying to understand how the Tax Treaty affects them AND to help educate our elected representatives on the problems caused by Australia’s capitulation to one-sided US demands.

The Australians have been very active and this is a great new development.

Regarding this new website, JC commented on another thread:

In Australia we are out to make some “noise.” On the Day Roy Berg presents to the Tax Institute of Australia seminar on superannuation, on US taxation and Australian Superannuation, a new website aimed at the injustices has been launched:

Best wishes for making lots of “noise” and effecting much needed change!

Let’s Fix the Australia US Tax Treaty!

There’s a lot of hurry-up-and-wait in litigation. The legal team does work (a lot!) during the less visible periods of a case, but there’s not much news at such times. We’re in one of those periods now.  So, thanks very much, Ginny, for this comment that you made last night (and thanks to Canoe for suggesting we make a separate post of it):

“Hello friends and supporters.   I am just popping in again, while you carry on with your discussions about whomever will end up POTUS at the end of the day or whatever topics get your blood pressure pumped, to remind you that:

The Three Amigo Plaintiffs and the diligent ADCS committee members are still working every day in the background on (y)our litigation. We have never lost our focus nor have our great lawyers.

For those of you who are still keeping the faith with us, thank you. Because during these months leading up to the upcoming US election, we are concentrating on what needs to be done at our end to get it done here in Canada!

We appreciate how patient you have been waiting for updates while we press on preparing on your behalf. Don’t ever think we have forgotten you because you are our motivation and raison d’être.

Now back to your regular channel.

As always, best to you all.”
Ginny