Brockers Making News

47 thoughts on “Brockers Making News”

1. Nice one @Bubblebustin – will flag the issue for those who have no clue about US extraterritorial taxation – or even that people ARE BORN WITH BOTH US AND NON-US citizenship all the time, and have family and totally legitimate lives outside the US. A novel concept for many apparently. Putting it in translation for the American context and pointing out the loss to the US – of freedom of movement, of loss of opportunity, etc. helps the homelanders understand.

2. Thanks, all. It’s amazing what a few editorial tweaks can do to the quality of any written piece. I just had to write something in support of Eric Hooper’s LTE. He’s the airline pilot who lives abroad but is taxed as a US resident when he flies over international waters. I wish I could obtain the PDF of his letter, but all I have is a photocopy of the letter posted on Facebook. Jefferson tried to post it here, but the link isn’t working:

   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments-part-3-of-3/comment-page-43/#comment-7364152

   @Calgary411

   I just emailed you the Eric Hooper article as a photo. If there’s some way you could post it here and on the media thread in reference to Jefferson’s post, that would be great.

3. Thanks, bubblebustin. Here is the Eric Hooper / Pilot US-taxed when flying over international water .jpg file and I will also put it into the media thread in reference to Jefferson’s post. Click on image to enlarge a little for easier reading.

   

4. TY, C411!

5. Here’s my editorial in my local paper published today. I wish I’d had the final edit (the editor had to shorten it significantly), but I hope it does the trick – that is have people consider offering themselves a witnesses for the lawsuit.

   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments-part-3-of-3/comment-page-52/#comment-7465475

6. Bravo to you @Bubblebustin for your editorial. Lately I am often saying that belatedly, but am still skimming backwards in order to keep up and keep caught up with things here. And thank you and those below for the latest victories in getting publications of letters highlighting the lawsuit and alerting potential witnesses, including this one I just saw;

   Letter to the editor, April 22, 2016
   Thursday, April 21, 2016 5:15:05 EDT PM
   ‘Seeking U.S. and dual citizens’

   “Trudeau’s Liberals have spent much of their short time in power undoing legislation passed by the previous government.

   Salient amongst these are laws that effectively divided this country’s population into various classes of citizens, ranging from Harper’s “old-stock” right down to those who could readily be deported and relieved of their passport. It is a great pity the items on the house-cleaning list have not included the “enhanced” tax agreement with the United States that has effectively reduced Canadians deemed to be also “U.S. persons” to the status of second-class citizens.”…………..
   Mary Blackhill
   Laura Mestelman
   Laura Wilson

   http://www.standard-freeholder.com/2016/04/21/letter-to-the-editor-april-22-2016

   Bravo people!

   Surgite!

7. Three cheers for our intrepid trio of outstanding writers, working persistently for the cause. Thank you all!

8. You’re welcome, Badger. It’s been a week now and a new edition of my local paper’s come out where no one’s responded to or refuted what I wrote last week.

   Very nice work, Mary and the two Laura’s. Kudo’s!

9. @ Badger
   Thanks so much for letting us know that our article/letter to the editor was published in Cornwall, Ontario. Let’s hope some of the other 150 border town news services we wrote to will be similarly interested and kind. I have sent these editors a thank you note and asked if they could encourage others in the Sun Media Community Newspaper group (along the border) also to post the article.

10. — and thanks to the intrepid trio for mentioning in the letter that we seek more witnesses.

11. https://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/is-this-canadian-baby-an-american-tax-cheat/
    Lynne’s article about Baby Elle, now in Tax Connections.

12. Lynne quoted here;
    ‘CRA shared information on smaller bank accounts with IRS
    Contrary to FATCA, accounts under $50,000 have been disclosed’
    by Elizabeth Thompson
    Wednesday, June 15th, 2016
    https://ipolitics.ca/2016/06/15/cra-shared-information-on-smaller-bank-accounts-with-irs/

    “..Lynne Swanson, who is part of a group fighting in Federal Court to have the controversial information-sharing deal declared unconstitutional, said she was disappointed by the CRA’s answer that it doesn’t know how many accounts at different levels were shared with the IRS.

    “They know what they reported so they can certainly tell us what they reported in terms of that $50,000 limit.”……….

13. I didn’t see this one listed above. Am posting for archival purposes though it is from 2015.

    This is an article from 2015, but it is a good one, with Stephen quoted and ADCS linked and mentioned from here;
    https://www.ft.com/content/7c45e5e8-d707-11e4-97c3-00144feab7de
    ‘ US expatriates’ taxing questions
    Some of the Americans reviewing their citizenship do so because of complex tax rules’
    April 8, 2015
    Financial Times
    by: Vanessa Houlder

    Interestingly it appears to be still open for comments if you wanted to try and show them that it is still relevant now in 2016. Lots of comments were made when it first appeared.

14. A pre-election perspective on the election from a few US voters on Canada:

    Google translate:

    Americans living in Canada are likely to qualify the presidential campaign between Democrat Hillary Clinton to Republican Donald Trump of “crazy”, the outcome might leave a divided nation.

    “It’s pretty scary that about half of Americans believe in [Donald Trump’s ideas],” said Chris Helcermanas-Benge. The veteran of the US Army 73 years old now lives in Vancouver. He admits to have voted for Hillary Clinton, despite his Republican ideals. “I’ve been a Republican all my life. I’m basically the same as I always was. But since the Bush and Cheney of this world, I turned to the Democratic Party, “he told L’Atelier on the phone.

    “I think many people find this disconcerting campaign,” noted the Vancouverite Iclef Suzanne Herman. A dual US-Canadian citizenship, she said will not identify with any party.

