The United States is in serious financial trouble. In 2011, the Federal Government borrowed over 40 cents for every dollar it spent, and the Federal Reserve Bank bought 61% of all the debt that the United States Treasury issued. When the Federal Reserve buys the debt, it is called “quantitative easing”, which is a euphemism for creating money out thin air (not money printing--but the creation of electronic money). Eventually, that will lead to high inflation, which is already becoming painfully visible in the prices for food and gas.
Tax freedom day in the United States is allegedly in April, but the hidden taxes of inflation make it much later in the year–in a manner that is completely dishonest. Henry Hazlitt wrote in Economics in one lesson (1949–in pdf) p. 20:
Here we shall have to say simply that all government expenditures must eventually be paid out of the proceeds of taxation; that to put off the evil day merely increases the problem, and that inflation itself is merely a form, and a particularly vicious form, of taxation.
Veteran investor Marc Faber suggests that wealthy people will likely face a minimum of 50% reduction of wealth due to inflation, war and civil unrest, and asset price collapse. How can people protect themselves? Physical gold, say some. But alas, gold investors fear desperate measures by confiscatory governments to seize gold and to try to stop the gaps of their own uncontrolled spending.
In this light, John Rubino of dollarcollapse.com predicts that people will have to practice civil disobedience in order to protect themselves against an out-of-control government that is tending towards dictatorship. For example, he suggests putting gold in a foreign bank where the IRS can’t get to it. I have also suggested in certain cases that civil disobedience is a proper reaction to the IRS. For example, it is high time that those of us who are living abroad as citizens of other countries begin to practice disobedience to the unreasonable and unconstitutional demands that the IRS has been making against us. We have the great advantage, over US-based people, of having already made our great escape from the tyrannical grasp of this country, once-great but now turned desperate and evil.
We must do this because we cannot possibly meet the demands of two taskmasters (or tax masters). We must learn to disobey cheerfully, so that our grief does not kill us.
Hat tip: Monty Pelerin
Petros said: “We must learn to disobey cheerfully, so that our grief does not kill us.”
The disobedience part is easy. Not letting the grief kill you feels impossible. Got any tips?
@omghesstillanamerican;
I just try to breathe, tell myself that I will survive this. To remember to eat, and to try to stop from dwelling on this long enough to get at least some sleep. It isn’t easy. I wake up in the night with heart racing – the way you do when you are afraid, and feel like you’ve dreamt that you’re being chased. Trying to accomplish something solid – writing letters, telling the TAS about the issues by making Systemic Advocacy submissions online – and talking with one of their representatives …. Feeling the company and support here…. Reminding myself that I am alive.
For anyone who wants to tell the IRS how they are hurting people needlessly, and how real the suffering is, try telling the Taxpayer Advocate through the SAMS http://www.irs.gov/advocate/article/0,,id=108952,00.html . Perhaps continuing to bombard them with the reality that this is causing real and lasting emotional, psychological and health harm – as well as the real monetary costs in paying for special assistance with forms, and opinions, etc.
Who can perform their duties in the family and at work with this hanging over them? How does that help the US if we are unable to function, and it destroys our ability to earn and disables us? Anyone here who can is trying to put an end to a lifetime shackled to the unjust demands – which are so draconian as to be unbearable – particularly since it just continues to get worse for those outside the US. What is the point of continuing to be a citizen if there are alternatives that are less painful? What kinds of political opposition has been born from this situation – and will continue long past our individual relief? Our children, and their children ‘abroad’ will not learn to love the US – they will only learn to fear it’s caprices and whims – the kind that crush you – even if by ‘unintended consequences’.
@ badger,
Thanks for reminding us of TAS SAMS http://www.irs.gov/advocate/article/0,,id=108952,00.html Note: the link won’t work (why is that for these IRS links?). Cut and paste — it is important information for all of us.
What is happening to us / our families is certainly Systemic.
Q: What is Systemic Advocacy?
A: Systemic Advocacy means identifying and addressing systemic tax problems by analyzing their root causes and recommending corrective action. In all facets of our work, we in the Office of Systemic Advocacy maintain independence and impartiality, and pursue recommendations from an impartial perspective. We may try to resolve problems by recommending administrative changes to IRS policy, procedures, and processes, or by proposing legislative remedies.
Thanks once again, badger. We have to continually remind ourselves of these things to get through this.
