Michael Lewis at the Toronto Star covers the Saverin story and quotes me from an Isaac Brock Society comment.
See, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s taxing connection to U.S.-Canadian dual citizens
Lewis also cites Nina Olson (emphasis mine),
U.S. National Taxpayer watchdog Nina Olson in a public letter warned that the IRS is driving “benign actors” underground with draconian penalties and a byzantine international tax reporting regime.
Enjoli Saverin has covered Eduardo Saverin’s expatriation, and in the process, has given the Isaac Brock Society the spotlight.
Facebook’s Eduardo Saverin Joins Americans Renouncing Citizenship
The Isaac Brock Society has received numerous spam messages of this variety in our comment stream:
Rita Jaffey: By June 30th I have to make a decision about the FBAR. Still trying to figure out what the best choice is.
Jeneva Benafield: I’m waiting until June 30th to come up with an FBAR decision. Maybe I’ll just stay an ex-pat.
Priscilla Outhouse: I’m waiting until June 30th to make an FBAR decision. Maybe I’ll just stay an ex-pat.
The website for these messages is www.irsmedic.com. We invite the owner of this domain to come here and explain, if possible, why these “people” (eight different messages by eight different names, but only five unique IP addresses), who have sent these messages, would do this. I suspect it is an attempt to drum up business here at the Isaac Brock Society. Caveat emptor.
Barrie McKenna reports about the negotiations between Washington and Ottawa to “temper” FATCA’s requirements, through a government to government sharing arrangement. Barrie called me yesterday looking for a reaction. I hope the quote is pleasing to everyone:
“The idea that any of our financial information would be given to the IRS is an abomination,” said Mr. Dunn, 48, who is in the process of giving up his U.S. citizenship and filing back taxes to end his obligations to the IRS.
My understanding is that the last date for filing Form 8854 for a 2011 expatriation is June 15, the due date, because of the automatic extension for the tax filing for a person resident outside the United States. After that date, a person could be subject to warnings or even a $10,000 non-filing fine. So be it.
Snowbirds may become an extinct species, at least within the borders of the United States. Few outsiders know this but Canadians live in igloos year round. Snowbirds are Canadians who seek warmer climate, especially during their retirement years. They have been a significant boon to the real estate markets in Southern states, especially Florida, but one should not forget places like my Dad’s trailer park in San Benito where numerous Winter Texans can play year-round golf and outdoor tennis. Mostly, they spend their enormous retirement wealth that it took many years working in Canada to earn. Expect the snowbirds to start flying further south, to places like Cayman Islands, Mexico, or Costa Rica, anywhere outside the reach of the IRS taxman.
Editors Note: Al Lewis has now written an excellent article telling the our side of the story. Thanks, Al (and welcome to the Isaac Brock Hall of Fame!).
Al Lewis tries to shame former Americans in this hit piece at marketwatch.com a subsidiary of the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps you should have spoke with at least one person who ever renounced his or her citizenship. Shame on YOU, Mr. Lewis and shame on your editor for allowing you to publish. That just makes you a bigot with a platform. It is to the shame of the brain-dead media that such pieces of journalistic refuse can even see the light of day. Please, next time you want to write a screed that punishes a class of people for their actions, do your homework, like the young, promising Reuter’s journalist, Atossa Abrahamian, who actually spoke with numerous people who had renounced or were planning to renounce their citizenship.
The phone rang this morning. For a few minutes, my actual phone number was on the blog, by mistake, and one very quick reader, Dianne, phone me from Winterpeg. Not long ago, she learned that the United States still considers her to be an American, even though she hasn’t believed herself to be American since the age of 18. So I asked her to write up her story so that the Isaac Brock Society could help her sort out this issue. Here it is: Continue reading
Fox news reports that the EPA’s Al Armendariz, after coming under scrutiny for a comment that he made in 2010:
Armendariz made the original remarks at a local Texas government meeting in 2010. He relayed to the audience what he described as a “crude” analogy he once told his staff about his “philosophy of enforcement.” Continue reading
I am making what you could call a “noisy” non-disclosure. I have stated that I do not plan to file FBAR. I am no criminal, but because I’ve not done FBARs in the past, and I plan never to file one, actually filing an FBAR creates a substantial hazard because of its criminal penalties. This is the fatal flaw in the FBAR requirement. If there were only draconian civil penalties, no one could invoke the Fifth Amendment in refusing to file it.
