UPDATE: Saturday, November 21, 2015
Please see the following post from John Richardson which explains how the FATCA IGA and the CBT lawsuits have different donor bases as well as a specific request regarding donations to ADCS.
As posted today by John Richardson at citizenshiptaxation.wordpress.com:
The #CBTLawsuit rollout is beginning – we need YOUR support
This post is to:
– announce the “roll out” of a lawsuit filed in the United States
– against the Government of the United States
– to strike down the most egregious aspects of U.S. “place of birth taxation”
– and provide relief for those who reside outside the United States and are unjustly, unfairly and unlawfully burdened by the attempt of the United States to impose its laws on the residents and/or citizens of other nations.The lawsuit will require a large amount of funding including an immediate injection of $25,000.
For those who only want to contribute the funding are invited to go here. Those who want to understand what we are doing read on.
I’ll gladly donate if this lawsuit is really intended to eliminate CBT as a whole. The first post refers right at the beginning to: (striking) down the most egregious aspects of U.S. “place of birth taxation”, then goes on to list issues pertaining to Accidental Americans, tax on retirement accounts, and so on. So which is it? Are we trying to overturn Cook vs. Tait entirely, or a lawsuit only against the most easily definable injustices?
I really think the aims of this effort should be more clearly defined. A huge number of us are long-term expats, but not accidentals, don’t have dual citizenship, don’t have ‘foreign’ pensions. Thus, chipping away at those individual issues would still leave many vulnerable, if not worse off, as the focus falls on us after all the dual citizens and accidentals and retirees are liberated. Not saying this is what is being planned, and it’s early days, I know, but I’m just looking for a much clearer definition of the actual goals.
Where are those quotations from US Supreme Court rulings that the US Constitution doesn’t apply to US government actions outside of the US?
Is that the same US Constitution that has a 16th Amendment?
WOW!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am BEYOND delighted. The sooner CBT is in the dust bin the better. There is no defence in this universe to support CBT. (I am already taking great joy in the thoughts of watching the defence try to grapple with a stance as they have NONE).
Thank you ADCT for having the courage to do the heavy lifting. Everyone else seemed to lack the backbone to do what needs to be done.
The address for funding has a street but no name.
The name might be Alliance for the Defeat of Citizenship Taxation.
“Most of us would be considered persons of privilege”
I almost said “Et tu Brute” but that would make us look like persons of privilege.
What about the other 99% of us, Mr. Richardson?
Outstanding!!!
We all now must make it our mission to promote the hell out of this all over social media, the internet, and the media. We all must go onto Democrats abroad, Republican’s Overseas, AARO, ACA, and ALL the other ones to reach as many Americans abroad around the world as we can. We must spread the word as soon as possible so this can spread like wildfire. I know tomorrow I will start and we all need to do the same. I know from my social media engagement, there are people on all parts of the globe looking for something like this, we need to find them!!!!!!!
Congratulations to the new organization who is taking on CBT! Happy to see it is being done outside of ADCS. I hope you manage to rescue as many innocents as possible, but won’t hold it against you if you can’t save them all. Best of luck to Trish, Carol, John and Stephen.
This is more than just a lawsuit. We now have an umbrella under which we can create a movement against CBT. Fantastic!
@ Barbara ” Can the United States impose taxation and reporting requirements on:
income not connected to the United States which is earned by
those who are residents and citizens of other nations?”
This statement from the post would seem to include the whole concept of Citizenship based taxation. The rest is just some of the detail that proves how unfair CBT is for people living outside the US.
@John, Stephen, Trish and Carol Thank you so much for your hard work on this issue. Many feel this lawsuit is long overdue.
Good to see a Cook v. Tait challenge because it is quite a strangely reasoned ruling. Justice McKenna who wrote the majority opinion never regained full competence after having a major stroke in 1915. In January 1925, just months after writing Cook v. Tait, he was pushed into retirement due to incapacity. Supreme Court reformers often point to McKenna and his later opinions as an example of why the Supreme Court Justices should be removable for incapacity. Cook v. Tait is supposed to be about benefits, but even Zelinsky argues that the benefits don’t match the level of taxation.
@Barbara
There are some U.S. citizens who might end up not paying much tax at all to anyone if RBT passed outright, but the need for a major overhaul is a no brainer and Congress isn’t listening. The argument I always get in favour of CBT is “what about the non-doms”? The non-doms in the U.K. are people with the right kind of foreign origins who pay a high annual fee in lieu of income tax and are not taxed in their assets held outside the country in places like Monaco. There aren’t so many Americans, but London is choc a bloc with wealthy Russians. Situations like that might make outright RBT a tough sell. The U.S. tax authorities envision all their billionaires moving to the Cayman islands and sucking the economy dry.
I’m going to rain on the parade. The ADCS fundraiser needs $97,000 and donations have slowed to a crawl. I think that adding a new organization with a similar name and with little hope of success will detract from ADCS. We should stick to our original goal.
@Duke of Devon
Yes, unfortunately donations are slow right now but this could reach new donors who don’t have Canadian citizenship but live in places such as Europe or Asia….I think we’ll see two different types of donors. Both great for what we have all been dreaming of …
To be honest this is the best news I’ve had all day…all week!!! Maybe I can finally get some sleep now!! Congratulations and great work to our team!!!
Donations may be slow, but that is to be expected at this point.
However, they WILL pick up, I am confident of that.
The more we know the more we have to conclude that we are under attack from many sources, not the least FATCA and Canadian enabling legislation , the IGA.
I am sure many are discouraged by the two court case losses recently. However, that is only the beginning.
When we know what we need to know, it only drives our intention to DO more.
We should welcome this lawsuit, for it has the potential to be THE Dragon Slayer.