For me, I am constantly going from thinking ‘everything is going to be OK’ to ‘again, not being able to sleep thinking about it all’ and there being no shown resolution from the letters I have and continue to write to my government representatives — and TAS SAMS (mine regarding developmentally-delayed persons and discrimination, etc.). This wrecks havoc with our health and well-being, especially given the long period of time for most of us dealing with this.
Thank goodness for the Isaac Brock site for its support to all of us!
Happy Easter everyone!
@All, HAPPY EASTER!
@all,
http://nvinc.com/easterbunny.htm
Thanks badger and calgary411. I’m the kind of person who obsesses about problems until a final resolution is found. This is taking way too long … it’s been two years.
I’ve started to play a game called Shopper’s Paradise on my Playbook for a few hours in bed before I go to sleep. It helps a little bit because you have to stay focused on the game or you’ll lose and I hate losing.
Happy Easter/Spring all. Thank you and best wishes to you @saddened123, calgary411, and omghesstillanamerican (I obsess too). We all must hang in there – I continually tell myself that as long as I am alive, there is hope.
Can you imagine how much pain some people living in the US must be in right now? Some have lost their jobs and their homes. Probably living with relatives with no end in sight. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a spike in divorce rates.
We’re looking at this from a distance and just the side effects of what their government is doing is causing us so much grief.
I used to have so much faith in the United States’ ability to pull itself out of a jam but the last 3 years have destroyed my faith in them.
@omg
‘ but the last 3 years have destroyed my faith in them’. I agree and for me, that loss of faith in the US, has contributed to my own sense that I have personally lost part of my identity – ‘who I am’ as a person. And because I feel that my family south of the border does not understand, I feel they don’t care and it hurts.
But today is Easter and it is sunny in Vancouver so I will go for a walk on our beautiful seawall and do my best to forget this whole mess.
An itty bitty form let me down. If I had known about I-407 15 years ago I would be a relatively carefree Canadian in Canada right now. Instead I wake up in the night, screaming silently to myself, “I am Canadian! How can I possibly be a US person too?” When I lived in the USA I was referred to as an “alien” (it said so on my krptonite card) and now that I do not live there I am a “US person for tax purposes”. It is still hard to wrap my head around this. Now I am venturing into worrisome non-compliant territory by refusing to submit a 1040, FBAR and 8938 for myself. I must tentatively rely on the mercy of the Canadian gov’t to continue to protect me from the IRS until I die. I probably will not try to explain all of this to my American friends and relatives. Frankly it’s still too bewildering at this point to totally understand it myself. They already accept that I have not and will not travel to the USA because of my anti-war position. I think I’ll just let them continue to think that that is the only reason. Happy Easter to everyone at this wonderful, caring and informative site.
@Em, I really don’t think you have to fill out this form, it has been what 18 years so it seems that you have abandoned the Green Card, why would you have to fill out this form.. I meet a lady who has had a Green Card for 21 years, she said she was not doing anything, she also has a SSN but never went to the US to live or work. She has not been back to visit for 19 years.. She said in her eyes it is Null and Void by now. I mean I don’t know but I also asked this question on the Expat site for her and they said that she should not have to file anything it has been so long.. I would be interested to know for sure as well..I would not worry too much about it.
“In her eyes” and in the law’s eyes may be two different things. So, it would be wise to have clarification on this for anyone who might be in jeopardy in their travels to the States, rather than never crossing the border again. Is there a record of all the Green Cards ever issued (and subsequently abandoned with a form or otherwise) within the US that can be referred to — we don’t know, and this could just be more of our paranoia? Seems like another “Don’t Ask / Don’t Tell” dilemma to me.
You’re right, OMG. I contend that we are indeed the lucky ones, to have made our lives in our other countries of choice. It’s a new world out there.
@tiger, and all; getting outside is medicinal – because the sun continues to shine, the sea endures, the trees leaf out – and I will take that as encouragement to do the same.
@em, my Canadian relatives seem to understand and care more than the US ones. I just finished telling one all about the Kafka-esque/1984/Alice-through-the -Looking-Glass details of all of this. She couldn’t believe it was possible, and made the very good point that it sucks assets out of Canada and all the other countries where US duals/’persons’ live – to deliver to the US – with no benefit to our countries of residence. She hadn’t heard of FATCA either – so I asked her to tell everyone she comes across about it – because we need non-US status people to make a stink and publicize it too. And warn those thinking about going to the US not to fall into the trap of becoming a deemed US taxable ‘person’.
She had never heard of any of this issue – and said how good it was that this IBS site exists for information and support, and made suggestions as to who else we can get to publicize the issue – she suggested we contact Linda McQuaig the journalist, and Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians as possibilities.
Here is the link for the Council of Canadians:
http://canadians.org/trade/index.html
and this is Linda McQuaig –
http://www.lindamcquaig.com/Columns.cfm
Wonder if Michael Moore would be interested in us? http://www.michaelmoore.com/blogger/mmflint/
Being from Michigan, perhaps he knows of our FATCA friend Senator Levin Democrat (Michigan)? Maybe he would be interested in hearing from fellow citizens and duals because he has always referred to Canada in a complimentary way in his movies and books – he knows Canada exists! He makes note publically where other countries like Canada has better policies and practices. Maybe he has an interest in FATCA and the IRS intrusion beyond US borders?
@Badger, Good Idea!
Great ideas, badger. I’m going to see what I can come up with to send off to get someone interested in covering our many different struggles with IRS compliance in the face of IRS complexities beyond all reason. I sent an e-mail to The Corbett Report but there’s more to be done for sure. Should we keep our e-mails generalized or personalize them to our own situation? I think directing those we attempt to contact to the Isaac Brock Society for research is a good tactic too.
@Em
I think Michael Moore is a wild card. He is after all, a self-proclaimed big government socialist.
So I am not sure how he views expats, particularly the self-reliant pioneer types who live in the third world. There are a few of us on this blog.
But then again, I think Moore really did get it right with “Fahrenheit 911.”
I am sorry Em, my last post was meant for badger.
that is true @joe, he is unpredictable, but he is also very good at bringing attention to issues, is not afraid to take on controversy, and operates outside the strictures of the political parties. He was effective in bringing attention to problems of the underdog – and has mentioned Canada in relation to US issues in the past (ex. healthcare, gun control, etc.). He might enjoy interviewing some ‘Canadian grandma/grandpas’ and roasting the US ambassador’s facile statements that we should ‘just sit tight’ , that the US and IRS were not ‘unreasonable’. I doubt that he would support the ways in which the FBAR and FATCA are designed and applied, even if he saw no problem with citizenship based taxation. Those are reporting, not tax issues, and the draconian penalty structures – which the TAS noted re the possible conflict with the 8th? amendment might also be of interest to him as an American – that issue – of insane penalty structures (even in the absence of any tax owed) hits us re FBAR and FATCA, but there may also be other egregious examples that hit domestic US residents in other examples of IRS actions ? It’s a story with real dramatic possibilities….
Good idea @ Em, any avenue might help – who knows what will work?
By the way, All, I sent a letter to one of the large Canadian pension plans asking what they were doing to inform their members about FATCA – especially now that individuals have been required this year to file FATCA forms for 2011, and there still seems to be some question about whether pension plans (ex. OMERS http://www.omers.com/, Teachers OTPP http://www.otpp.com/wps/wcm/connect/otpp_en/Home/Corporate+Info/About+Us/, the Federal Public Service http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/pensions/psppg-corprfp-eng.asp and the like) will be exempted or not. Since all the plan members would be hit with the costs of the plan complying, and their members (teachers, firefighters, police, etc.) are the types of model citizens that are hard for the IRS to cast as ‘terrorists’, ‘moneylaunderers’ and ‘tax evaders’, any support we can get from pension plan members would be helpful. It is hard to justify why the OPP or my local police officer has to prove to the IRS that they aren’t criminals……
In addition, there is the privacy and the witholding aspect – and in a large pension plan, there is more responsibility to protect members than a bank might exercise.
In some of the biggest plans, the members approaching retirement age, or at the peak of their careers could easily move into that FATCA reporting threshold zone.
So anybody out there who belongs to a plan should be sending a letter asking what the plan is doing to educate and notify members on the current status of FATCA. That would stir up a whole other group of those who have been so far unaware.
Does anyone know if those types of pension accounts have to be reported also on FBARs – before distribution, as well as when plan benefits are actually received?
I imagine Moore would be interested in the hypocrisy of the US (via the UN) condemning Eritriea’s Diaspora tax while simultaneously taking steps to enforce its own Diaspora tax.
And anyone with common sense would see the injustices of taxation without representation or benefits.