reposted from renounceuscitizenship blog

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
What follows is the full text of the Facebook post referenced in the above link. Really now, it’s time to understand that taxation is NOT the price you pay for Government services (or certainly not civilization). It’s something you are required to pay to support the Homeland. Homelanders abroad, Accidental Americans and other dual citizens, academics, and those opposing FATCA, FBAR, PFIC, CBT and other forms of U.S. extra-territorial harassment should really be asking:
 
“Ask not what the Homeland can do for you! Ask what you can do for the Homeland?”

I posted this to my 400 “friends” on Facebook. It’s great to see and hear their disgust when they become enlightened about what the US government is doing to its own citizens. Also had some friends from Iran say, “gee and I thought my government was bad” I also copied in the testimonial videos for good measure. We have to get the word out that this impacts all Americans and the USA as a nation. Hiding in fear and not speaking up will get us nowhere.

“Guys, most of you know I’ve lived overseas for close to 20 years. Let me warn my fellow Americans to not try to live and work outside the USA for an extended amount of time. The US government and IRS with it crazy laws has now made Americans living overseas “rejects”, while the rest of the world is free to work and live where they please completely unburdened by their home country. The US is unfortunately intent on destroying its network of US citizens living abroad in order to maybe catch a few rich American tax cheats that live in the US.
The US is the only country in the world that taxes on citizenship alone and forces foreign banks to give all banking account info on US citizens to the IRS, regardless of where they live. Mind you, the US gives these countries no information in return, and that has made the USA the biggest tax haven for the rich from the rest of the world.

Foreign banks are now as a result denying and cancelling American’s bank accounts, cancelling mortgages, or just won’t sell you financial products since the filing hassle for them to the IRS has become too much and it’s just easier to get rid of US Americans as customers.
Companies also don’t want you if you are American and have signing authority, since the IRS wants all of that company’s info too and most companies see no point and just refuse you the job and take anyone with any other nationality.

You are also supposed to file all sorts of forms each year declaring your bank accounts and insurance to the IRS even though you might owe no tax due to some treaty and if you get 1 thing wrong, you get a fine of $10k to $50k per form. You also need to hire an expensive accountant that understands US tax, while you of course hire another local accountant for your local tax, which is already much higher than the US.

If you sell any property here, the US also wants a piece of that too, even if you already paid tax here on it. If you get a pension from a company, the US will want some of that too. All while you will get $0 Social Security and not ever qualify for Medicare, and anything you need from an US Embassy, even evacuated from a hostile country, you have to pay for it. You get 0 benefit from being an American overseas.

The result, Americans born and raised in the US and instilled with American values are not allowed to live unburdened overseas and have 0 representation in the US government, yet are supposed to pay taxes twice, have job opportunities lost and have banks refuse you.
If you want to give up citizenship to escape the hassle and be free to live like everyone else, that will cost you $2,500 and maybe a piece of everything you own.

So, I bet you didn’t realize you aren’t free to just leave the US other than on vacation. The rest of the world will leave us behind with their overseas network of citizens and build relations, while Americans will simply just need to stay home to avoid the hassle.

I’m passing this on, because I

realize most of the homeland Americans had no idea about these laws and their consequences made by our own government.”

Cross posted from the Renounce U.S. Citizenship blog.

FEARBar – “Foreign Email Account Report” – #Offshore email reporting – coming to an informatio… https://t.co/uyufo1vZcf via @USCitizenAbroad

— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) June 22, 2017

The above tweet references a post written four years ago in June of 2013. The post predicted that at some point the United States would require disclosure (in addition to FATCA (Form 8938) and FBAR (FinCen 114) and other forms) the email accounts used by Americans abroad.

That post concluded with my prediction:

The purpose of FBAR and FATCA is to …

Provide the U.S. with information that is outside of its jurisdiction. In other words, the U.S. has no legal right to the information. Therefore, by threatening “life altering” penalties, the U.S. forces its citizens to provide this information to the U.S. government.

If the contents of bank accounts is important, then the contents of an email account would be even more valuable.

You heard it here first:

The next information return that the U.S. will require is the:

“Foreign Email Account Report” - FEARBar for short!

Congress will (like FATCA) unknowingly pass the general legislation (slipped in as part of a Hiring Act) and authorize the IRS to specify the contents of the return. What an Orwellian World!

FEARBar coming to an information return near you!

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The initial reaction of the Canadian government to FATCA can best be described by a letter then-Finance Minister, the late Jim Flaherty wrote, intended to be placed in major American newspapers.Virtually no one believed there would be any reason for the U.S. to impose this given Canada is a higher tax jurisdiction and owing annual income tax was rather unlikely. Back in 2012, in spite of all the scaremongering created by the IRS and foreign tax compliance practitioners, the underlying hope/belief of “US Persons” in Canada was that it would be impossible to get around the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In spite of the fact that the first Model 1 IGA was released on 26 July 2012 by the US Treasury. The IGA was developed cooperatively with France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The post below was written over a year before the Canadians signed the IGA agreement on Feb 5 2014. Interestingly enough, it was written on the same day as a letter written by Peter Hogg, perhaps THE most important constitutional lawyer in Canada. This letter was sent to the Department of Finance and was welcome news.

“Note that the prohibited grounds of discrimination
include ‘national or ethnic origin’, and the Supreme Court has held that citizenship is an ‘analogous ground’ also prohibited by s. 15(1).”
(Andrews v. Law Society of BC (1989) 1 S.C.R. 143)…
“The point of this letter is to urge the
Government not to agree to an IGA which would call for foreign legislation which would offend s. 15
of the Charter.”

Perhaps I just have a bad memory but it is curious to me now, that there is such a difference in the time some of our main allies signed and when we signed. I only recently (and surprisingly) learned that the U.K. and Germany do not have anything comparable to our Charter. Could that be a reason they were more willing to sign earlier on in the process? Does it mean the Canadian government at first considered the possibility that any action they took would not be able to withstand a Charter Challenge? And if so, what was it that made them change their minds? How did they come to believe they could get away with changing a law to break the law? Bill C-31 is the only of the clearly unconstitutional laws that the Trudeau government refuses to budge on (the others being C-23 C-24 & C-51).

@DiLebouthillier Oh the bloody irony-U have nerve 2 tell dual CDNs they need 2 be transparent 2 US yet U HIDE truth https://t.co/f6oMz5PMqC

— Patricia Moon (@nobledreamer16) June 18, 2017

While Canada clearly failed when it had the chance to stand up to the U.S. government, perhaps we can count on the Supreme Court of Canada, in the end, to demonstrate leadership by living up to the ideals enshrined in the Charter.

*******
Reposted from renounceuscitizenship blog on December 21, 2012.

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We already have Witnesses for our Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit, but are now seeking a few more. If you are a Canadian who supports the major aim of the lawsuit (to return Canadian sovereignty back to Canada) and are interested, see below:

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As part of our FATCA IGA litigation in Canada’s Federal Court, Our three Plaintiffs previously provided financial information to the Government lawyers on their accounts. However, Government submitted a motion to compel Plaintiffs to provide additional very detailed financial information.

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