Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 5 of 11 (Year 2018)

1,714 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 5 of 11 (Year 2018)”

1. @MNM

   sent one email; hopefully we’ll hear something back

2. I hope so too. The clips on the news look quite horrendous.

3. New ‘GILTI’ tax is killing private enterprise, and it must be fixed

   https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/406968-new-gilti-tax-is-killing-private-enterprise-and-it-must-be-fixed

4. Just sent th link to my parents. They are of the unshakable belief that the tax cut law is Godsend for us USCers abroad and that any concerns about it are based upon ignorance. I wonder how many if the Homelander population agrees with them.

5. Read the comments for an idea. The Hiil’s commenters are for the most part stupid though. Kind of like CBC’s.

6. That’ll have to wait. Too busy to deal with it, if it is anything like what I have found there in the past.

7. 2018.09.19. Legislation to help American Expats imminent, London audience told, Helen Burggraf, American Expat Finance.

8. A very big project I have been working on all summer through AARO. We put a team together and started the 2018 Midterm Election Project. We have contacted all the candidates for US House and Senate in 9 states and invited them to answer three questions (taxation, services and banking) and to send a personal message to overseas voters. We are getting more candidate responses than I thought we would get and some of them are pretty interesting. I think we have found friends in the Texas Libertarian Party (nice folks by the way and very helpful).

   You can read my blog post about the project here https://francoamericanflophouse.wordpress.com/2018/09/21/what-i-did-during-summer-vacation-midterm-election-project/
   or you can go directly to the project page on the AARO website here (click on the stats in the right-hand sidebar to see the candidate responses) https://aaro.org/election-2018-candidate-statements-for-expat-americans

   It was a hell of a lot of work but it was also a lot of fun too. And please pass it along to Americans abroad that you know. It’s a free non-partisan resource and we hope that it will be widely shared.

   And in other news, let me tell you about my chickens….. 🙂

   Victoria

9. The us empire will likely end badly, but it will eventually end, which will be a good thing for the rest of the world.

   One can see the infection of the us hustling culture creeping into Europe, has been for years. (There’s a MacDonald’s in some places too as the american hyper-capitalistic empire creeps). At some point, finally, the US will have to seriously reduce its overseas military presence. But before that, it could get nasty, a dying culture lashing out at the world.

   All roads lead to renunciation. Good luck to all.

10. Empires always lash out when they fall–and part of that lashing out is 1) higher taxes to 2) pay for more military.

    My bet is on China as the next empire.

11. Please retweet/like on Twitter:

    @joesmallhoover @SolomonYue
    @ACAVoice @arro @FAWCO @DemsAbroad @UKGOP

    Support: Saving US Citizenship Act !

    END U.S. Citizenship Double Taxation
    END #FATCA & #FBAR of US family living overseas

    #taxreform #TaxCutsandJobsAct

    @RepKevinBrady @OrrinHatch @GroverNorquist

    https://twitter.com/JCDoubleTaxed/status/1043263452427378688

12. “Empires always lash out when they fall–and part of that lashing out is 1) higher taxes to 2) pay for more military.”

    So then, what were those hirgher taxes for under the previous admin?

13. I hope no one here from the Ottawa area has been affected by the tornados. My heartfelt wishes for all of you there.

14. @JapanT

    That was the empire falling. Now that it has fully fallen, taxes can go back down.

15. As usual for you, doesn’t answer my question. Taxes went up during the last admin. but not to pay for the military.

16. @Victoria,

    Just had time to read your report on your summer vacation project. Question number three may be problematic. According to my family, there are many low income USCs resident in the US who can not open an account. As more and more companies in the US are now paying with direct deposit, employees who can not open or maintain a bank account are issued a debit card with a $20. withdrawal minimum, meaning, if they have $19.99 in their account, they have to wait until their next pay day to withdraw it.

    Same in Japan except the minimum withdrawal is ¥1,000 or about $8.

    While I was in college over 20 years ago, it had become difficult to maintain a bank account in my college town. They raised the maintenace fees for accounts of less than $10,000 dollars higher than the interest they paid. In short, I had to pay the bank to keep my miney in it. No surprise to me that there are many who can not afford a bank account now.

    Not sure how willing hey will be to give us something homelanders do not have.

17. https://qz.com/1180434/europes-central-banks-are-starting-to-replace-us-dollar-reserves-with-the-chinese-yuan/

    Central banks slowly diversify reserves away from the USD.
    A small chip in the US’ capacity to play bully.

