UPDATE January 24, 2015: THIRD OF FIVE LEGAL BILLS PAID
[We now have a NEW POST taking us up to May 1, 2015. This post will be retired from service.]
On August 11, 2014, Constitutional Litigator Joseph Arvay filed a FATCA IGA lawsuit in Canada Federal Court on behalf of Plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen, the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty (en français), and all peoples worldwide. Read Alliance’s Claims and comment on our Alliance blog.
Chers amis et donateurs,
Ensemble, nous avons atteint notre but : ramasser les fonds nécessaires pour payer la troisième des cinq factures légales de notre poursuite judiciaire.
Ramasser 300 000 $ provenant de petits dons est un exploit tout à fait extraordinaire et nous invitons notre gouvernement canadien, ainsi que tous les autres gouvernements qui ont piétiné les droits de leurs citoyens, à en prendre bonne note.
Chaque jour, nous nous rapprochons de notre but. Déjà, nous avons ramassé plus de la moitié des fonds nécessaires pour payer les frais légaux de notre poursuite contre le gouvernement canadien et l’entente FATCA.
Si nous avons parcouru un si grand bout de chemin, c’est grâce à nos deux courageuses plaignantes, Ginny et Gwen, à nos donateurs provenant du Canada et de partout dans le monde, ainsi qu’aux administrateurs des sites Internet Isaac Brock Society et Maple Sandbox. Ils permettent tous à nos voix d’être entendues.
Merci !
L’équipe de l’ADSC
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Dear Friends and Supporters,
Together we have reached our goal of paying off the third of five retainer fees for our Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit.
Raising $300,000 from small donations is a pretty amazing achievement and we ask the Government of Canada, and those other governments who have also tossed away rights of their citizens, to take notice.
It’s still a marathon, but we are more than half way to pay off the Federal Court legal costs.
We have come so far because of our brave Plaintiffs, Ginny and Gwen, our Canadian and International donor-supporters, and the administrators of the Isaac Brock and Maple Sandbox websites who make it possible for our voices to be heard.
Thank you all,
—The ADCS-ADSC team
@ All – Anyone out there sufficiently tech-knowledgable to put out a FATCA YouTube that could go viral?
There were a couple from last Fall or Spring, good satirical ones that definitely hit the nail on the head RE the issues, but could use an updated one with lots of current facts and situations…….
@Moderators, I wonder if we could get a Republican big wig to do a guest post for IBS on why expats should support the GOP next Tuesday?
Selfish reason is to get something in print!!!! Like defund FATCA!!! Force FBAR indexing and country exemption under the Secretaries authority.
Ok, let’s get down to a little bit of facts and history to better understand what’s at stake.
First of all, why did the 13 first colonies in America go to revolution against the english empire. Yup, you bet, the main reason was taxes. The main reason the colonies started rebelling against ‘mother England’ was the taxation issue. The colonies debated England’s legal power to tax them and, furthermore, did not wish to be taxed without representation. This was one of the main causes of the Revolutionary War. Now how about that one for greedy little congressmen.
Read on further : http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-colonies-declare-independence
Second of all, the origin of citizen based taxation was the civil war. Yup again. To discourage soldiers from leaving the states they created citizen based taxes, just like the english they fought for independance did. Read on further : http://tax-expatriation.com/2014/04/01/the-u-s-civil-war-is-the-origin-of-u-s-citizenship-based-taxation-on-worldwide-incomes-for-persons-living-outside-the-u-s-does-it-still-make-sense/
So the real question is : Is this taxation rule still relevant in the 21st century ?
Not only is it very descriminating for US citizens like you and me abroad, but FATCA also creates serious damage to the United States and its economy!!!
Over here in France the AXA bank has thrown out all it’s US citizenship customers and I have received a FATCA form from my bank. As I arived in France in 1975 at the age of 9 years old, I’m going to get naturalized French sooner than I thought and give up my american passeport and nationality if I have to. On top of that, my mother is Dutch so heck, I don’t care. Thanks dad for bringing me to this lovely country. But it’s something that american citizens working for a couple of years abroad aiming to go back to the states will probably not do. And that’s where the economic factor comes in.
Most americans that are sent to work abroad are important people. Now, major companies don’t want to hire americans anymore, nore have them participate in their actions. You can easeliy mesure the negative impact on the US economy. read on : http://www.repealfatca.com/index.asp?idmenu=4&idsubmenu=121&title=News
and
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/congress/item/17273-new-u-s-tax-regime-is-devastating-experts-say
The only thing that will stop citizen based taxation is when the congress wakes up and realizes the harm it’s doing to the US economy, wich will come in the near futur.
From the Christian Science Monitor : http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2014/1028/Indians-stashing-black-money-beware.-High-court-wants-your-name-video
Indians stashing ‘black money,’ beware. High court wants your name (+video)
Supreme Court in Delhi tells lawmakers that a list of secret foreign bank account holders that may be hiding illegal funds must be handed over Wednesday.
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Now where do you think that a lot of this money (if the article is correct) ends up after traversing multiple jurisdictions around the world …. New York ? US Stocks, Bonds and Real Estate ? Hmmm I wonder what effect FATCA will have …. is that the whisper of a sucking sound starting exiting the US ?
Hello
I’m sure you will be interested to know that no american citizen is obliged to declare their revenue to IRS. It’s not in the constitution.
Just watch a former IRS agent talking about it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5-f9QX-HHI
His website : http://livefreenow.org/
@Steven
The video is very interesting because it plays into what many of us believe to be the truth instinctively, that if you are non-resident in the US you aren’t a US taxpayer unless you volunteer to be, and that the US government has gone to great efforts in bamboozling people into thinking they are US taxpayers. I wonder what Jim Bopp would have to say about what these folks are claiming. If true, there may be a basis to what Republicans Overseas hope to open the way for – former renunciants being able to have their US citizenships reinstated due to FATCA and the belief that US tax law applied to them.
steven and BB. This guy belongs to the lunatic fringe known as tax deniers. Sort of like holocaust deniers. They are given short shrift by the courts.
