“You got gangsters in power and lawbreakers making rules.” Bob Dylan, “When you gonna wake up”, Slow Train Coming, 1979
Victoria mentions how Charles B. Rangel portrays innocent Americans abroad as fleeing from taxes:
I hope that one day we will just publish the names of people that America has given so much to and that they care so little about that citizenship that they would flee in order to avoid taxes.
Folks, let’s get to know our accuser a little better. Rangel had income from a Dominican Republic condo, income which he failed to report for seventeen years.
Rangel was convicted of 11 counts of ethics violations by the House ethics subcommittee.
Rangel remains in office. Charles B. Rangel, I hereby induct you into the Isaac Brock Hall of Shame.
“I hope that one day we will just publish the names of people that America has given so much to”
This is the part that I can not understand. I came to Brazil with a few thousand dollars I had as a result of selling all my gold at $750/oz. They never gave me squat.
Dylan’s song, Saturday Night Live audio version, with pics.
And then there’s that long list of US legislators from both parties who were reported a month or so ago for having some dodgy stock market dealings and connections, I forget the details.
No wonder the US Congress keeps passing legislation that tramples all over the US Constitution and Bill of Rights (see “National Defense Authorization Act” signed into law by Obama on New Year’s Eve when no one was looking, recalling JFK’s joke to some newsman that when he’d announce brother Bobby as Attorney General he’d do it late some Friday, open the door to the White House quickly, whisper “it’s Bobby” and slam the door shut).
The Congress and most of US politics is full of sanctimonious hypocrites. And dangerous people who have no conception any more of what their country’s founding fathers intended 235 years ago, nor seem to care. Ron Paul perhaps being a notable exception. But he probably doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of becoming President.
As that wonderful Canadian YouTube video said a couple of weeks ago, “America, we’ve seen and listened to your presidential candidates this year, and frankly, they scare the shit out of us.” And not only because of FATCA/FBAR and related matters, there’s a huge long list of very good additional) reasons.
I never left America in order to avoid paying taxes. I left America to escape their dysfuntional health care system. When we left we certainly did not take any great wealth with us. Everything that we have attained since then has been attained in Canada and has had no connection with America.
If Mr. Rangel wants to object to any Americans who won’t pay taxes he should look at the ones who live within America’s borders. Everyday 52% percent of American households avoid paying any income tax and yet they still use government services. What U.S.. services have I or my family used in all of the years that we have been here? Not a single dime.
@recalcitrantexpat
Right on!!
I didn’t know of the dysfunctional health care system when I left the US for Canada in 1969 — but I certainly count my lucky stars each day since then to be under Canada’s health care system, where we don’t mortgage our homes to feed the Big Insurance, Big Pharma, Big Health Care, to say nothing of the squandering of US funds that could be used for health care for all — the most obscene of all — the Big Military Complex.
I formed my opinions in the 50’s and 60’s — and the poetry of Bob Dylan’s lyrics are timeless / they mean as much to me today as then.
We left the US in 1969 with a car full of personal belongings and about $500 cash (at the time, was worth about $480 Cdn as I recall). The US has had nothing to do with what we are now worth (which ain’t that much, really). But the thoughts of the IRS getting its sticky fingers on any of that makes my blood boil.
@Petros What delicious irony. I wonder what other Congresspersons have hidden in their FBAR’s (if they even bothered to file them).
And credit where credit is due – that quotation came from the excellent web guide: Renunciation of American Citizenship. They have more quotes here but please take your blood pressure medication or have a nice glass of something soothing before you read it…..
http://renunciationguide.com/Lawmaker-Quotes-About-Expatriates.html
Petros, Dylan foresaw the future with many of his songs.
American Woman by Guess Who also takes on new meaning in 2012: Why would any sane person today want to marry someone who had to misfortune to be born in the US?!?
OK, I’m showing my age by remembering the lyrics, but here are some of them::
American Woman, stay away from me
American Woman, mama let me be
Don’t come a hangin’ around my door
I don’t wanna see your face no more
I got more important things to do
Than spend my time growin’ old with you
Now Woman, I said stay away
American Woman, listen what I say-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
nice
Involuntary servitude (sometimes called peonage) is when a person is forced through coercion to work for another. The term is sometimes equated with slavery; however, it does not necessarily imply the complete lack of personal freedom that accompanies slavery.
