41 thoughts on “Interview Opportunity — ABC News’ *Nightline* would like to interview an American living abroad who is in the process of renouncing his or her US citizenship…”

1. I just received this by email and putting it here as it is from Keith Redmond’s Facebook page (copied to me in an email — I still do not do Facebook)

   Keith Redmond shared XXXXX post.

   A truly heartbreaking story of a Canadian Accidental American…..

   ‎XXXXX to Accidental Americans

   I just received the following heartbreaking story from a Canadian accidental. I wish there was something I could do or say to make her pain go away. I can’t. The only thing I can do is speak up and fight back on her behalf.

   To all Accidentals. We need your stories and more stories. If we can collect more stories like this one out open letter to Obama will become extremely powerful. Please help us by 1) sharing your stories with us 2) writing to your domestic politicians asking them to act and also help you connect with other Accidentals 3) contact the press in your home country and 4) spread the word. Our strength is in numbers and nationalities.
   

   Dear President Obama,

   I am Canadian, married to an Accidental American, but we only found this out this summer, and it has turned our world upside down.

   My husband was born in xxx just because it was the closest hospital to the small border town his parents lived in, and medicare had not yet come to Canada, so the cost was the same here or across the border. He was taken home within a day of his birth, and lived his entire life up to now right in this same area. He grew up on a farm, and always dreamed of one day owning his own farm. We worked day and night to make that dream come true, went without to pay for the necessities, raised our children on our farm. Up until a few months ago, we were in the process of semi-retiring and our son taking over the farm, but now that seems impossible. We are faced with huge accounting fees, because there is so much work involved to comply when you own a business, and we will also face huge capital gains if we sell. All this just because of where he was born, it seems like we don’t have the right to live here in Canada. Our tax-free savings will be taxed, our investments will be taxed because they are “foreign” investments?? How are they foreign, we are Canadians!! Because we own a farm, we have over 2 million dollars in assets, so he can’t renounce without paying the exit tax. We are trapped, and for what? Because the US owns him? Because you need our money more than we do? We get nothing in return! I really don’t think you fully understand what this is doing to so many Accidentals who knew nothing about this until now. The amount of money you will get from us will make little difference to you, but will most likely bankrupt us and ruin our lives, lives we have struggled to make a success. You also know about the TPP and what that is doing to dairy farmers in Canada, because you are the county who wants to dump milk into Canada, so we are also losing there. Our future looks bleak. I have had to start taking anti-depressants and sleeping pills just to carry on. My husband is angry and moody, very hard to get along with. I fear that if this goes bad and he has to pay huge taxes, that I will lose him, he will kill himself before he will watch his farm fail and our son’s future be ruined. This is my biggest fear.

   Another problem here is that it is impossible to know where to turn, we have accountants everywhere who don’t know a thing about doing this and they just scare people into dropping it and “taking the chance” that they won’t get caught. The first accountant we paid to talk to told us so many things we later found out to be false, like the spouse has to file, the children have to file, he will have to pay taxes on my income, so many other things that were not true. We paid 3 account firms before we settled down and hired one to do it. The work involved in this was astronomical! My entire summer was swallowed up between farm work and US tax work!!

   So please, Mr. President, think long and hard about the people this is hurting. We are human beings trying to survive. You are a human being who holds in your hands the power to let us go, let us live our lives as we were before we learned of US citizenship taxation. Please, I beg of you, for thousands of Accidentals, give us our lives back, let us renounce without losing our businesses, our life savings, our hope for the future of our children and grandchildren. Do what you know is right, your proposal in the 2016 Green Book shows that you know about Accidentals and that is just isn’t right, please help us, let us go. We are not saying we want nothing to do with the US, that just isn’t the case, we respect the US for the most part, but knowing what citizenship taxation is doing to Accidentals and expats is disturbing to say the least.

   What am I LESS proud of right now…being an American or a Canadian… This person has been let down on both sides of the border. I’m doubly-ashamed.

   They don’t care. We are their piggy banks. They smash us for a few coins.

   What’s really sad is that she did not get the proper advice and in all likelihood would not be subject to the exit tax due to dual nationality from birth…

   Any chance of getting this person (or someone else in a similar situation) to go to the press? It’s a moving story that could get a lot of general sympathy.