Bloomberg news video shows how clued out they are. It’s embedded in the ABC news story
http://news.yahoo.com/record-number-americans-renouncing-citizenship-because-overseas-tax-170200353–abc-news-topstories.html
@foo provided this information on a different thread where it might get lost so I’m reposting it here in case some of the quotes DA provided may be of use. Certainly they are all interesting.
@EmBee,
Here is a another quote I would like to follow up on. It was recently published in our Alliance blog:
If anyone has a more recent update on the renunciation booking time (summer, 2015?) for the Toronto Consulate could you please let me know asap on this thread or through the ADCS-ADSC website?
Thanks.
@Duke of Debon
These de-taxers hope to sell snake oil to FFI’s and USC’s alike. Their attractiveness will be in direct relationship with either’s desperation. Caveat emptor.
Here are some worlwide examples of what FATCA is doing to ordinary US citizens living abroad :
https://www.democratsabroad.org/sites/default/files/2014%20FATCA%20Research%20%20Stories%20of%20FATCA%20-%20Affecting%20Everyday%20Americans%20Every%20Day.pdf
What a shame and how bad it feels to be an American.
From the Desk of John Richardson : Shows for any US persons abroad that ADCS is a immensly worthy cause to donate to: ADCS now says the big fee increase for renouncing is not according to US law:
https://adcsovereignty.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/from-the-desk-of-john-richardson-co-chair-adcs-adsc-ca-letter-to-state-department-on-behalf-of-americansabroad/
Here’s the link to Tricia’s interview. Thank you Tricia!!! You were great!!!!
http://canadaam.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=480308&playlistId=1.2078587&binId=1.815911&playlistPageNum=1&binPageNum=1
Super Duper, Trish – clear and concise (and at 6:30 AM, too!!!!). Thanks (and a dozen cyber-hugs) for being a fabulous spokesperson for all of us.
Patricia Moon is an excellent spokesperson for the cause. Her interview was cool, coherent and balanced. As much as we all want to scream and curse at the wrong being done, such behavior will do nothing to enlist the sympathy of others. However, clear explanation of the facts will do a lot. Thank you Patricia!
Well done, Patricia!
I also say, thank you Patricia Moon, and Canada AM. I have eagerly shared this video with family and friends. So calmly done.
As regards the comment towards the end of this post that “there were only a small number of people who complained to the Department of State about the fee increase.”
I strongly suspect that hundreds of people complained, but the DOS has chosen to record only 66. As the sidebar explains, “ some agencies may choose to redact, or withhold, certain submissions (or portions thereof) such as those containing private or proprietary information, inappropriate language, or duplicate/near duplicate examples of a mass-mail campaign.”
I still cannot find any public display of the 66 comments, even though the comment period has been closed several days.
@ LM
What would you think of using this image when my husband posts a future FATCA kijiji ad? Is it too political? If it’s not a good idea then at least I’ve done a little venting with my FATCA monster’s help. 🙂 Hope this works — never did a dropbox thing before.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kinbpqx5efo1gnz/FATCAmonster007.pdf?dl=0
FATCA Debuked read on : http://www.aaro.org/banking/424-fatca-update-and-french-inheritance-law
FATCA Debuked read on : http://www.aaro.org/banking/424-fatca-update-and-french-inheritance-law
May not be as bad as it seems for ordinary americans living abroad
New ACA video on FATCA and CBT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxWFkLsDnio
Emphasizes the competitive disadvantage angle, rather than focusing on the suffering of regular folks abroad. Which makes it a bit dry, but maybe that is what will sell to the Homelanders — help them see their self-interest in fixing things, since they obviously don’t care one whit about us.
EmBee,
He could try the FATCA MONSTER image and see what happens. However, my experience with Kijiji ads is that sometimes when the text or image is “too loud” or “shocking”, their administrator may be cued by some “sensitive” or “letter-of-the-law-following” viewer and then may look at the ad more closely; if you are not selling some product or service locally, they may just shut down this (and all your other similar) ad(s).
This is what happened to my many FATCA ads back in late June and why the ads I’ve put up more recently have been straight-shooting but a bit “quieter”. I know, I know, one wants to shout and shake people up. But if there is a risk of banning the ad (and you or Mr. Embee from putting up any further ads for a while), that is a risk to consider. I’ll leave it to you and Mr. Embee.
Certainly, there is no reason not to use the “FATCA MONSTER” on any printed fliers you plan to hand out or post on bulletin boards. Actually, I think it is Soooooooo apt!
@All – – still looking for Brockers who live in, and are willing to post Kijiji ads in, provinces other than Ontario or Alberta. Come help spread the word………
@ LM
Thanks for your input. Maybe we’ll just stick to privacy shredder, tombstone and worried little blue piggy bank images. Anyway it’s always fun to dabble in photoshop, even if it’s just for therapy. My FATCA monster has made appearances in the past on our community bulletin boards — it had more staying power than my printed FATCA warnings. Does anyone else have images that might be useful? The_Animal has done some great anti-FATCA stuff (tombstone is his) but most are more shocking than my monster (love ’em though). BTW, @ LM, have you ever tried to post a video on kijiji? I was thinking of the ones ACA has done.
@ All
Here’s another dropbox image (something I came across somewhere in the internets recently). It seems appropriate since this is the day we might hear that the government has responded to the ADCS lawsuit.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g2c55ykopm45o1b/AAAIfCgsuNcng82tWrx86hCca?dl=0