18. So there’s this article appearing in Quartz about hidden license plate readers collecting bulk data without a warrant.

    https://qz.com/1400791/that-road-sign-telling-you-how-fast-youre-driving-may-be-part-of-a-us-government-surveillance-network/

    A man interviewed for the story points out:
    “License plate readers are inherently a form of mass surveillance,” investigative researcher Dave Maass of the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation told Quartz. “You look at something like a wiretap and most of the time it’s looking for a specific person and capturing specific conversations with that person. But here they are collecting information on everybody, not all of whom have been accused of a crime, in case they may one day commit a crime. This is un-American.”

    And another says this:
    Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told Quartz he thinks it’s wrong for the government to arbitrarily collect such a broad swath of data in the first place. Holding onto it for future analysis only makes things worse, he said.

    And all I can do is shake my head in disbelief at the hypocrisy of homelanders. Collecting bulk data on license plates is considered un-American, but collecting broad swaths of financial data on every USC living abroad, none of whom have been accused of a crime, is perfectly acceptable because it’s assumed to be the “fair-share” they owe for having citizenship to the greatest nation on earth?!

    This defies all logic….

19. @Petlover

    The logic is simple, right for thee but not for me. Thee being us and we being homelanders.

    This is why I have become doubtful that any of us will see a solution before we are already destroyed by it.

20. Grover Norquist, Washington insider, on repeal of FATCA:

    “It takes 60 votes to repeal a law. Find 9 Dems and it goes tomorrow.”

    https://twitter.com/GroverNorquist/status/1049791856605827074

21. Reddit Discussion topic: TTFI bill to end double taxation of US expats

    Feel free to join in. The myth that the FEIE “will save you” and no double taxation are clearly at play in the discussion and need to be refuted.

    Best not to put in a completely new post as it has been going for 16 hours and your new post will start with one vote. Best to reply to a leading post.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/9mn9x9/ttfi_bill_to_end_double_taxation_of_us_expats/e7g2yac/

22. The Reddit post was by u/SirWilfred

    His original post got removed by Reddit as it must have violated some guideline.

    Here it is in full. Could be a Brock feature.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/9mmxfk/ttfi_bill_to_end_double_taxation_of_us_expats_uk/?utm_source=ifttt

    [Start of post]

    Tax
    TTFI bill to end double taxation of US expats

    Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=TuYHivFl4hI&app=desktop

    This is the most recent video of the Taxation of Americans Overseas event with Solomon Yue and John Richardson. They are spearheading legislation called TTFI (Territorial Taxation for Individuals) to end citizenship based taxation. This would stop the double taxation and punitive compliance on US citizens living outside the US. If you are not aware, the US and the African dictatorship Eritrea are the only countries on the planet to use citizenship based taxation.

    Write, email and phone call your local representative! Take action!

    Their last event was in Toronto and they are country touring in the EU. The Toronto event took place in Aug, the video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEOFv-vfigI

    9 million Americans live outside the US and are affected by this. I advise you to write to your US house representative and state representative to support the TTFI bill and share your plight from the double taxation with citizenship based taxation. Rep. George Holding(R-NC) is the one sponsoring the TTFI bill.

    If you are effected I advise you to join the American Expatriates 2.0 group on Facebook – theres lots of discussions there. Keith Richmond runs the page and hes an advocate for Americans overseas who suffer under this regime.

    http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/ regularly posts updates on this subjects – Its Canadian based.

    EDIT: Many people are commenting that I should be more “patriotic” and “pay my fair share” to a country I do not live in or use services from so seal team six and 9 aircraft carriers may one day parachute in to save me. Its easy for people who are not affected or know little about this to point and say these things. Its an extremely complicated topic that affects 9 million “second class” citizens so I can understand the ignorance from some but Id like to share some of the issues I personally suffer

    It is double-taxation. No matter where you live you are subject to the most draconian, complicated and punitive tax code on Earth. If I was born in France to a US parent, spent my whole life in France, dont even speak English, raise a family there with have no involvement to the US I am still considered a US person and am subject to the IRS tax code with yearly fillings (including my children).

    The yearly cost of compliance to file with the IRS for US expats is minimum $1500 USD, but its generally around $2500 USD or more. This is just the cost of compliance with an accountant, even if you owe $0.00 taxes.