    The reaction is the same side of Sydney Hegland, who left North Dakota to Montreal in 2014. “I think it’s crazy to see us as divided. It’s really weird to see how we can be stingy toward each other, “she lamented.

    Many do not vote

    According to the US Consulate in Montreal, about 40,000 Americans live in the metropolitan area. It was impossible to know the number of US nationals to the rest of Canada.

    “I would have voted for Republicans because of their platform. But I simply can not vote for Trump, “Ms. Iclef Herman said, noting that it will not vote in presidential elections. “I vote when I feel inclined to vote,” she hinted.

    Ms. Hegland do not vote despite his democratic ideals. She has described the campaign by Hillary Clinton as “corrupt”. She said the Democratic candidate is “sold to businesses and large corporations.” She added, however, that she would have voted for Bernie Sanders if he ran as an independent candidate.

    “Terrified”

    Several Americans living in Canada are reluctant to comment on the future of their country in the event that Donald Trump is elected president. They believe instead that it will be Hillary Clinton will win the elections.

    Helcermanas-Benge confessed to being “terrified” at the idea that Donald Trump becomes president, “mainly because the man is a fool, a racist and a criminal. At least he will not build a wall on this side of the border, “he quipped.

    According to Ms. Hegland, it is currently impossible to predict the outcome of this campaign. However, she also believes that the Democratic candidate win. “With Clinton, it will be roughly the same as under Obama. It will be the policy of “no change”. But Trump, who knows what will happen, “she has announced.

    There is no polling station for voters outside the United States. Americans residing in Canada who wanted to vote have done so by controlling their online ballot and by receiving at home. They then returned their choice by mail at the polls of the last US state where they lived.

    https://clintontrumpatelier.wordpress.com/2016/11/08/decourages-plusieurs-americains-au-canada-nont-pas-vote/

15. Stephen Kish quoted here;
    “….Stephen Kish, a member of the group fighting in Canada’s Federal Court to have the banking record sharing deal struck down, said one of the key concerns of those affected by FATCA is the confidentiality of their banking information.

    “The Canadians that I talk to, they are very concerned about the security of the data that travels between the CRA and the IRS,” Kish explained. “They are very worried because they know computers can be hacked, information can be stolen.”….”…….

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/irs-cra-taxation-fatca-1.4083232

    ‘Some Canadian bank record information being sent directly to IRS
    IRS website lists 9,654 ‘financial institutions’ based in Canada and registered with the IRS’

    By Elizabeth Thompson, CBC News Posted: Apr 25, 2017 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 25, 2017 5:27 AM ET

16. Post by John Richardson http://www.citizenshipsolutions.ca/2017/08/07/13-reasons-why-i-committed-citizide-inspired-by-the-television-series-13-reasons-why/ reprinted here;
    https://www.angloinfo.com/blogs/global/us-tax/the-human-side-of-expatriation/

17. Thanks, Badger! Your comment gave me the great idea to compile a bibliography of John’s articles. This will be very useful! I’ve just started it and it can be reached through a link at the top of the main post.

18. Great idea re the bibliography.
    Thanks for all your work @pacifica. Much appreciated always!

19. @ pacifica777
    Excellent. Thanks for doing this.
    If it helps I have some more articles by either Lynne or Lynne/Victoria. Lynne also did 4 articles for The Money Guide in 2013 but they aren’t available anymore (TITLES: Canadian Protection and IRS Tax Penalty Issues; Open Letter to Finance Jim Flaherty on FATCA; Open Letter to President Obama, US Treasury-Secretary Jack Lew, IRS Acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel and Senator Carl Levin; FATCA Protest — Standing up for Canadian Rights and Sovereignty). I wish I’d saved them by copy & paste.

    October 6, 2013 Op Ed News (Lynne & Victoria)
    http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/FATCA-We-Are-Not-Myths-by-Lynne-Swanson-and-Congress_Privacy_Privacy_Privacy-131006-69.html

    October 9, 2013 Tax-News (Lynne & Victoria)
    http://www.tax-news.com/articles/FATCA_Reality_Check__570962.html

    October 25, 2013 Op Ed News (Lynne)
    http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/FATCA-Attack-Around-The-Gl-by-Lynne-Swanson-Banks_Financial_People-131025-839.html

    January 8, 2014 Op Ed News (Lynne)
    http://www.opednews.com/articles/Cruzing-in-Reverse-by-Lynne-Swanson-Taxes-140108-477.html

    February 4, 2014 Ifpress (Lynne)
    http://www.lfpress.com/ur/story/846586
    Title: Is Uncle Sam’s IRS After You?

    July 8, 2014 TaxConnections (Lynne)
    http://taxconnections.com/taxblog/why-does-u-s-congress-and-irs-want-a-canadian-cop/#.U7x6c0DfV8E

20. Thank you, EmBee. Very much appreciated! I’ll add them this evening.

21. Quotes from Brockers in this article found by @Charl and posted on another thread;
    http://www.internationalinvestment.net/products/us-political-parties-overseas-groups-ramp-resi-based-tax-campaign/

    ‘US political parties, other overseas groups ramp up resi-based tax campaign’
    By: Helen Burggraf | 13 Sep 2017

    Also links to previous story by same author with photo of some early Brockers and efforts to educate fellow Canadians;
    http://www.internationalinvestment.net/products/tax/isaac-brock-society-blog-canadian-accidental-americans-becomes-global-info-resource/

22. Brockers, ADCT and ADCS quoted;
    http://www.internationalinvestment.net/products/accidental-americans-france-looking-french-govt-help/