Author Archives: Jefferson D. Tomas

About Senate Bill 1813 (passport confiscation), I’m not sure if anybody brought this up before on Isaac:

Wouldn’t the IRS be better off pursuing domestic tax-refund fraud such as discussed in this video rather than harrassing people who don’t live in the US?

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2012/04/18/tax-refund-robbery-2.cnn?iref=allsearch

http://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/3916656-la-justice-suisse-affaiblit-l-accord-d-entraide-fiscale-avec-les-etats-unis.html$

The court said that mere tax evasion (not fraud) was not a reason for Switzerland to provide information to the IRS.

“Et le tribunal maintient que le fait de ne pas déclarer un compte ne constitue pas une fraude.” (The court maintains that not declaring an account does not constitute a fraud).

This is excellent news, I just hope that parliament doesn’t screw it up.

Here is the New Zurich Newspaper article on the same decision.  It goes into more specific details.  I don’t have time to do a manual translation from German so you’ll have to try Mr. Google. http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/wirtschaft/aktuell/amtshilfe-gestoppt_1.16381062.html

Also, here is the Bloomberg coverage for the same (in English): http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-11/swiss-court-rejects-disclosure-of-credit-suisse-client-s-data

At first reading, I think that this would seem to affect only the wealthy French that establish domicile in Switzerland for tax purposes:

http://www.rts.ch/info/monde/3850570-le-candidat-nicolas-sarkozy-propose-un-impot-lie-a-la-nationalite.html

Nonetheless, I would encourage a dialogue here on IBS about the implications.

What would happen if all countries tax their citizens abroad to death?   How can we grow wealth in society on both macro and micro scales with all of these punitive regulations?  How do we discern between “tax expatriates” and bone fide residents of a country that want to and deserve to pay only the taxes in their country of residence on the income and property they have/receive in such country of residence, without undue influence of their country(-ies) of nationality?

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Again, for those francophones amoung our readership, here is an interesting article.   http://www.lematin.ch/suisse/Des-Suisses-de-l-etranger-sont-discrimines-par-les-banques/story/12732075 

Translation of the byline:  The Council of Swiss Citizens Abroad is preparing a resolution to denounce certain Swiss banking practices.  The text, which shall be submitted this Saturday to a vote of the Council’s 140 delegates, asks that Swiss Citizens domiciled outside of Switzerland (approximately 700,000 people) are treated in the same way as other Swiss persons by Swiss bank establishements.

The Q&A goes on to discuss Swiss banks who have refused to open accounts for, or closed the accounts of, persons living in the US, and mentions that there is cross-contamination of the problem to Swiss living in non-US jurisdictions.

“Le Conseil des Suisses de l’étranger prépare une résolution pour dénoncer certaines pratiques bancaires helvétiques. Le texte, qui sera soumis ce samedi au vote des 140 délégués, demande que les citoyens établis hors de nos frontières (quelque 700000 personnes) bénéficient du même traitement que les autres Suisses dans les établissements du pays.”

I hope that they don’t fear us at Isaac Brock Society and put us in a parallel category with the “Sovereign Citizen” and “Freeman” movements because the only thing we want is to pay our taxes in, and only in, the countries where we live.  We don’t claim to be immune from the law (our local laws in the countries where we live apply to us) we just claim that US jurisdiction does not apply to us abroad!  Most of us live in sovereign nations that are independant from the US.

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I found this Financial Times article about the Swiss parliamentary vote, you will have to register for free at Financial Times to retreive it (8 articles per day for free or something like that [Editor’s Note:  Try this link instead, routed through Google news]).   Financial Times : Swiss parliament backs tax amendment   The article seems to twist the whole affair around and as far as I am concerned it is negative press for us.

Here is a link to my original rant on the parliamentary vote

When you hear these Hollywood folks (many probably more wealthy than the vast majority of IBS participants) pronounce the words, what do you hear about our current situation as minnows abroad?  I find that there are quite a few scary parallels. I’m not sure how to interpret the “Indian Savages” passage, as I am one.  I could spend hours expounding upon the parallels.  I let you help me because I’ve got other work to do and don’t want to be a one-man show.

Swiss Paliament Accepts Taxation Treaty with the USA (French) ….(English)

Today is 6 March 2012, the morning after a very tragic day for Switzerland, and democracy all over the world.  The Swiss parliament has agreed yesterday to cede yet more of our sovereignty to the US, in violation of its duties under Article 2 of the Constitution “The Swiss Confederation shall protect the liberty and rights of the people and safeguard the independence and security of the country.” Alongside the abstentions of some, the only party that adamantly opposed this was the Swiss People’s Party (“UDC”, the largest party) but that wasn’t enough.

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