    As a US citizen you are not allowed to own foreign mutual funds, certain stocks, or saving vehicles/index funds such as ETF’s as these are considered PFIC’s. The fees imposed by PFIC’s are so draconian and punitive it would result in literal asset forfeiture. The compliance costs are just as bad with IRS estimating paperwork be minimum 60 hours to complete. Homelanders are lucky that they do not have to deal with this. Because of this I cannot plan for retirement or take advantage of my works pension which is a mutual fund. Does that sound fair?

    I cant take advantage of my countries equivalent ROTH IRA (TFSA) or educational saving plan (REIT) because the IRS considers these “foreign trusts” and taxes them limiting my ability to save. The compliance costs for foreign trusts are also very expensive (form 3520A/3520B). Insurance policies are also considered foreign trusts.

    I own a mortgage and pay capital gains taxes to the IRS because of currency fluctuations between USD and CAD. If the CAD raises by 10% in value to the USD between my 5-year term I owe the IRS 10% capital gains as a “phantom tax” even though I had no capital gains.

    If I forget to report any FBAR’s for any of my bank accounts floor penalties start at $10,000 USD or 50% of the assets (which ever greater). FATCA reporting is much more encompassing though for more assets.

    If I want to run a business it will be considered a Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) which is absolutely life destroying with extremely complicated reporting and punitive fees, the compliance costs unmanagle. I could not open a Canadian business in Canada because of this.

    If you follow the recent news of the trump transition tax on foreign corporations this is destroying peoples lives where cash holdings between the 1980’s and 2018 are having asset forfeitures starting at 10%+. Canadian professionals such as doctors, dentists, physiologists, etc use Canadian corporations to retain their earnings and use it for their retirement – this is no joke when I say this, this is literally bankrupting and destroying peoples lives and robbing them of their entire life savings for a bill target at giants like Apple. These are normal people, not “fat cat tax cheats” getting hurt. See more here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-tax-repatriation-canadian-1.4779747

    Many Americans are also losing jobs or the ability to work at oversea companies because of the compliance costs alone. The same goes for opening businesses. This makes Americans less competitive.

    For those who say “just renounce”, its not that easy. You must be tax compliant, which can be hard for someone who worked a full career and never filled because he never knew he had to. You must not be renouncing for tax purposes, the renunciation cost is $2500 USD and you can be barred entering the US (REED AMENDMENT). And why should people have to go through this? People are not doing this out of joy, they are doing this so they can get a mortgage, so they can open a bank account or get a job – these are normal people whose lives get encroached because of a 150+ year old law to punish civil war deserters.

    These are only some of the very complicated issues of citizenship based taxation that does not affect homelanders.

    Its easy for people who are not affected by this to point and say I need to be more “patriotic” and “pay my share” without understanding the issue. And to dismiss this all and simply drum up a story that “seal team six” will parachute in and save me one day is insulting.

    IRSMEDIC on youtube also discusses a lot of these topics as well if you are interested. https://www.youtube.com/user/irsmedic

    The TTFI timeline and white paper can seen here: https://republicansoverseas.com/ttfi-timeline/

23. Two obvious complaints about the piece above:

    You don’t need to be compliant to renounce.

    I wish people would stop saying this impacts 9 million US citizens abroad. First off that number is probably inflated. Second, only one million are tax compliant. Not sure how many are currently facing banking access problems due to FATCA, maybe less than half a million? And the number of citizens abroad the US could actually collect money from if it tried is relatively small. So while it’s not good, let’s not exaggerate.

24. Nononymous:

    “I wish people would stop saying this impacts 9 million US citizens abroad. First off that number is probably inflated. ”

    Indeed, perhaps grossly inflated.

    “Second, only one million are tax compliant. Not sure how many are currently facing banking access problems due to FATCA, maybe less than half a million? ”

    Good question.

    Some of the reports of bank access problems come from USCs who don’t want their US citizenship, can afford to renoune, and intend to renounce or are in the process of renouncing.

    Some of the reports come from USCs who are actually complaining not about bank access but about not being allowed to open certain kinds of US investment accounts.

    Accurate numbers or even realistic guesstimates of those who have been refused accounts would be very helpful.

25. How about numbers of those forced to choose between not being able to open an account or let the bank share all info. with the IRS?

    I believe the 9 million figure comes from the known number of married USCs living abroad applied to the birth rate of Homelanders. Itis known that many USCs are not registering at a US Embassy their child who were born abroad, that if the registrations are to be believed, that USCs abroad have seriously curbed reproductive activity.

Comments are closed.