Monthly Archives: August 2014

So join with me in the singing of the commemorative song, and toast with me to all that is is possible in a group effort! We are fighting our War of 2012, FATCA.

China fighter jets intercepted a US military patrol plane flying near its coast. The Pentagon reacted that their maneuver was “unsafe and unprofessional”. China says that  the USA is “a disgusting thief spying over his neighbor’s fence”.

That is what FATCA is. FATCA is the United States being a disgusting thief spying on the bank accounts of people who have citizens in their countries of residence. By forcing FATCA on other countries, the USA is indeed the biggest rogue nation in the world, and “spying over the fence” is an appropriate metaphor–the fence being that of normal banking privacy. The USA is a financial voyeur.

Here is the full article of the Sina News response originally in Chinese (translation at Simon Black, Sovereign Man, emphasis his):
Continue reading →

#FATCA #IGA ALL British trusts will be reviewed at expense of client; even w/out ANY US indicia http://t.co/2hL3nOXMes Please RT widely

— U.S. Expat Canada (@USExpatCanada) August 23, 2014

“Some individual customers are being contacted by their banks or other financial providers if, for example, they appear to have links with the US or own property there. But tens of thousands of other families are beginning to receive letters, and invoices, simply because they have established run-of-the-mill family trusts.”

The family in the article owes at least $635 CDN plus VAT. This is beyond outrageous. At what point will people begin to take action?

Article is HERE

American Citizens Abroad has posted an update with information concerning their efforts to replace Citizenship-based Taxation with Residence-based Taxation. They are also calling for testimonials about how legislation is affecting you and for your support in by writing the Tax Committee directly responsible for tax reform and asking for the implementation of RBT.
 
Update on Residence-Based Taxation RBT – August 2014

ACA has been hard at work in Washington, DC bringing RBT to the attention of the legislature and the Administration. ACA has met with all the members of the Americans Abroad Caucus, and the Ways & Means and Senate Finance committees. ACA has been asked by the committees involved in tax reform to provide our input on the tax treatment of Americans living and working overseas. We are proud that ACA is now the government “go to” source for information on many of the issues affecting overseas Americans, and we regularly submit comments to government hearings on issues important to our membership.

Media attention on the issues of overseas Americans is growing. More and more major media outlets like Bloomberg, CNN, Forbes, Time, Politico and others are talking about RBT and FATCA. Much of this attention is due to the ACA commitment to bringing the issues of overseas Americans to the attention of the media. ACA is regularly solicited for interviews and quoted in the media.
Continue reading →

Jack Townsend says that civil disobedience is only really justifiable in the case that there is a possibility of jury nullification, but no jury of US citizens would find a tax evader Canadian citizen “not guilty” for shirking the US tax code. Furthermore, he says that Americans don’t admire those who do their disobedience in hiding. I offer here the continuation of our discussion:

Jack wrote: Continue reading →

Patrick Cain, Global News, August 21, 2014: Want to shed U.S. citizenship? Get in line.
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UPDATE: August 27, 2014

State Department to hike renunciation fees to US$2,350; says “no public benefit” in respecting human right to change nationality

UPDATE: August 22, 2014

The Patrick Cain article itself can use some comments, which uses Facebook, Yahoo, AOL or hotmail. There are only four there — the last saying “Being little brother has its benefits. But it also comes with a cost.”

(Correct!: Costs to stay within the new Berlin Wall and cost to get over it.)

One comment (Innocente) reports:

When the US DOS set the renunciation price at $450 in 2010, it stated that it covered less than 25% of the cost. Will the new price be increased to $1,800 ($450/.25) or perhaps $2,250 ($450/.20)?

Also, see the reasoning for the subsidized $450 below:

“Schedule of Fees for Consular Services, Department of State and Overseas Embassies and Consulates

A Rule by the State Department on 06/28/2010

Documentation for Renunciation of Citizenship

The CoSS demonstrated that documenting a U.S. citizen’s renunciation of citizenship is extremely costly, requiring American consular officers overseas to spend substantial amounts of time to accept, process, and adjudicate cases. A new fee of $450 will be established to help defray a portion of the total cost to the U.S. Government of documenting the renunciation of citizenship. While the Department decided to set the fee at $450, this fee represents less than 25 percent of the cost to the U.S. Government. The Department has determined that it must recoup at least a portion of its costs of providing this very costly service but set the fee lower than the cost of service in order to lessen the impact on those who need this service and not discourage the utilization of the service, a development the Department feels would be detrimental to national interests. See 31 U.S.C. 9701(b)(2).”

Another says:

Today I visited the consulate in Vancouver. … Both the clerk and the Consular encouraged me to renounce not relinquish as my relinquishment would be denied and I would have to come back later to renounce and then the fee would be going up to I think they said 2800.00 but it might be 2400.00 I stopped listening after they repeated no relinquishment one too many times. I insisted they forward my file to Washington.

So what will be the new fee that is a guaranteed right to renounce and when will it be implemented?

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As is pointed out, in Patrick Cain’s article:

Pushing the appointment into next year doesn’t just frustrate the impatient, however – it adds an entire year to U.S. tax reporting. Someone making an appointment now to renounce in Toronto in January wouldn’t be able to log out of the U.S. tax system until June 2016.

However, people can work the phones and find a U.S. consulate that can give them an earlier appointment, Nightingale says:

“If Toronto is booked up, you can go somewhere else. You can go to the Montreal consulate; you can go to the embassy in Ottawa.”

The U.S. State Department estimates that about a million people considered American under U.S. law (who may also be Canadian citizens) live here. In theory, all of them, unless their income falls under minimum levels, are supposed to file tax returns with the IRS, and report their bank accounts to an arm of the U.S. Treasury Department called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, on pain of heavy fines.

In practice, few did until recently.

Got something to say about citizenship, #FBAR, #FATCA and renouncing? @taxgirl has a guest post opportunity for you: http://t.co/FqTBj0bZ3w

— Rachel Millios, EA (@RachelMillios) August 20, 2014

Kelly Phillips Erb, a commentator on Tax issues at Forbes, has put out a call for posts to be submitted for her blog.

“It’s my annual call for guest posts! As I have done for the past few years, I’ll be turning over the blog to my readers for an entire week.

This year, I’m offering readers the chance to answer one of six tax-related questions:

• To combat inversions and other tax planning techniques for corporations, do you think Congress should lower corporate tax rates?
• Do you support repeal of the federal estate tax?
• Would you be willing to give up your citizenship if it meant you would save money in taxes?
• Should our Social Security system be privatized?
• Would you support a commuter tax by the mile if it meant the elimination or reduction of excise taxes on gas?
• If you could make one significant change to the existing Tax Code (change a rate, eliminate a deduction or something else), what would it be and why?”

 
Ms Erb indicates that each question relates to some corresponding pending legislation or active discussion in the Congress. Perhaps a chance to inform them that that is not what is going with renunciation?
 
More info Here