   I totally understand. I worked my normal job, then worked weekends at a second job for (4) months, took a boarder just to get compliant, prove I didn’t owe money and to have the money to renounce. Our marriage has been under a great deal of stress after 26 years together. Her situation is so much worse than my own. I hope that the advise she is now getting is sound.

2. @ Calgary411 This is truly a sad story and one that Justin Trudeau needs to hear about. The main problem with all of this is that people are absolutely blindsided and do not know where to go for advice. Jude has been writing a letter to President Obama every day for at least the last month, emailing through the White House website. No response so far. All his letters are posted on the Accidental Americans facebook site. Daniel is working on getting the letters posted somewhere more accessible to others. They are great letters.

3. So sad! This person probably wasn’t in the system and could have avoided the whole issue. Unfortunately she turned to compliance condors and didn’t know about IBS.

4. If anyone knows how to get in touch maybe it’s not too late.

5. @ Calgary411 It is likely that her husband was Canadian at birth, her husband would not be subject to the Exit tax if he acquired both citizenships at birth. I hope someone will inform them.

   @ Duke of Devon, she doesn’t mention how they found out, it could be that the bank asked them questions. It’s hard to hide a US birthplace.

6. heartsick and Duke,

   All of these letters that go to President Obama need to, at a minimum, be cc’d to our new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And, sent them to Candidate Bernie Sanders as well.

   How can such letters, emailed through the White House website, be ignored? Damn it — get this on the front pages of Canadian media. If they don’t take this story, they are bloody cowards.

   Good on Daniel!! Is the Accidental Americans Facebook site one that is accessible to anyone?

7. @ Calgary411 The Accidental Americans site is accessible to anyone with a facebook account. The letters submitted to the White House website describe the situation of Accidentals but are not personal stories.for the most part. President Obama is well aware of Accidentals as evidenced in his budget proposal earlier this year but has done nothing. I do not know how he sleeps at night.

   I don’t understand the reluctance on the part of the media to report this, our government has passed a law which will result in financial harm to millions of unsuspecting people in Canada. We need to put human faces on the harm of CBT and FATCA.

8. “How can such letters, emailed through the White House website, be ignored?”

   By not being accompanied by multimillion campaign contributions.

9. Just talked to Geoff Martz nice guy

   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/10/19/interview-opportunity-abc-news-nightline-would-like-to-interview-an-american-living-abroad-who-is-in-the-process-of-renouncing-his-or-her-us-citizenship/comment-page-2/

   He is going to send me some questions regarding why people renounce

   He is on a steep learning curve he was not aware of many of the issues at hand / Exit tax / calculations/ Boris / etc.etc

   Hopefully on a separate forum I will copy and paste his questions

   Please keep to bullet point short and concise

   I will cut and paste them to him

   Perhaps indications of relevant points brought out may help (like)

10. FYI

    The first example is citizenship-based taxation, which dates back to the Civil
    War income tax in the US. No other major country has adopted this rule, and
    for good reason: It is far from clear that even the US can enforce it effectively,especially since US citizenship can be acquired by merely being born there. Most of the problems with FATCA stem from taxing US citizens living permanently overseas

    •Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan) Constructive Unilateralism : US Leadership and International Taxation

    http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2622868

11. This is now a new post: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/10/23/dear-president-obama-i-am-a-canadian-married-to-an-accidental-american-who-is-considered-us-because-he-was-born-a-border-baby-across-the-canadianamerican-border/

12. Just say NO!

13. JUST put in your DOT points here in this forum

    Just talked to Geoff Martz nice guy

    http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/10/19/interview-opportunity-abc-news-nightline-would-like-to-interview-an-american-living-abroad-who-is-in-the-process-of-renouncing-his-or-her-us-citizenship/comment-page-2/

    He is going to send me some questions regarding why people renounce

    He is on a steep learning curve he was not aware of many of the issues at hand / Exit tax / calculations/ Boris / etc.etc

    Please keep to bullet point short and concise

    Perhaps indications of relevant points brought out may help (like)

14. Re Nightline Program
    Martz, Geoff
    We’ve done one shoot.

15. Re Nightline piece on US expat tax Geoff Martz is waiting for head staff to return from overseas

16. @JakDac Thank you!