Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

Canada is a Westminster Parliamentary democracy. Historically it has had a constitution (British North America Act) which defined how Canada was to be governed. In simple terms: the Federal Government has the jurisdiction to legislate in some areas (example criminal law). The Provincial Governments have the right to legislate in other areas (property and civil rights). These laws are made by democratically elected legislatures. Prior to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (April 17, 1982), the only limits on the legislative bodies were jurisdictional. Any law could be enacted. It was just a question of whether it was the Federal Government or the Provincial Government that could enact the law.

In 1982 the Charter of Rights became part of Canada’s constitution. The Charter imposed limitations on the powers of elected legislatures. In other words, there were certain areas of activity that were presumptively beyond the reach of legislatures.

The Alliance For The Defence Of Canadian Sovereignty FATCA lawsuit is a Charter of Rights lawsuit against the Government of Canada. Our claim is the Government of Canada does not have the right to enact the legislation which requires banks to (1) Search for customers who are U.S. citizens and (2) then turn their account information over to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. In general terms the arguments are based on the theory that by so doing the Government of Canada has violated Charter Rights which include the:

- S. 15 Equality rights; and
- S. 8 rights against unreasonable search and seizure

of Canadians.

Essentially the court will be asked to rule that the laws enacted by a democratically elected legislative body (the Parliament of Canada) violate the Constitutional rights of Canadians.

In other words: Does a democratically elected legislature prevail or do the rights of individuals prevail?

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Before Obama FATCA and before FBAR, there was Caesar Augustus and the ROMAN Empire–with its capitol far away.

“Now it happened in those days, that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor. All went to enroll themselves….”

And so it was….an ancient FATCA. The capital of the government was far away….however each of the lands was governed by some puppet of Rome. The subjects had no benefit of census or taxation—-they were only subject to both.

From those times of oppression, was there a great birth which is celebrated today. For this, there are no parallels. Let us celebrate this day for what it is and separate the glory of this day from the tyranny of the kingdom.

The empire is not on our side. The pharisees of the media and congressional halls continually whip up propaganda against us. The empire digs us a hole and requires a “scoring” to be allowed to get us out of the hole.

The empire is led by men. If and when the earthly, human leaders of empire realizes their moral, constitutional, and godly responsibility to their population, the expats will rise from the tyranny.

We celebrate today. Tomorrow, we must remember our mortal code: God only helps those that help themselves. We must rise up and resist the government tyrannies of FATCA, the tyranny of discriminatory extra-territorial, person-based taxation, the tyrannies of GILTI and transition tax, and the tyranny of FBAR all emanating from the Empire.

Merry Christmas to all !

Congressman Holding has introduced the “Fair Taxation for Americans Abroad Act” in the United States House of Representatives.

“In 2019, Republicans Overseas will focus on getting the Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad Act passed….The TFFAAA will amend the Internal Revenue Code by offering overseas Americans a status similar to that enjoyed by corporations where foreign-sourced income is taxed in the country where it is earned. ” says Solomon Yue, of Republicans Overseas, who spearheaded this effort.

The direct link to the video (found in Embee’s comment) is HERE:

Here is John Richardson’s description of the Bill:

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In order to keep the comments on Stephen’s post on topic, please direct your comments regarding Barbara’s comment, to this post.

Barbara says
December 18, 2018 at 12:18 am (Edit)
@BB: “We need to get people coming back to Brock.”

First step: how lovely it would be if someone actually moderated the forums and simply culled the repetitive and incessant chatter on some of the (formerly) useful threads. Many of the most essential threads have turned into a free-for-all which veer way off topic, raking over the same-old-same-old coals that have been raked over in every one of the other popular threads. It’s become so that I don’t even come to IBS much anymore. I check for new top-level posts and anything new on the “Current Media and Articles” thread and skip the rest of the bla-bla-bla because I’ve read it all so many times before.

Sorry to be so negative. When I first joined IBS a couple years ago, it was a clean, mean source of wisdom. I wonder how I’d feel if I joined now, with so much of the useful discussion buried under so much steamy hot air. I wish there were a separate thread called “The IBS Pub” where all the windy conversations can cheerfully continue, while those who simply need clarity about renunciation, etc., don’t have to comb through page after page of blather to find the few nuggets.

I still very strongly support the principles here, and the actions of the brave souls who put their time, money and lives on the line for the rest of us, and therefore I am happy to offer financial support.

**************

Thanks.

Retain or Renounce US Citizenship with John Richardson and Karen Alpert
 

VIDEO
 
PDF
 

DC
John will also be doing information sessions in Sydney (Nov 1) and Auckland (Oct 31). See details and email the address given to register.

Introduction …

This post is largely motivated by two recent Facebook discussions.

First discussion:

A recent discussion in the American Expatriates group explored the question of whether a U.S. citizen who was a “tax resident” of another country could use a “tax treaty tie breaker” to avoid U.S. taxation. The discussion began with:

Good Morning, does anyone know something about Tax treaty tiebreakers, Would that be a possible solution for Americans Abroad, Dual Citizens, Accidental Americans ?

Tax treaty tiebreakers are rules that are used to assign a person’s tax residency to one country when an individual is a tax resident of both countries. In the context of U.S. tax treaties, treaty tie breaker rules are used when an individual is both:

1. A U.S. person for tax purposes (U.S. citizen or U.S. resident); and

2. A tax resident of another country.

It is very common to use tax treaties to assign tax residency to a country when an individual is a tax resident of more than one country

Questions:

1. Does this mean that without the “savings clause” that that U.S. citizens living permanently in Canada would no longer be (in a practical sense) subject to “citizenship-based taxation”?

2. If the answer is that: the “savings clause” (by not allowing a “tax treaty tiebreaker”) is responsible for “citizenship-based taxation” in Canada – then is Canada by agreeing to the “savings clause” responsible for imposing U.S. “citizenship-based taxation” in Canada?

Second discussion:

A second discussion raised the question of whether Canadian residents could sue the Government of Canada for entering into a treaty which would subject them to U.S. worldwide taxation. (Although the ADCS FATCA lawsuit argues that the amendments to Canada’s Income Tax Act violate the Charter, one wonders whether one could argue that the IGA itself violates the Charter.)

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Last week the CEO of Republicans Overseas and a Canadian legal expert spoke to me about tax cuts and post-Brexit opportunities with the US.

Give it a watch here: https://t.co/zk5fi2CJkt

— Steven Edginton (@StevenEdginton) September 25, 2018