Last night I found myself in a discussion with a U.S. dual citizen. Basically, what she told me was that since she learned of the IRS assault against dual citizens that she felt that “her life had been stolen from her”. She listed a list of health and emotional problems. Furthermore like “a deer frozen in the headlights” she doesn’t know what to do. She is reaching retirement age and fears that her retirement savings will be taken. (By the way, she didn’t know about FATCA. I didn’t add to her misery.)
The “emotional and life aspects” of (what has become) the “War of 2012” are rarely mentioned. How has this affected your life?
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Extreme depression with a side of terror (so much so I cancelled my vacation, which would have been impossible to enjoy) frequent headaches, hours spent reading articles on subject, money to tax consultants.
Ahh F(u)BAR.
And the irony, I work as an ACCOUNTANT (managerial)
Pastbeyond60 mentioned this thread in her comment to the excellent Jim Jatras guest article at Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/07/28/unauthorized-fatca-intergovernmental-agreements-are-part-of-obamas-executive-overreach/). Now that FATCA is here I’m wondering how everyone is coping. I continue to feel that my life has been stolen from me.
I wish I was coping better but really I am not. I still get panic attacks and most of my dreams are in the nightmare category. My husband “appears” to be free but that NOT-so-merry-old SOL (Statute of Limitations) will keep him wondering for several years if he did the exit procedure correctly. However, never-ending uncertainty is all that lies ahead for me. My husband has a CLN in hand but I don not have an I-407 in hand (my paperwork and expired GC went into a black hole at USCIS). So my retirement savings dangle on a thread. Everything depends on what precise question is written on those bank scissors which are poised and ready to cut. It doesn’t matter that I can never travel to the USA (didn’t want to go there anyway) but without those savings my future is bleak. Then again, with the Harper government’s “bail-in” legislation all set and ready, maybe everyone’s future is bleak.
My best hope lies with ADCS and the legal challenge … so do us proud Mr. Arvay. Of course, I also hope Mr. Bopp in the USA is successful too.
Over time it has actually gotten worse for me. After my recent initial shock of hearing about this “thing” called FBAR and how I would, as an elderly retiree, be bankrupted of all my life’s savings I had hope that the universe was just and this would never actually happen. But it did. I have truly lost all hope in humanity and have not a drop of respect for those that govern the North American continent. I feel like a lost person, the US is trying to destroy me and my government for the past 40 years, the Canadian government, will not protect me. I remain as a deer in the headlights, totally terrified and filled with hate. This is no way to live the waning years of my life. I am terrified to go into the bank and await in horror for the letter/phone call from RBC.
This week was particularly bad. A very dear relative passed away just yesterday at 55 years old. Another is expected to pass away this week. The fact that I can not be with my family, can not honour the lives of two people that are very dear to my heart is just cruel. JUST SIMPLY CRUEL. I am too fearful to enter the US.
To add icing to this most poisonous cake, a cousin sent a picture this weekend of her plantings and tidying of my parents’ grave. That was my job. That was my duty. Can I never visit my parents’ grave? This is what you have done to my life Mr. Obama. I cried all weekend, thanks.
@ Charl
You are absolutely right, it is cruel. You know I EMpathize with you — particularly since I am the sole tender of my parents’ grave. Thankfully they were both Canadian and are buried on Canadian soil so I can “visit”. It is cruel that you cannot do this in memory of your parents too. And to only be able to attend “in spirit” the funerals of those who are so close to your heart is equally cruel. The US government is a dangerous and deluded bully and the Canadian government is this bully’s enabler. Was Harper too intimidated to take a principled stand against the bully or could it be that he is complicit because his own perverted ideology coincides with that of the bully? I think the latter.
Charl and Em,
Thanks for the updates on how this continues to or escalates to affect you. Each story is more heart-wrenching and cruel than anyone outside those going through this horror can imagine.
You are absolutely correct that it is no way to start or continue your retirement years, knowing you could be stripped of a good deal of what you have saved for as you are also stripped of your own self-worth, your sense of who you are as a person. I am in a better place than I was three years ago, but I don’t think that I, personally, will ever regain the joy of life I so naively thought I had before. Our lives changed in the instant of our OMG moment. We must not let this defeat us; we will be stronger persons in the end in our fight for justice for ALL *US Persons* who choose to live in another country, a country that is not foreign to us — only to the US.
Cruel beyond words that so many live in fear to ever again cross the US border for last visits with elderly parents, for funerals for whatever relatives or to be able to simply put flowers on the grave of a loved one in the US. I cry with you. I wish I could make it better for you. Perhaps we can — our chance is the ADCS-ADSC litigation for which we are valiantly trying to gather sufficient funds and plaintiffs to have our day in a court of justice and for true telling of all of this story in the media*.
Off point, I just sent a message to a journalist who wants me to look for the story of others like my son, with the stipulation that all names are in the news story. Part of my message:
@calgary,
I am glad you posted the conditions that the journalist insisted on;
” ..Why is it that you need the actual name of the person with the disability? Really, what is the purpose: shock value for your story? I don’t understand that you would want to place any such family or any vulnerable person in harm’s way – which is what is threatened by the USA and by our own government of Canada – and some commenters to these stories. I am very disappointed that you have these qualifications in place or such a story cannot be told. ”
A responsible journalist should know that this story centers on the harms that the vulnerable and ordinary individuals and families have and will suffer at the hands of the US due to CBT and FATCA. So, why insist that the most vulnerable be named – and compound the harm? Where is their moral and ethical compass – in addition to their understanding of the very real threat that those claimed as taxable USPs in Canada face? I am glad you replied as you did.
The F(u)BAR and FATCA hunt has been very hard for me. I live abroad where my life and husband is. I am not trying to hide from taxes, and I do not have OFFSHORE accounts…. I have accounts because I live here! The cost of tax consultants and depression is one thing, not even my own family understands. My sister (who lives in the USA) calls me a whiner, and tells me that I am overreacting when I say I am sick of this Persecution and am seriously considering to give up US citizenship. I squeezed by two different governments for my hard earned money. It’s unfair and I’m sick of it.
@flicka
Many of us are (or were) in the same situation. Yes, it’s intolerable, and there’s no reason why anyone should continue to subject themselves to this kind of persecution for the rest of their lives. If you can, renounce. I did in 2012 and my only regret now is that I didn’t do it sooner.
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