There has been a new petition launched on the White House Web site with this proposal:
WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Change US tax law from citizenship based law to residence based law.
The above link to this petition was alerted to me by Bertpug on Shadow Raider’s thread about rewriting of the Internal Revenue Code.
ACA is announcing the petition on its website and in its news update and probably on its FACEBOOK.
I thought we should headline it here, so it has more visibility. It is a long road to 25,000 signatures requiring an Obama Administration response. Realistically it will have absolutely no resonance or support with Homelanders and the newsertainment media. It certainly should be more impactful and important than the petition to deport Piers Morgan. However, sadly, we know it will not, unless enough Americans abroad raise their heads from the sand and do something!
Yesterday morning around this time, it only 271 signatures. This morning it has gone to 377. Only 24,623 to go!
*In order to sign this petition you must have a White House Account.
In order to sign up for a White House Account you must have a US Zip Code
It is immediately obvious the persons with the most interest in signing this petition are those residing outside of the United States.
Is this a Catch 22 situation, or are the cards deliberately stacked against this petition?
@Roger…
Obviously Americans only live on its shores where a zip code exists. 🙂 I would just use your last zip code when last resident in America.
*@Roger, the Zip Code is not a required field, only e-mail address, first name and last name, I just posted without using a Zip Code.
*@Bruce, I missed that the ZIP code is optional. But since I do live in the US It was not a problem for me. Anyway, I signed the petition and my signature has been counted. I wonder what will hapen when the total signatures reach 25,000.
*Thank you Just Me for posting this on the headline.
My Canadian postal code worked. Even if we are short it still felt good.
Want to bet the odds of reaching 25,000 signatures will increase mulifold if FATCA is implemented, in direct support of the theory that FATCA will bring the end to citizenship based taxation?
*@Bubblebustin, although not yet fully implemented, FATCA is already partly implemented as US citizens and Greencard holders living abroad are already painfully aware, since they were requred to submit IRS FATCA Form 8938 with their 2012 US income tax return for tax year 2011.
So Spread the WORD about this petition my every way and means you know how to those who submit US tax returns living abroad, and to all of your friends, neighbors and relatives as well. I am circulating the link among my friends who live in the US.who have lived abroad or who are otherwise aware to the destruction citizenship based taxation is or has created in their lives.
@Roger
I’ve also posted it to my Facebook page and intend on emailing it to as many people I can. This is the kind of winter virus we USP’s need!
Information about this needs to get inside colleges & universities in the US. Is there already a plan for this by ACA? Seems like a prime place for some education about this topic.
Don’t forget Twitter. Have done so to all CDN politicians we know are “US Persons” and the organizations like DemsAbroad, etc. Just Me has hit a lot of the expat groups.
There are 451 signatures at the moment and ACA has the link on their website. Could we put one here?
Wonder if we could somehow transpose the previous petition that Rami/ACA had (has?) going, the one many of us signed in the beginning?
@NobleDreamer…
Yes, don’t forget twitter, and does anyone do Reddit? I have been doing a few there too!
Anyone with accounts on the following forums, please post:
http://www.englishforum.ch/finance-banking-taxation/
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/expat-tax/
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?board=11.0
@Johnson Done as to englishforum.ch.
@All Perhaps you could put your comments on englishforum.ch thread I just created, enjoining everyone to sign with your arguments. http://www.englishforum.ch/finance-banking-taxation/165906-end-citizenship-based-taxation-petition-whitehouse-petition-whitehouse-gov.html#post1760351
@Johnson
Thanks for those suggestions. I do not have accounts at any of those, but I keep signing up for every possible opportunity I can, so tomorrow when I am more fresh, I might just do that! Keep spreading the word anywhere you can.
@Jefferson D. Tomas
I will in the morning. btw, thanks for your comment at Nigel Green’s post. and back to you @Johnson, you might express your opinion of FATCA there.
*Most overseas Americans will feel far too afraid to put their name on a document like this. Sadly.
*I’m afraid you’re right star. I don’t intend to. I just want to drop the citizenship, clear the tax hurdle and forget about it. Setting up an account will just give them more names to work with if they feel like it. It’s not that I don’t back the sentiment 100% because I do. I just don’t see it having any effect whatsoever on the powers that be. Even if it reaches 25,000, the answer will be blah, blah, blah, how much money we’re raking in by chasing these traitorous un-American American tax evaders. And given the speed at which the government works FATCA will be long implemented before they ever get around to repealing it.
If I already had my CLN in my hand and knew the tax situation was okay, I’d sign, but I’m not going to do it otherwise.
@star,
Sadly so….They will get their reward when FATCA comes knocking! Without being too unkind, they are Ostriches with chicken feathers, but maybe I can understand it. It probably isn’t a fair criticizm, as I have paid the cost to be compliant.
Change doesn’t happen without taking some risks. If they are unwilling, or unable, then they might as well get rid of that U.S tax and Penalty club passport as soon as possible. There is a thread here that can help them.
@johnson Somebody has already posted a mention of the petition to http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=78259.0 I responded with a list of sites and organizations that many of us use for information about our issues.
@All, perhaps by commenting at talk.uk and making further arguements beyond the obvious that double taxation and reporting are unfair, we can get more people active on our issues.
@Jefferson..
Haven’t had time to create an account, or comment, but did want to acknowledge yours which was very good!
I just signed it. It’s now up over 600. If you look below the petition, you can see more about who signed it. It was created by someone whose address is Florida, and a lot of the people have addresses in US states. Maybe we have more support among homelanders than we knew about.
@CanuckDoc
I posted a link to it in the comments for IRS wants Canada to nab U.S. tax cheats: Why we should care“
(I also go as honeebadger- those who know me know why)
@CanuckDoc
I wondered who that was, and I too posted one as FBAR_Compliant. I see a couple other Brockers, but a lot I don’t recognize, and frankly, that is encouraging to see other opposition out there. BTW, I am sure you have seen that the Don Whitey article was headlined here.
Number of signatures since 1/2/13 (the third column is the estimated number of signatures assuming a quadratic trend):
1/2/13 74 68
1/3/13 83 90
1/4/13 148 161
1/5/13 307 283
1/6/13 446 455
1/7/13 678 678
The quadratic trend seems to fit the data well so far. If the trend holds, the number of signatures should reach about 17,000 by the deadline of 1/28/13. If it were allowed a few more days, if would reach the required 25,000 on 2/3/13. But of course, this is a big extrapolation.
*I didn’t see anything about US citizenship being required, so I signed it. 🙂