Editors Note: Al Lewis has now written an excellent article telling the our side of the story. Thanks, Al (and welcome to the Isaac Brock Hall of Fame!).
Al Lewis tries to shame former Americans in this hit piece at marketwatch.com a subsidiary of the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps you should have spoke with at least one person who ever renounced his or her citizenship. Shame on YOU, Mr. Lewis and shame on your editor for allowing you to publish. That just makes you a bigot with a platform. It is to the shame of the brain-dead media that such pieces of journalistic refuse can even see the light of day. Please, next time you want to write a screed that punishes a class of people for their actions, do your homework, like the young, promising Reuter’s journalist, Atossa Abrahamian, who actually spoke with numerous people who had renounced or were planning to renounce their citizenship.
Here is sample of Lewis’ brilliance on display:
You and about 1,780 other expatriates did this last year, according to Andy Sundberg, secretary of Geneva’s Overseas American Academy, as quoted in a report this week by Bloomberg. That’s up from 235 in 2008, when the U.S. launched a major crackdown on UBS for helping ingrates like you illegally dodge their taxes.
Caught between your money and your country, you chose your money. You sold your American soul.
@bubblebustin
Not a problem. I saw it there too..
That was definitely one of the most scathing, insulting, and shallow articles I have ever read. It was so bad I feel threatened by this guy Lewis. What a dolt.
What choices do we have when our congresspeople don’t listen to us USPs (US Persons = US Prosecuted) and the IRS just treats us like a herd of cows to be milked? We are being messed about even in our countries of residence, whether we are tax compliant or not.
Lewis, you are an ignoramus! And you have committed defamation!!!! You should pay us damages for your nasty idiocy!!!! Journalists are supposed to be smarter than that!
Friends at IBS, I say we sue this guy for defamation and use the damages for our defense. Anybody want to take the case?
Reblogged this on Stop Unconstitutional Double Taxation and commented:
This was one of the most scathing articles I have seen in the the American press about USPs abroad. (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tax-dodgers-are-proudly-un-american-2012-05-04?link=MW_latest_news)
With people in the press writing articles like this, it is no wonder homelanders have the wrong opinion about us.
@Jefferson, I believe that many Americans want to know the truth about issues like this, so when creeps like him don’t bother investigating the truth, or worse LIE, they do a disservice to ALL Americans.
Al Lewis on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Lewis_(columnist)
As a journalist I would give him an F, as a propagandist an A+
Perhaps he should be notified of his induction into the Isaac Brock Society Hall of Shame.
Maybe someone who is a good writer should note this article in Wikipedia. I think anyone can make changes. Something along the lines of “On May 5th, Al Lewis wrote an extremely inaccurate and biased article. The article was subsequently criticised as being a worthless piece of garbage 🙂 on the Issac Brock Society website”.
@Ben Franklin: I’d bet Al Lewis wrote his own Wikipedia article as a vanity project. Normal Wikipedia articles are written by editors who work on lots of different subjects and who add both positive and negative details about a subject. E.g. here’s my Wikipedia contribution history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions/Quant18&offset=&limit=500
In contrast, the Al Lewis article on Wikipedia written entirely by a single user called “Mere Scribe” who only writes about Al Lewis-related topics, and all it talks about are the awards he’s won and what a great guy it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Al_Lewis_(columnist)&action=history
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions/Mere_Scribe&offset=&limit=500&target=Mere+Scribe
Thanks, Joe Expat! I appreciate the link. My situation is incredibly complicated, as much as I would love to relinquish my U.S. citizenship. My U.S. taxes are a mess (even though I’ve earned next to nothing in the nine years I’ve lived in Canada) and I can’t afford to dig myself out.
@Laura, it might be interesting for you to try to get some IRS subsidized assistance in filing US taxes:
http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2012/05/05/are-you-too-poor-to-file-us-income-tax-apparently-my-husband-and-i-are/
It would be very interesting to see what kind of response a non resident would get.
Al Lewis has a blog called “Tell it to Al” where his hit piece is also posted:
http://newswires-americas.com/tellittoal/
In case anyone is interested, the comments are still open on Al’s blog for his hit job article on ex-pat renunciations.
Nobody has commented yet so maybe its only Al who reads it.
@Ben Franklin
Thanks for that link. I did go make a comment, and tried to engage him, rather than flame him. I was critical, but I think in a measured way. I posted it here, but it is in moderation, and he may not be interested. We shall see. I invited him here, to learn the “real story”…
http://bit.ly/yYwNgS
@Just me
Great! You gave him an opportunity to redeem himself. Hopefully he accepts it.
Eric – I have had three very widely separated connects with Wikipedia building, years apart, first one way back when it was calling itself Nupedia. Last one last fall, a never-go-back-ever experience. There has been a trajectory. I had a good coversation recently with a techie friend who had just read a history of the enterprise. Walk in through the backdoor these days and stumble into a geekish hell. The information architecture (not necessarily the individual articles) is putrid. The softer the data, the less trustworthy. Physics better than politics, etc. Al’s self-promotion is case in point. Nothing on Wikipedia should be considered “normal.”
@ Ben Franklin… Well to my surprise, he approved my comment, so maybe he is open to new thinking…
http://bit.ly/J4a5GS
@Just Me
Very well written and critical, but very constructive. I am pleased he approved it.
Hopefully Mr. Al will now be motivated to dig deeper into the issues and try to put himself into the shoes of 6 million ex-pats being steam-rolled with abusive legislation.
At the very least, the links will give him something to chew on for a while.
Maybe he will want to interview Petros.
Attn: Al Lewis
You wrote:
“Caught between your money and your country, you chose your money. You sold your American soul.”
You obviously don’t understand the issues.
When I renounced my US citizenship, I regained my American soul by adhering to the moral compass of America’s founders.
Here is my comment awaiting moderation at Al Lewis’ blog (edited slightly):
Hi Mr Lewis. This is Peter W. Dunn. I renounced my citizenship. My maternal grandparents left Korea in 1905. My paternal ancestors left Scotland in 18th century. I left the United States in 1986; I married a Canadian, and I didn’t see why the United States should inherit my estate that my Canadian wife earned with her own hard work in a Canadian company with no ties to the United States, just because I was an American. Do you think Korea was entitled to tax my grandfather after he moved to Hawaii to work on sugar plantations? Oh at that time, Korea had been annexed by Japan, so perhaps he should have been sending tax returns to Japan until the end of WWII, when the Japanese occupation of Korea ended. Does that make sense to you? If my grandfather renounced his Korean citizenship to be able to live freely in America, wouldn’t you be proud of him, a new American citizen? Did you know the renunciation of all previous citizenships and loyalties is actually a part of the oath of US citizenship?
Sir, with all due disrespect, you got this story wrong. I think because you’ve really met so few people who have renounced their citizenship. It is therefore proper, if you are going to shame us, that you be added to our Hall of Shame (perhaps you can add that to your list of honours on your bio page). You drew first blood. But perhaps yours is a sin of ignorance. If so, I recommend that you talk to some of us. There is a story here; but it is not the one you’ve told.
Another comment at Al Lewis’ blog:
Here is my statement at my renunciation ceremony at the US consulate in Toronto on April 7, 2011:
I have lived in Canada most of my adult life. I have married a Canadian. After so many years in Canada it became clear that I have a great attachment to Canada, to my Canadian friends, to my Canadian wife and her family, and to my church community in Canada. I felt that it was therefore necessary to become a Canadian citizen so that I may become a full member of this great and wonderful country and its people. Therefore, I applied for Canadian citizenship in 2010, and I also had, even at that time, the intention of relinquishing my US citizenship. For in taking my pledge to the Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II, on February 28, 2011, I realized that it would be absurd for me to be of divided loyalty. My duty to the Queen and to the Dominion of Canada precludes me from maintaining citizenship in the United States of America, since when one country calls me to serve, dual citizenship could potentially create a conflict of interest. To avoid all such conflicts, I have decided with my full volition and all my heart, to relinquish my United States citizenship once and for all, realizing that it is an irrevocable act.
Your attitude is that the United State is the only good country in the word, “Imagine abandoning a country that, more than any other, makes free enterprise and personal wealth possible throughout the world, just to save on taxes.” Well, this isn’t exactly true when you consider that you are exporting currency that is printed in a printing press and otherwise have trade deficit for the last 35 years. This means that the rest of the world is actually making the United States wealthy.
You see, when dual citizenship means filing two sets of tax returns, one to Revenue Canada and one to the IRS, it became a no-brainer to renounce my citizenship. I hadn’t made that much money, and as soon as my income from investing (in Canadian companies–not American companies as if I owe your country a penny) became too much, the tax returns become too complicated and fraught with pitfalls and draconian penalties. It is a major headache. Nor could I start a company here in Canada without first renouncing. We are not free to live our lives as normal people in our country of residence, because your country can’t balance its budget and is expecting US persons around the globe to make up the budget deficit.
@just me. Nice job in restraining yourself. You can feel the anger simmering below the surface.
@just me Excellent post to Al’s site. Very diplomatic and well put.
@petros Maybe Al can invite you for an interview, written or oral. Maybe he will turn around and understand our dilemas, just like Pete the Planner
@ Jefferson. Thanks for that. I wanted to be measured, and try to engage him rather than just flame him, which would be easy to do. It would seem, that there would be some natural alignments between our positions, as the WSJ conservative views on liberty and justice should match many sentiments expressed here. So looking for the common ground.
@geez @eric Is somebody here at IBS a Wikipedia authoring member (or preferably, does somebody know a non-IBS member who is active at Wikipedia?) I was thinking not only of annotating Al Lewis’ entry (if we do it in such a way that the annotation doesn’t get deleted due to terms of use), but also creating an entry for IBS. However, the Wikipedia terms of use discourage articles about one’s own company, website, organization, etc. As I understand it, a website needs to be “notable”. I think we qualify.
I would title the entry “Isaac Brock Society (An Online Focal Point for US Persons Abroad Concerned About United States Government Extraterritorial Policy).”
I would try to put something very brief up, but I am afraid it might be refused as I am not exactly a neutral 3rd party, having been a very vocal and sometimes contraverisal author at IBS through my occasional position paper posts and frequent rants. I would not want to bungle the attempt at creating an acticle that might subsequently not be accepted.
For the text of the article, we could start off with something like:
///////// BEGIN
The Isaac Brock Society (http://www.isaacbrocksociety.com) was organized on September 12th, 2011 as an online forum for United States Persons (US Citizens and Green Card Holders) Abroad, as well as their friends, families and other interested parties worldwide, to obtain information on, and debate, US Government extraterritorial policy of interest.
On or about April 4th, 2012, the site reached an historical total of 500,000 hits, and it has become a focal point for people all over the world upset and or frightened by US Government policies as to US Persons abroad. The site has been maintaining an average activity level of approximately 30,000 hits per week since mid-February, 2012.
Although originally founded by current and former US Persons living in Canada, or having some connection to Canada, all are welcome at the site. Isaac Brock Society is an informal, unincorporated, non-profit, non-partisan organization……….
//////////END
But we will need to figure out what “references” to use. For example, how can we prove the facts I just stated above seeing that I believe one needs to be an Author to see statistics about IBS hits? We need that to assist in proving notoriety— though we do come up in Google.
Also, Wikipedia might be a good place to put the very meaningful to us, but sometimes cryptic, glossary of terms used at IBS, Hodgen and other sites when discussing our issues: USP, whale, minnow, homelander, congresspeople, the dual definition of “expatriate” (renunciant/relinquishant vs. person living/working abroad, UDHA, right to renounce, and many more). I think that these terms have encyclopedic value in the sense that they have been used as a sort of lingua franca in our circles for some time now. They are a sort of dialect or technical jargon used by probably thousands of people now, something that is game for Wikipedia I know we discussed setting up a lexicon at IBS but I don’t know if anybody followed up.
