Category Archives: reductio ad absurdum

Woofy pulled this off the Canadian Banker’s Association website:

I am not a U.S. person. What does FATCA mean for me?

The majority of Canadians are not U.S. persons and, in most cases, FATCA will have little impact. If you have an existing account and there is an indication that you may be a U.S. person, or if you are opening a new account, your financial institution may ask you to provide additional information or documentation to demonstrate that you are not a U.S. person.

If you choose not to provide this additional documentation upon request, at a minimum, your financial institution may be required to withhold a tax of 30% on U.S. source payments that you receive and send this money to the IRS.

This is really just a game.  The CBA should just tell the IRS to take their regulations and shove it.  How can people prove that they are not US persons for tax purposes?  Imagine the following scenarios:

Continue reading →

My father once left for Far Away Country and returned to Homeland empty-handed and starving. Since he had squandered his part of grandfather’s fortune on prostitutes and riotous living, he feared that the villagers of Homeland would not accept him. He was grateful however that grandfather received him back warmly, saying, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and is found.” But my uncle, whose name is Sam, seethed.

When I turned eighteen, my father sent me on business to Far Away Country where he still had friends who had now become his business partners. I met the daughter of one of the partners; she was fair and so we wed. I worked for my father-in-law, and we wisely saved our money.  I became a citizen of Far Away Country. After many years, we had two sons and two daughters, a house with no mortgage, and investment and retirement accounts. One day, I said, “I shall return to Homeland to see my aged father and to greet the villagers.”

Continue reading →

Comment of the day, from Virg:

Here is an analogy on FATCA. Let’s say a country (call it country A) prohibits its citizens from eating pork. So the country A says to the other 192 countries of the world: we want to make sure our expat citizens are not eating pork in your country. Therefore all restaurants globally must certify with our country A government that they are not serving pork to any of our expat citizens. For each restaurant that does not certify with our government, we will penalize your country by withholding 1% of any payments on import-export trade to your country. In other words, you must enforce our law in your country.

Let’s call this new law, Pig Aversion Total Compliance Act:  PATCA.

See also: Introducing KFOR–solving the US Federal deficit one foreign kitten at a time

Some folks here, especially Steven J. Mopsick, our beloved former litigator for the IRS who has now turned advocate for fairness and justice for Americans abroad, have really wanted to stop the Isaac Brock Society from going off the deep tangent of drawing analogies between the United States and Nazi Germany.  Finally, as an editor and administrator here at Isaac Brock Society, I have to agree:  Everybody, please stop it! 

That felt good.  It is always good when you feel that you are in control and can order people around!

Continue reading →

I created this video based on what I have learned from the Society.  It highlights issues related to legality and the sheer number of “US Persons” in Canada.  It doesn’t demonize the present government in Ottawa as to date they have been helpful.

Dear Senator Schumer: