Introductory and Essential Material on CBT, FATCA, Citizenship Issues

8 thoughts on “Introductory and Essential Material on CBT, FATCA, Citizenship Issues”

1. GREAT resource material on CBT here:

   https://www.penflip.com/lenxdart/cbt-faq-2

2. It certainly IS a GREAT resource to help explain to others the absurd concept of CBT in an otherwise RBT world. Thanks!

3. I am not a US citizen, and never been one, but was married to one. I am just now legally seperated. I was wondering how my assets that I recieved through the divorce will be affected by FATCA, if at all?

4. Not at all.

5. If one of the assets was an account that used to be a joint account, I’d expect it to be FATCA’ed.

   Regardless of whether an account gets FATCA’ed, a separate question is if Elisa has to send any forms to the IRS, and what to put on them.

   My wife is not a US citizen, and has never been one, but was married to one from the time we married until the time I renounced. We married before ITINs were invented, so the IRS’s published instructions said I had to get her a social security number. 22 years later, the Social Security Administration still has never granted nor rejected that application. Instructions on Form W-7 (ITIN application) say she should not apply for an ITIN until she gets a rejection from the SSA. However, in calendar years 2007, 2008, and 2010 the IRS sent forms particularly addressed to us telling us to apply for ITINs. We obeyed. The IRS rejected our ITIN applications four times. Finally the IRS wrote letters in December 2010, delivered in January 2011, telling us what our ITINs are. Meanwhile, in October 2010, we obeyed IRS instructions to refile our 2005 return with perjured declarations[*] and the IRS accepted it. But US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned the IRS’s acceptance of that refiled return because in October 2010 I failed to fabricate a social security number for my wife, and failed to obey other requirements which the Federal Circuit didn’t state and the IRS can’t even guess what the Federal Circuit wants. And the IRS, in contempt of the Federal Circuit, continues to insist that they accepted that return.

   Well, the Federal Circuit said I was frivolous by not fabricating a social security number for my wife; they didn’t say she was frivolous for failing to fabricate one for herself. So she’s off the hook on that matter. On the other hand, she’s still been denied a refund owing to her, just as much as I have been.

   However, my wife is still on the hook for 2002 and 2008. The IRS seized our refund for 2009 and applied it to a bill that they alleged to be owing for 2002, thirteen months after US Tax Court ruled that the IRS shall not collect the bill that they allege to be owing for 2002. The IRS seized our refunds for 2006, 2007, 2008[**], 2010, 2011 and applied them to a bill that they allege to be owing for 2008, even though US Tax Court and US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit both ruled that US courts don’t have jurisdiction over that alleged bill (and the Fifth Amendment is dead, but we already knew that).

   The IRS continues to send bills to my wife for 2008! So she is on the hook for that. And no court has jurisdiction.

   My wife sent a registered letter to the IRS demanding a hearing. Well she’s sent similar demands in the past and never gotten any reply, but the Twilight Zone is particularly strong with this one. The US post office returned the AR card (return receipt) without any information filled in, in violation of USPS International Mail Manual section 753.1. Over the months she submitted three requests for postal investigations. The first one was not answered. The third one was not acted on. The second one got a reply shortly after she submitted the third one. USPS told Japan Post that the registered letter could not be traced, not delivered, not returned to sender, just disappeared. Well that’s happned before too; USPS has now surpassed Canada Post’s record of losing registered letters, at least from me. But the Twilight Zone isn’t over yet. USPS’s web site has a search box for traces. Originally a trace said the letter was delivered (the trace doesn’t know about AR cards). But later a trace said the letter wasn’t in USPS’s database. And just for fun, after Japan Post said they’ll compensate my wife because USPS lost the registered letter, I tried searching again.

   The Twilght Zone is very very strong in this one. Look at the dates in both of these:
   https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input?json=true&qtc_tLabels1=RR456261820JP&sCheckedLabelCount=1&qtc_senddate1=11%2F11%2F2015&qtc_zipcode1=
   AND
   https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input?json=true&qtc_tLabels1=RR456261820JP&sCheckedLabelCount=1&qtc_senddate1=&qtc_zipcode1=19101
   Two separate letters? No, USPS registration numbers end in US not JP.

   Anyway my wife still didn’t get her hearing, and the IRS is still seizing her refunds and still sending her bills for more.

   Here’s hoping they treat Elisa better.

   [* The IRS never directed me to IRB 2005-14, but one time I found it by accident when doing a Google search for something else. But the IRS did tell me in 2010 that we have to sign the preprinted jurat even when we know it’s false. A US Tax Court judge told me in 2011 that IRS employees are poorly trained so they get confused by honest declarations, so honest declarations impede administration of US taxes and are punishable. Did you work in the US for a few weeks and the US company sent you a falsified Form W-2? Did the former Revenue Canada prove that they don’t even understand their Interpretation Bulletins so you don’t know how much Canadian tax to declare on your US Form 1116? Etc. No matter how much you know that some of the attached forms are wrong, it’s illegal to write an honest declaration. US law required perjury.]

   [** Yes indeed, one IRS letter said they seized our 2008 refund to apply it to tax owing for 2008. Or wait, maybe TWO IRS letters said that? Sorry, I’m too lazy to look for them now.]

6. Absolutely the best source of consolidated information I have ever seen.
   Read the United States v. Barrett PDF linked under 4.4, it is a true eye-opener!

7. A remarkable gathering of relevant articles and links
   https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Fatca_Citizenship_Based_Taxation1.html

8. Some history behind FATCA and why the US is currently “The United States is ranked second on the 2020 Financial Secrecy Index, based on a secrecy score of 63 combined with a huge scale weighting due to the fact that the US accounts for 21.37 per cent of the global market in offshore financial services. ”
   https://fsi.taxjustice.net/PDF/UnitedStates.pdf

   “….In short, the US FATCA programme is, for all intents and purposes, a strong unilateral mechanism that will, unless things change, do little to dent the US’ role as a global tax haven – and instead gives it a ‘competitive’ advantage over other secrecy jurisdictions, by requiring greater, one-way transparency from them. Without meaningful reciprocity, this poses a serious threat to the entire global project.State-level facilities: shell corporations and more Alongside this history of US Federal-level secrecy, individual US states have been hosting the formation of secretive shell companies: a particularly sleazy add-on to the Federal-level facilities…….”……

   Note that Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming are named as the top offenders among other US states hosting secretive shell companies.