“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.
@spartacus, @recalcintrantexpat
Here’s an email response I got from someone in the US today:
“I do not know when all of the overseas mess started, but it is quite the problem. The only way that we would know of such stupidity is that we are seeing it happen to you. Nothing, and I mean nothing is ever mentioned about Americans’ tax situations either on the news of news specials. I guess that the problem is not sensational enough….”
I really don’t think that the US wants this to be an issue. They are only interested in trying to extort money from us. I want nothing to do with that place anymore. Maybe a US passport was worth something during the Cold War. But now, just about any passport allows for the same “privileges” of travelling to most countries. And the other countries leave you alone. US Citizenship just ain’t worth it!
It strikes me that if this committee ever succeeds in doing away with the foreign tax credit, it will both accelerate the stampede of renouncements worldwide, and wipe out all vestiges of ex-pats’ willingness to file tax returns. The compliance rate would drop from the current minimal to zero.
What would be the point of filing a US tax return if it simply means paying double tax on the same income? The level of arrogance it takes to lash out at expats in this fashio is simply staggering.
@geeeez,
I think the attitude of most Americans living inside the US towards Americans abroad unfortunately ranges somewhere between “apathetic” to outright “suspicious.”
Stateside Americans are for the most part not able to understand why anyone would want to live and work anywhere else other than the Land of the Big PX.
In their eyes, Americans abroad are some kind of “quasi-traitors,” particularly if they dare to speak negatively about the effects of US foreign policy (wars, coups, puppet dictators, secret prisons, torture, renditions – the list goes on). We see this stuff, they don’t.
With regards to citizenship-based taxation and no representation/no benefits. Most Americans stateside know nothing about this and could care less because it doesn’t affect them.
The only way they will start to get the message is if the numbers of Americans abroad renouncing their citizenships reaches a level (tipping point) of national embarrassment. Americans take great pride in receiving boatloads of immigrants singing Neil Diamond’s “we’re coming to America.”
The realization that 10’s or 100’s of thousands of Americans abroad will be renouncing their US citizenships over the next couple of years as FATCA comes into effect will definitely rock the boat–provided the USG fails to keep a lid on it, which I fully expect them to try.
Therefore, renounce while you still can, before Uncle Sam can put up new obstacles in obtaining that golden “CLN,” which ironically has now become more valuable than a “Green Card.” — a real Black Swan event.
I never thought I would see such a day, but it is here now, front and center, thanks to fine people like Rangel, the Leviathan brothers, Baucus, Grassley, Shulman, Geithner etc. The list of traitors of liberty goes on.
Below is a link to a recent letter from ACA to JCT lobbying to preserve the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which is again on the chopping block.
http://www.aca.ch/joomla/images/pdfs/comm12.pdf
ACA and AARO are working very hard and have some really great people, but can only get so far as long as the American Diaspora is without representation in Congress– which unfortunately will never happen.
Spartacus
PS: Another link to another fairly recent letter written by ACA and AARO to the traitors of liberty in Washington. If old George had only known what would be done to Americans abroad from the city bearing his name.
http://www.overseasamericansweek.com/documents/2010/Position%20OAW%202010%20-%20Tax%20-%20February%2017-1.pdf
@Arrow:
I suspect the plan is to implement FACTA, then quickly repeal the FEIE. Americans abroad will then be completely trapped unless they managed to successfully renounce beforehand.
@ Spartacus — Hindsight is 20/20 — seems to me:
I wish that these organizations had worked toward RIGHT OF CHOICE FOR US CITIZENSHIP, not blanket change of the rules to make us all have US citizenship reinstated for everyone who thought they had relinquished — and a choice for our children born as “Accidental Americans”. We wouldn’t have so many unjust problems now (for some of us) having this extraneous citizenship hanging from our necks and those of our children.
Interesting article for many years ago(1990s showing how the problem has evolved.
http://www.famguardian.org/Subjects/LawAndGovt/Citizenship/Renounce.htm
I’ll comment more later but my sense this problem has been a long time running and perhaps the Chretien government should have stepped in more back in those days. There actually some tax consequences I never realized existed back then and perhaps could come back in future like inheritance tax on all property distributions like foreign(Canadian only) spouses no matter how small the amount.
I believe Peter is right.
They want to implement FACTA, so they can run after collecting penalties on FUBARS, and of course also repeal the FEIE.
A well thought out plan, probably dreamed up by some think tank.
This is an amazing discussion. I’m a few hours ahead of you folks so I didn’t get back here until morning.
Yes, There is enormous suspicion. Even my closest friends and family in the U.S. are a lot less sympathetic and a whole lot more ambivalent about this than I ever imagined. I’ve never heard a single political leader mention us. I’ve only heard Obama talk about us once last year in a fourth of july message to military and other overseas americans. The US is very behind the times. States are recognizing their diasporas. It was back in 1990 that the prime minister of Hungary said, “In spirit I consider myself to be the prime minister of 15 million Hungarians.” He was referring to 10 million people with Hungarian citizenship and 5 million people of “Hungarian origin.” India, Mexico and other countries have conferred similar recognition. It’s part of playing in a globalized world – your diasporans are one of your best assets.
While I am not watching the interview myself I am seeing twitter comments indicating that Paul Volcker is essentially mocking the complaints over extraterritoriality of his Volcker Rule by the Canadian government in an interview on Bloomberg TV. I think perhaps Mr. Volcker will be the next inductee to the Isaac Brock Society Hall of Shame if he is really “mocking” Carney, Flaherty et al.