Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
U.S. Citizenship and Young Adults: Navigating The Special Rules Imposed On U.S. Citizens Abroad-Vancouver BC
Update
These seminars will include discussion and analysis of the IRS “relaxed opportunities” for people to come into compliance.
“Life planning, career planning and the reality of U.S. citizenship for Americans abroad”
“Everything I wish I had known, but couldn’t even have imagined to ask!”
During the winter, John Richardson presented a number of seminars for those concerned with the obvious problems of U.S. citizenship (including the “threshold question” of whether you really are a U.S. citizen).
Seminar topics have invariably included the problems of: FBAR, FATCA, investing, retirement planning, mutual funds, U.S. tax compliance, renunciation, etc. The official “FATCA Launch” of July 1, 2014 will surely make the existing problems worse.
U.S. citizens living outside the United States are subject to a regime of rules that diminish their “life opportunities”. These rules are such that U.S. citizens abroad live at a disadvantage relative to the citizens of any other nation. Those attending previous seminars have been primarily “middle aged” people, who have attempted to plan for their retirement, only to find that their retirement plans are threatened, because of their birth in the United States.
A shared sentiment has been:
“If only, I had known about these rules earlier … This is information that my children and other young adults need to hear! What does all this mean for my children?”
The seminar on June 22 will be a session specifically designed for your children and young adults. They will be exposed to (at least “some”) of that information that they need to hear!
Continue reading
#Americansabroad defend the homeland militarily and diplomatically
This post appeared on the RenounceUScitizenship blog.
This post was based on a “comment that deserves a place in the Isaac Brock Hall of Fame” left by @AtticusinCanada on the original Forbes article by Robert Wood. I took the comment and created a separate post out of it.
Atticus then left the following comment to this post:
Well, this is a stellar article and a great way to frame Mr. Wood’s article as well. I grow very tired of ignorant back lash from people who couldn’t dream that one day they may wake up and find the U.S. has decided they too need to lose their citizenship through no fault of their own. If it can happen to us, it can happen to them. And when the U.S. is done with you, you get to endure being called an ingrate swine, and told not to let the door hit you on the way out. U.S. citizens need to wake up and face squarely what their country is doing and if there is an ounce of morality in them stand up and say this is wrong.
Some of these Homelanders are suffering from severe distortions of reality.
Update completed and comments on: Isaac Brock at 10,000,000 hits
Now that we’ve arrived at 10,000,000 hits, it is time to move to a more robust platform. My personal thanks to our software developer who has worked hard as a volunteer to make this happen.
Upgrades: Comments off, downtimes possible
At around 11:00 am this morning, I will turn off the ability to make comments at isaacbrocksociety.ca. Then, thanks to a website developer who has graciously volunteered his time, we will be upgrading the website to a more robust platform. This will enable us to handle more easily the traffic that we have been experiencing.
Please note that if you are absolutely in need of comment fix, that our Facebook page is also available. If you haven’t liked that page, today is a good day.
More BS from the South China Morning Post on FATCA and China
http://www.scmp.com/business/article/1519835/beijing-urged-comply-foreign-account-tax-compliance-act
Hong Kong financial institutions with mainland affiliates are hoping Beijing signs an agreement with Washington soon on a new US tax disclosure law, because of concerns mainland financial institutions will otherwise find it difficult, if not impossible, to comply with the new law.
We have observed that in China, financial institutions are waiting for more information on an IGA (intergovernmental agreement) before registering [to comply with Fatca],” said Florence Carr, Asia-Pacific Fatca lead at accounting firm EY.
HSBC spokesman Gareth Hewett said it had decided that the whole group should be “Fatca-compliant”.
“Achieving compliance with Fatca by July 1 is a requirement,” he said. “Achieving this is in line with our ambition to be the world’s leading international bank.”
Ralph Nader: Welcome to the IBS Wall of Shame
Ralph Nader: Big Credit Suisse’s Sweetheart Deal – OpEd
1. The bank retained its permits and licenses to remain fully operational in the United States.
2. Top management and directors emerged unscathed and were allowed to keep their lucrative positions.
3. State and federal regulators, including the SEC and Federal Reserve, agreed not to take related actions against the bank.
4. Credit Suisse does not have to give the Justice Department and the IRS the names of some 22,000 U.S. customers who engaged in these schemes, citing prohibitive Swiss law, which tough U.S. officials could have challenged with a waiver demand.
Toronto Star FATCA Story
It took 15 years for this child born in Mexico to Homeland parents to prove her U.S. citizenship
Are you worried that you might have inherited “U.S. Personhood” from an American emigrant parent, but never had your status documented and have lived your whole life solely as a citizen of the country where you actually reside? Then you might find this case interesting. Via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Cerrina was born prematurely in 1999 while her mother was visiting Mexico. Both of her parents were American citizens, but due to her early birth and some language difficulties, she wasn’t issued the correct form for babies born to American parents abroad. No one told her mother such a form was needed. When Crissy Foster brought her daughter home to Longview after the birth, the border guard who let them back into America even congratulated her on what he assumed was Cerrina’s automatic dual-citizenship, she said Friday.
But Cerrina didn’t have citizenship anywhere, as her mother soon learned … The United States wouldn’t issue a birth certificate to Cerrina without the correct paperwork from Mexico. And Mexico also didn’t claim her, because by law she was an American. At first the paperwork glitch seemed minor. But her case dragged on. It took a petition to the Mount Vernon School Board and a conference call with then-Congressman Brian Baird just to get Cerrina enrolled in kindergarten. She couldn’t be on her mother’s health insurance policy without a birth certificate, either.
From MapleSandbox.ca: “Anyone getting the FATCA Call?”
“Anyone else getting the FATCA Call” (from MapleSandbox.ca)
Has anyone received the FATCA call from their bank, investment firm or other financial institution?
Johnnb posted the following under What’s New, but it definitely needs its own thread:
In a previous post I described how my wife and I decided to get our (backdated to 1973) CLNs. We applied in January of 2012 and the CLNs arrived in July 2012. We promptly made copies and gave one to our financial advisor at Scotia McLeod.