Taxing Americans who neither live nor work within the borders of the United States is a form of involuntary servitude because they are being taxed entirely for the benefit of others.
Americans abroad are not physically able to receive the same benefits as Americans living or working within the borders of the United States. Americans abroad do not use US infrastructure assets (highways, bridges, dams, electrical grid etc). They do not use public services (schools, hospitals, fire, police etc) nor do they receive public benefits (unemployment insurance, welfare, Medicare etc). Americans living and working abroad are not able to enjoy the benefit of any of these US assets, services or benefits because they are simply not physically there to do so.
Citizenship-based taxation places Americans living and working abroad into a condition of involuntary servitude.
Involuntary servitude was abolished by the thirteenth amendment of the US Constitution. Therefore, it can be argued that citizenship-based taxation is unconstitutional.
Citizenship-based taxation would not exist if Americans abroad had “actual representation” in the US Congress. But they don’t. Instead, they have people like Carl Leviathan and Charlie “tax cheat” Rangel making laws upon their behalf and with no means of fighting back.
In the final analysis, Americans abroad are taxed while being completely disenfranchised from the legislative process. This is not only a human rights abuse, it is just plain un-American.
The United States would not exist if it were not for the American colonists revolting against the British over the same exact issues that Americans abroad are facing today.
Well said, Spartacus. I only wish that the nations of the world would wake up to this atrocity and do something. Unfortunately though they see this as a purely internal U.S. matter, which is the way that the U.S. portrays it, and they say nothing. I say that it is unfortunate because the way in which the U.S. spins this whole thing, as a citizen based tax, is actually not true.
The truth of the matter is that this is a U.S. imposed tax that is being levied on other countries with the U.S. citizen as the instrument for this taxation.
I say this because all taxation is based upon the productivity of the local economy- eg. workers, capital and industry. This productivity is measured in the local currency and it is the fluctuation in the productivity of competing countries that in the long run accounts for changes in exchange rates. When governments therefore impose taxes what they are taxing is the productivity of their economies. If the workers can’t produce enough excess wealth to give the government something to tax then governments experience budget deficits.
This means that the U.S. by assessing taxes on its citizens who reside in other economies that have their own currencies is actually taxing the productive capacity of those economies. The U.S. citizen is just the means for the exactation of the tax. For one country to tax the economy of another country should be seen as an act of economic predation but right now the politicians inside and outside of the U.S. are unwilling to acknowledge or see this. Or maybe they do see it but they are habituated to an incorrect mode of thinking that prevents them from admitting the truth.
Double taxation-
You know I find it very odd that the Republican party members who are big on the government not engaging in the act of double taxation- as when dividends and inherited wealth are taxed. Do not acknowledge that it is double taxation when an expat is taxed both by his country of residence and the U.S. government.
The notion that we should be happy to receive a tax credit, is stupid. Why should we pay a whole tax and then be happy when the government is willing to pretend to be generous by giving us a credit on only a part of it? Only a politician would tell someone that a partial rebate is the same as a full rebate. Republicans can’t do math any more than democrats can.
Petros, glad you like American Woman. I tried my hand at revising the lyrics. This could make a great rallying song. Any musicians out there who might be able to make a music video? We could sell copies and use money to fund our battles. Of course, we would need permission because the song is copyright, but those old rebels Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman just might want to help out.
Here is my revised version. Words or phrases which were changed are in caps.
American TAXMAN, stay away from me
American TAXMAN, JUST let me be
Don’t come a hangin’ around my door
I don’t wanna see your face no more
I got more important things to do
Than spend my time MESSIN’ with you
Now TAXMAN, I said stay away
American TAXMAN, listen what I say-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
American TAXMAN, get away from me
American TAXMAN, JUST let me be
Don’t come a knockin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your shadow no more
YOU MAY THINK YOU can hypnotize
I SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOUR EYES
Now TAXMAN, I said get away
American TAXMAN, listen what I say-ay-ay-ay
Now TAXMAN, get away from me
American TAXMAN, JUST let me be
Go, gotta get away, gotta get away now go, go, go
I LEFT YOU LONG AGO
WHY ARE YOU NOW MY FOE?
