The “Alliance For the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty” is prosecuting the first “Anti-FATCA” lawsuit in the world. Republicans Overseas has indicated that they expect the “Made in America” “Anti-FATCA” lawsuit to be commenced in the first quarter of 2015. We eagerly await that development. Information on the Republicans Overseas lawsuit is at FATCALegalAction. The announcement from Republicans Overseas appeared on their Facebook site.
Republicans Overseas deserves our congratulations for an amazing “inaugural year”. They are off to a truly fabulous start. Much has been done and much remains to be done.
I attended a Continuing Education conference last month (yes, any lawyer helping Americans abroad is in permanent student mode). One of the speakers suggested that the only reason that FATCA existed was because of U.S. “extra-territorial taxation”. As you know the U.S.A. is the only country in the world that claims the right to:
1. Levy taxes on people who do NOT reside in the U.S.; and
2. Levy those taxes on income and property not associated with the U.S.
Furthermore, many of the requirements of U.S. “Extra-territorial taxation” are NOT related to tax.The fact that an “edict” is found in the Internal Revenue Code does NOT mean that it is related to tax. (Was the purpose of the “HIRE” Act related to FATCA?) I’m thinking of the penalty laden reporting requirements. I’m thinking of the difficulties in operating businesses. I’m thinking of the rules that make “investing” and “retirement planning” very difficult. I am also reminded of the “special rules” governing marriages between U.S. citizens and non-citizen (AKA “alien”) spouses. I’m thinking of expensive U.S. tax compliance costs (tax returns that can easily exceed 100 pages RESULTING IN ZERO TAX OWING) required under threat of terrifying penalties The truth is that what the U.S. calls “citizenship-based taxation” (the word “citizen” makes it sound like these requirements are moral and patriotic) is really a form of:
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