Author Archives: Victoria

I have not written much in the past week or so and that was deliberate on my part. I decided to spend more time listening and reading and less on talking and writing. When I first came to Isaac Brock I was hopping mad and ready to fight. I’m still not particularly happy about the situation we all find ourselves in right now but, with a little distance, my thoughts are becoming much clearer. Just for the hell of it and because I know there are people out there thinking this through as well, I thought I’d share how my thoughts have evolved over the last month or so.

I’ve never hidden the fact that I wanted to stay a U.S. citizen and when I came in here renouncing or relinquishing was not at all an option I was ready to consider. So, why am I considering it now? There are two dimensions to this decision – let’s call them “push” and “pull.” Let’s start with the “pull”.

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I posted this a couple of days ago on the Flophouse blog after reading a few too many comments about “evil tax evaders living it up on the Riviera” and then promptly moved on to other things. It was then shared on Reddit by a fellow blogger here in France, Overseas Exile (good blog, great guy and he writes about FATCA) and it caused a mild stir. Some of the comments were quite encouraging. Others were less so. So, here it is. Just my experience. Curtis stopped by and explained why he shared it on Reddit, “I really appreciated your original post because honestly, most folks really don’t know what it’s like to be outside the US. In fact, I suspect that many Americans would be surprised to find out that we get up, go to work, go home, eat dinner and go to bed just like they do — we just do it in a different country.”

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I found this site the other day and I thought it was very interesting. We know that the American Diaspora stands at about 6 million right now but what will it look like in the future?

This fellow and his organization (Americawave) think it will grow. He’s done some interesting studies with MPI (Migration Policy Institute). Here are some of his results: Relocation Statistics. He also produced this video that he posted on Youtube:

On his site there is also an article he wrote for Barron’s entitled The Great Escape. It’s less about sheer numbers and more about the kind of person who is considering relocating: young, educated, just starting a career, the adventurers and entrepreneurial types.

I had an email exchange with him and asked him about the impact of citizenship-based taxation on this group of potential migrants and he replied that he didn’t think anything was going to stop these young folks from heading out into the world. I think he’s absolutely right. 🙂

This is a post I wrote this morning and put up on the Flophouse. I know that most of you already know all this but I wanted to gather together the links and publish an argument for why FATCA concerns everyone, not just U.S. Citizens or Green Card Holders abroad. It may be obvious to us but not everyone understands what this law will mean for them. I’m still getting way too many people telling me that FATCA is justified to catch those “evil tax evaders” or that it isn’t their problem because they are not Americans (are you sure about that, folks?) This is my answer.
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The headline says it all and I thought it was so charming that I had to share it with you. This article was published earlier this month in the Luxembourg publication Paperjam.lu and it begins with this comment:

En 2009, on célébrait l’investiture de Barack Obama. Aujourd’hui, la Place espère ne pas subir la loi des États-Unis. (In 2009 we celebrated the investiture of Barack Obama. Today la Place is hoping it will not have to submit to American law.)

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I think Spartacus is right and our options to get justice through the American political process are very limited. Our representation is simply too diluted to make much of a difference. The U.S. courts are probably no use – my understanding is that citizen-based taxation has already been challenged and upheld.

That leaves the political processes and courts of other states. I won’t hide from anyone that I am counting on Canada to a great extent for short-term relief. Not only does Canada have a large number of American expats and duals, Americans perceive Canada as “not so foreign.” They can relate to you in a way that they can’t relate to those of us who live in Rio or London or Paris.

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This is a post that I wrote a few months ago for the Flophouse but never published. I guess I was feeling pretty desperate at the time and figured no one was listening so I put it aside. Given some of the comments I’ve read recently at U.S. and Canadian media websites, I decided to go ahead and post it at Isaac Brock. I know the folks here already know all this but the folks at home are still confused about who we are and just what the heck we are doing “over there.”. This is my experience based on living in both France and Japan.

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nobledreamer posted a very nice link to another site that showed the results of a recent poll. Over 56% of U.S. citizens, when asked what they were going to do in response to the 2012 Diaspora Tax Wars, replied, “Nothing, how will they find me?” That is pretty consistent with my informal queries to my friends and family in my host country. My answer to this is, “Oh, my fellow Americans, let me count the ways.”

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A friend of mine runs a wonderful mailing list called “Citation du jour” (Quotation of the day). He gathers good quotations from French and English-speaking sources, translates them and sends them out once a day to anyone who is interested. Today’s quotation was:

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

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I don’t know about any of you but when I first heard about FATCA and IRS enforcement efforts against Americans abroad, my first reaction was to think that they were simply blissfully unaware of the consequences. Never attribute malevolence, I thought, to what can easily be explained by ignorance.

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