Bye-bye Bye-bye Bye-bye Bye-bye
You’re no good for me
I’m no good for you
Gonna look you right in the eye
Tell you what I’m gonna do
You know I’m gonna leave
You know I’m gonna go
You know I’m gonna leave
You know I’m gonna go-o, TAXMAN
I’m gonna leave you TAXMAN
Goodbye American TAXMAN
Goodbye American LIFE
Oops. I forgot a verse–and perhaps the most important one. Sorry! Here is what should be the next to last verse:
American TAXMAN, said get away
American TAXMAN, listen what I say
Don’t come a hangin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your face no more
I don’t need your war machines
I don’t need your ghetto scenes
YOU MAY THINK YOU can hypnotize
I SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOUR LIES
Now TAXMAN, get away from me
American TAXMAN, JUST let me be
@Blaze — that’s great / thanks.
@Blaze—That is great, LOVE IT!!
@blaze: According to what Roger says, they don’t go to your door but expect you to go to the nearest office in Washington DC for an in-person audit. Before that they conducted audits in consulates for fear that the police in the various countries would arrest them. May be what the American TAXMAN is doing is a kind of sneaky if they insisted that you go to the US consulate. Kind of sneaky. But it sort of lowers the threat level a little if you know they won’t be coming to your door with bulletproof vests and assault rifles, eh? I’m NOT scared of you American TAXMAN.
So you won’t really need to sing that verse to the American Taxman after all.
@spartacus and recalcitrantexpat
Really brilliant comments. I wish I could have said it so well.
“Involuntary servitude?” Yep, that’s exactly it.
Americans abroad are viewed as “peons” and fair game for a predatory government.
Congressional clowns like Carl Leviathan and Charlie “the tax cheat” Rangel exploit this and prey on Americans abroad because they are such easy targets.
Petros, thanks for the heads up that IRS won’t be coming with rifles any time soon. Are you sure?!? Doesn’t their right to bear arms extend around th globe?!? Maybe that’s why Harper scrapped the long gun registry!
Don’t come knockin’ at my door words are part of the original lyrics. I left them in because I saw them as a metaphor for IRS pounding on the doors of my life, my money, my citizenship and my country.
Calgary and Arrow, we are of the same era and remember how wildly popular that song was in Canada. Maybe we boomers should get together and record the updated version. Of course, I can’t carry a tune, but I’ll belt it out loud anyway!
To keep things in perspective it is probably good to understand that it is not the IRS that is responsible for the persecution of Americans abroad. Granted, they are bureaucratic thugs who wage a campaign of intimidation and terror against Americans abroad. However, the real responsibility lies on the shoulders of Senators and Congressmen like Carl Leviathan from Michigan and Charlie Rangel from New York along with others, to include Obama when he was a Senator–he had a finger in FATCA as well.
These politicians are the ones who create the laws that are used for persecuting Americans abroad. Leviathan runs the so-called Senate Committee on Investigations which writes all kinds of nasty one-sided reports about American FATCATS living the good life abroad and “not paying their fair share.”
With Americans abroad having no Senators or Congressmen to debate the validity of the propaganda generated by Leviathan and company, the rest of the Senators and Congressmen simply take the *%#@^ in the investigative reports as being the gospel. Even if they know better, what do they care? The problems of people living abroad have no impact on the outcome of elections in their states or districts.
In short, attacking the so-called American FATCATS abroad is an all too convenient way for politicians to win populist points by blaming those living outside of America for the problems they themselves have created at home (ie. too much gov’t spending, too much debt, too many wars etc). The real kicker is that by blaming the so-called FATCATS, there is zero risk any push-back from their constituency. For them, its like shooting fish in a barrel.
Without representation in Congress, which they will never have, Americans abroad will continue to be persecuted in silence until the issue finally becomes widely viewed as a national embarrassment.