On another note, it appears to me that other partners in the informal community of websites and organizations surrounding our issues do not yet have Wikipedia articles? Examples: ACA, Phil Hodgen, Steve Mopsick, Jack Townsend ,renouncecitizenship, and Association of Americans Resident Abroad (AARO), as well as many others I’m sure y’all can think of. However, Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel is covered in a Wikipedia article, go figure. I think in any Wikipedia article about IBS, we should do justice to other sites and organizations interested in our issues. In some cases, it was actually these organizations that brought some of us together at IBS (eg Petros met Jeff in an exchange of ideas about constitutionality on Phil’s blog).
A Wikipedia article would also probably increase our hits, although according to Wikipedia’s terms, that cannot be our motivation for the article.
However, I think that the existence of IBS is of historical import. Our coming together at IBS is just as important as the Boston Tea Party, we just have new technology so we don’t have to waste good tea and destroy other’s property to get the word out about how disgruntled we are.
@Just Me
I also just posted the following to Al’s page (http://newswires-americas.com/tellittoal/2012/05/02/rich-increasingly-renounce-u-s-citizenship/comment-page-1/#comment-1316):
@Al Although I was initially really upset by your article, in hindsight this is an opportunity to bring the issues to the forefront, clarify the extent of US policy, and permit concerned US Persons Abroad to debate with people in the US media who seem historically to have concentrated 95% of their media coverage on the extraterritorial tax issues of the very wealthy (“whales”). I think the American people; especially “homelanders” need to know what is really going on.
The reality is, US policies especially crush middle class USPs (US Persons = Green Card or US Citizenship) Abroad whether they are tax compliant to the US or not. The reporting requirements of FATCA and FBAR (FATCA having apparently been passed as a rider to the HIRE act without much real open Congressional debate on the issue) are causing US Persons abroad, many of whom are dual nationals of their country of residence or a third country, to lose their jobs, be refused even basic bank accounts, and be shunned by prospective non-USP business partners who don’t want to deal with dual-reporting and taxation requirements to the IRS.
Most working and middle-class “minnows” abroad pay local, regional, and national taxes in the countries where they live, as well as VAT, excise and other taxes and fees. Whether these taxes are lower or higher that what they would pay as “homelanders” (USPs resident in the US) is immaterial. They all pay their fair share where they live according to the local system negotiated through whatever political means extant. They have to deal with the advantages and the drawbacks of their local countries’ system and do not need and often cannot survive with the additional variables imposed by the IRS.
US extraterritorial taxation policy does not take into account the disparities caused by the shift in exchange rates (thanks perhaps largely to US “quantitative easing”) that pushes people into higher US tax brackets despite no increased local purchasing power, the cost of living in each foreign country, as well as the tax structure in the foreign countries (for example, some countries have a much higher VAT than the US sales tax, but VAT paid outside the US is not eligible for a Foreign Tax Credit in the US).
US Double Taxation also takes money rightfully earned in a foreign country out of the local economy, where USPs should be free to spend or invest their money. Non-USP family members of USPs are also adversely affected, despite having no allegiance to the US.
Working and middle-class USPs have recently reached retirement age to discover that they have outstanding US tax liability, or while having no US tax liability due to the (limited) Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) and Foreign Tax Credit (FTC), might owe confiscatory penalties on foreign tax-deferred or tax-exempt retirement plans that were not reported to the US (see FBAR). Many USPs abroad renounce because their pensions would not count as “Earned Income” and they could not survive if they paid US double taxes.
As Just Me encouraged you to do, I would also welcome you to read extensively on sites such as http://www.isaacbrocksociety.com , http://www.aca.ch and many other sources and sites that are cross-referenced on these sites.
I would also encourage you to seek to interview “minnow” USPs abroad to get their side of the story. Recently, one of our founding members at Isaac Brock, Peter Dunn (“Petros”), was interviewed by a similarly-named Indianapolis financial radio talk-show host who had initially taken a very dim view of USPs abroad renouncing their ties to the US, but who came to understand our dilemma. See http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2012/04/20/radio-interview-with-pete-the-planner/
American Citizens Abroad has also participated in a series of radio interviews in the Geneva region: http://www.aca.ch/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=504&Itemid=97.
I wish you good luck in covering these issues and trust that you will be more objective in the future while seeking the truth and the whole story.