Yearly Archives: 2012

Many Americans Abroad Surprised by Tax Code's Nasty Bite

Here is a well-researched and presented article by Brian Knowlton of the New York Times. It is journalism like this that tells our real story and the often tragic consequences for children born to US parents living in another country or those born in the US to parents from another country. None of these accidental Americans asked to be US citizens and somehow are not given a choice in the matter. Being born by this accident of birth, wouldn’t it be fair if there were a choice for them to accept or not that US citizenship at some point? A choice should be theirs, not that of the US!
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I came across the following remark from Don at hodgen.com :

Don says:   May 9, 2012 at 8:32 pm

… Other interesting news, Michelle Backmann has become a Swiss Citizen, strange but true.

I wonder what her stance on FATCA is?

Global Hang Outs on air is a new offering from Google that caught my attention tonight. It got me thinking about the possibilities of reaching a global audience in other ways then just waiting for the MSM.   Continue reading →

Crossposted from the Flophouse.  Okay, folks, am feeling perkier and so I thought I’d bring this one over.  This is a very modest attempt to explain some of the thinking behind a decision to renounce (or not) American citizenship.  I know there was another thread about this some time ago here at Isaac Brock so I’m sure there is nothing new here.  But given all the recent media attention about this issue, I thought it was timely to bring it up again.  This represents the state of my “internal committee” at this time.  Your mileage may vary.  🙂

The U.S. has a new export that is really taking off:  Americans.  In 2010 a record number of U.S. citizens decided to renounce their citizenship.  A mere drop in the bucket (under 2000) but a trend that has some people worried and others horrified and angry.  This topic has finally hit the mainstream media with articles in the New York Times and the Huffington Post.  Any discussion of why this is so tends to degrade very quickly into an emotional argument with lots of exclamation points, capital letters and a “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” mentality.  It’s a subject that hits all of us (homelanders and expatriates) right where we live.

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I have started reading a book called Last Call which is about the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s which I find similar to the current situation people face themselves here at IBS today. I did find an interesting review of the book by Macleans magazine about the impact and perhaps one might say benefits that accrued to Canada during prohibition.

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The Isaac Brock Society has received numerous spam messages of this variety in our comment stream:

Rita Jaffey:  By June 30th I have to make a decision about the FBAR. Still trying to figure out what the best choice is.

Jeneva Benafield:  I’m waiting until June 30th to come up with an FBAR decision. Maybe I’ll just stay an ex-pat.

Priscilla Outhouse:  I’m waiting until June 30th to make an FBAR decision. Maybe I’ll just stay an ex-pat.

The website for these messages is www.irsmedic.com.  We invite the owner of this domain to come here and explain, if possible, why these “people” (eight different messages by eight different names, but only five unique IP addresses), who have sent these messages, would do this.  I suspect it is an attempt to drum up business here at the Isaac Brock Society.   Caveat emptor.

ACA: “Thanks to Brian Knowlton (NYT) for his perceptive article regarding anger and frustration over the revised federal registration and ballot request form. NOTE that one can still use the previous (2005) version, with less invasive language. DO NOT LET this deter you from voting this year!!”

Change to Ballot Request Form Angers U.S. Expats

Here it is:

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1175497–go-away-american-millionaires-foreign-banks-turn-away-the-rich-as-tax-evasion-law-looms

A couple of comments:

Its just a reprint of a Bloomberg article but because its a Canadian newspaper I though some might be interested in making comments on the comments section.

I found the comments from US Congressman Richard Neal to be quite interesting. I think if ACA and Democrats Abroad want to truly show they are in this battle, they need to come out and denounce Congressman Neal TODAY.

Good article:

https://twitter.com/#!/renounceus/status/200240540183302145

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