IMHO, the most realistic way to end the persecution of Americans abroad is for the number of Americans renouncing US citizenship to grow large enough for:
A.) International Organizations (eg. International Court of Justice, European Court of Human Rights etc) to rule against or at least publicly denounce the US practice of citizenship-based taxation without representation.
B.) Political opponents of Leviathan, Rangel etc to decide that it is in their interests to take up the fight against it. (fat chance)
C.) Large US corporations to lobby Congress about the harm that citizenship-based taxation does to their exports. (probably most realistic)
In any case, the more information that gets out into the media and blogosphere about the plight of the American Diaspora, the better.
The Isaac Brock Society is certainly a good start.
Bless you all!
Spartacus
@Spartacus I agree, except that the IRS and Treasury doesn’t get a pass. There is nothing in any of the laws that says that FBAR must be applied in the manner that they do. First, during Bush’s time, a provision of the Bank Secrecy Act (FBAR) was dusted off the shelf (as Just Me put it). Then FinCen hands it over the administration of FBAR to the IRS–I defy anyone to find how that is required in the Bank Secrecy Act. And then Shulman creates the OVD programs were created to catch whales and minnows alike. The border guards now harass citizens. The new law FATCA was passed and signed by the Obama. Shulman and Geithner don’t get a pass. Even Congress with all the bad laws that they passed are not responsible for the evil manner in which these two men have attacked citizens abroad. No one could predict the evil manner that the State Department (Hilary) would treat former citizens as though they were retroactively citizens against their will. This is a rogue administration that has used the stupid laws that Congress has passed to try to destroy the global economy. One wonders if a conspirator could have come up with a better plan. These are coordinated attacks, but it seems that they are not trying to do irreparable harm to the economy, but to decrease the “tax gap”.
@Petros:
My intent was not to give them a pass. They are all cogs in the wheel of a predatory government bent on imposing its will upon everyone living on this planet. As far as I am concerned they are all guilty of blatantly violating various parts the Bill of Rights of the Constitution — guilty to the point of treason.
However, I really believe that the root of the problem lies with the lawmakers themselves. The laws they have been making are the basis of the tyranny being implemented by everyone else downstream.
Yours in liberty,
Spartacus
PS. I also believe that the big Wall Street banks, that are behind the lawmakers, are actually the largest and deepest reaching part of the root.
@Sparty Let’s see now, please read § 5314 and my reflexions about it. The Bank Secrecy Act gives the Treasurer broad discretion to implement the law under one caveat: “the need to avoid burdening unreasonably a person making a transaction with a foreign financial agency”. Thus, the Treasurer is arguably in violation of that aspect of the law by burdening US citizens abroad when he could determine that they should not have to file the FBAR in the first place:
The 2004 strengthening of the FBAR act does show that Congress is complicit, but at least the law as passed by Congress permits the Treasurer to give immediate and complete relief from FBAR filing requirements. Thus, I conclude that the tax-cheat Treasurer is actually an evil person and does not get a pass with the excuse, “I am only enforcing the law.”
So I agree with you in spirit. Congress is indeed very bad. But the Treasurer, IRS Commissioner, and their boss Obama, are much worse still.
The boss is the chief tyrant indeed and driving much of this at the moment. He is also buds with Leviathan in the Senate.
@Petros:
Below is a link to the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT). This is the main fountain of predatory legislation targeting Americans abroad, including FATCA, which was Rangel’s baby.
http://www.jct.gov/
Every few years the JTC tries to do away with the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE), which provides at least a token amount of relief for Americans abroad. At the time of this writing, the FEIE is again under attack. These guys never give up.
Also below, is a link to a letter dated 22 May 2003 to the JCT from the American Bar Association (ABA) titled: Re: S.1054: Proposed Repeal of the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.
The ABA letter argues against the JCT’s proposed repeal of the FEIE, which eventually failed (mainly by luck) to pass.
http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/tax/pubpolicy/2003/030522s1054.authcheckdam.pdf
The members of the JCT along with all the other agents of repression downstream should get medals for creating the largest group of dissidents in exile in American history. Uncle Joe Stalin would be envious.
Spartacus