Under assault from various points in various ways calls for more than a sword of honour
(The ADCS lawsuit) We need armour ( the US FATCA lawsuit) and we need a swift steed ( the new lawsuit regarding ending CBT )
In the meantime we also need to ‘gird our loins’ for the Goliath to our David:
G20 tax regime and TPP.
For if we win in all ways from all lawsuits it will all be for naught if TPP is approved and
the G20 tax regime is implemented.
TPP ends sovereignty for all signature nations and the G20 tax regime enables snooping on the widest scale globally ensuring private and sensitive information shared widely and with God Only Knows Who!!
Considering what happened in Paris and what is now threatened against the US and other nations as well as the latest hostage taking at the Mali Mall we would be crazy indeed to refuse to acknowledge what we are faced with and what we need to do individually and collectively as nations. SOVEREIGN nations. We need security. We need borders, properly manned and enforced and we need individual privacy. IF there is suspicion of wrongdoing by authorities they can get a warrant!
It is clear they are NOT doing their jobs nor have they been for they were all caught flatfooted while using the most all encompassing snooping devices known to man!
So, let us not pretend further that they need all this snooping and encroachment into private citizens lives and activities without cause and needing to get a warrant in order to ‘keep us all safe’ for they have been doing neither.
Coddling terrorists while terrorizing private individual citizens with no hint of wrongdoing in order to eke out information to steal money that does not belong to them is egregious and wrong.
They intend to continue until they are stopped. They need to be stopped.
ALL lawsuits and measures that will seek and ensure THAT end is what we need to engage.
Do we care what it costs? Of course we do but it pales in comparison to what we face if we DO NOT FIGHT !
For ourselves and our children and future generations. This is OUR fight and it MUST be won!
Whatever the cost in money is a pittance to what we will pay if we go to a hot war and must take up arms.
I see all our lawsuits as essential to stopping this before we have to give up even more and see ourselves and our children fighting for our very lives in our own home towns on our own streets.
For our champions, I send many heartfelt thanks and prayers for your strength and success on our behalf. We will not let you down. We have your back and you WILL have the money needed!!
@ Duke of Devon
I have to agree with you in raining on the parade. If there was endless funding it would be a fine idea to have a US CBT related law suit. Funding for the Canadian lawsuit has crawled to a standstill lately. We need to finish what we have started here in Canada before taking on the US as well.
I was going through lean times lately. After being quite a repeat donor to ADCS, I had to take a break. Likely others were tapped out as well. As I was thinking of making another donation, this news of a second lawsuit causes hesitation. People without deep pockets have to pick their causes carefully.
Can the United States impose a virtual gag order on people who renounce?
The Reed Amendment is used to intimidate people into not admitting that they are renouncing due to the abusive nature of citizenship based taxation.
Renunciants are forced to remain silent or risk being banished from seeing loved ones in America ever again.
I agree with Barbara. It is important to know if this lawsuit is geared towards “accidentals” or all Americans living outside the US?
There are many Americans who were born in the US and emigrated as adults. I am one of them.
CBT must be abolished for ALL Americans living outside the US, not just a narrowly defined segment.
@Bob
I agree, in that the very things that would be used to exempt accidentals would then be used as justification for taxing all others. Obtaining a passport, voting in elections and everything else all other nations allow their citizens to do without taxation is not justification for CBT.
Mods, please delete “US” from above comment. Thanks.
@ Pat Canadian
I’m taking a breather right now too but I plan to resume my ADCS contributions in January. (My 2015 budget is tapped out.) I do find it exciting though that CBT, the gnarly root of extraterritorial tax evil, is about to be dug up, exposed and hopefully disposed of by the ADCT lawsuit. I’ll probably only be able to just cheer this lawsuit on, so I’m really hoping that ALL organizations which claim to represent Americans living outside the USA will circulate the appeal for donations to their memberships. What’s not to love? Somebody is finally DOING something.
I agree EmBee: “Somebody is finally DOING something” regarding the extraterrestrial “thing” that is CBT. None of the other groups that supposedly support RBT had the courage to take the next step after the door knocking campaign was an epic failure. I am beyond delighted.
Hopefully there will be a synergistic effect between the two FATCA lawsuits and the timeliness of this one. The snake and its fangs will be exposed to hopefully kill the entire beast.
@ EmBee
RE: ” I do find it exciting though that CBT, the gnarly root of extraterritorial tax evil, is about to be dug up, exposed and hopefully disposed of by the ADCT lawsuit.”
I couldn’t agree more with what you are saying in that CBT is the root of extraterritorial tax evil. However, the likelihood of things changing in the US looks dismal to me. I hope I am wrong about this. My faith and my dollars will be here in Canada.
I agree with the Duke of Devon. I contributed regularly early on to the ADCS fundraising (but haven’t recently because pharmaceutical costs for a major family health catastrophe that aren’t covered in my province). For me, the major issue is that Canadian citizens resident in Canada (or Belgian citizens resident in Belgium, or New Zealand citizens resident in New Zealand, or whatever) should not be forced by their governments into observing the law of a foreign country. For those of us who don’t want the American citizenship imposed on us because of a parent or a birthplace, it’s far more important to establish that we have the same rights as any other citizen of the country in which we live. I will contribute again to the ADCS when I have money, but I’m a little discouraged by realizing that this new initiative might draw off support from what I think is the major fight.
Good development here.
Question: Prior to starting the Arvay and Bopp lawsuits, there was a “due diligence” effort involving the lawyers doing some research into whether a lawsuit might be viable prior to starting the lawsuit itself. Has this happened with this new anti-CBT ADCT lawsuit or is that what the first $25k is for?
@ Charl
“extraterrestrial” — [sigh] Yes it does sometimes seem as though the USA lays claim to the entire universe.