Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

Stop American Extraterritorial Taxation is collating letters which people wrote to US Congressmen/women or Senators, in order to document and provide evidence of the difficulty of motivating Congressional representatives to acknowledge, understand and respond to the issues facing US citizens who live permanently outside the United States.  This Book of Letters will aid SEAT in their continued efforts for legislative, regulatory and/or judicial changes to Citizenship Based Taxation.

To participate:

1. Find your letters to your representatives. Please prepare them in a word file (deleting your name and address if you wish).

2. Find the response from your representative. Please delete any information that identifies you.

3. Please email both attachments to: letters at seatnow dot org

As Summer draws to a close in Canada and we await the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in the ADCS lawsuit (Deegan v. Canada – file no. A-370-19), Anti-CBT and Anti-FATCA lawsuits in several countries, particularly Bittner v. US at the US Supreme Court, are featured in two recent articles.

Both Helen Burggraf in “American expat campaigners laying groundwork for citizenship-based tax challenges” and Andreas Kluth, in “Next, the Supreme Court Decides How to Punish US Expats,” report on FATCA lawsuits currently underway in Canada, France, Netherlands and the UK, with focus on the US challenge, along with illustration and analysis of the difficulties CBT/FATCA  are causing people worldwide.

Several of us are getting together to socialise:

Date:  Saturday, 20 August 2022 (rain date 27 August)
Time: 1:00 pm
Place:  McNabb Park, corner Gladstone and Bronson.  We’ll be in the grove between the skateboard area and the playground.  BYO beverages/munchies.

Hope you can join us!  Please rsvp by leaving a comment or e-mail me at pacifica.isaacbrocksociety@gmail.com

McNabb is on OC Transpo routes 10 (Bronson) and 14 (Gladstone). Street parking on adjacent side streets is free and there’s usually plenty available Saturday afternoons.

March 30, 2022 – The Next Step In A Long Journey

Long-awaited ADCS-ADSC, 'Gwen and Kazia' FATCA appeal hearing in Canada takes place today – March 30, 2022 https://t.co/QbWGgp4mdu

— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) March 30, 2022

The ADCS Lawsuit Discussed In The Legal World

On the eve of the @ADCSovereignty #FATCA Canada lawsuit appeal, here is an article that discusses the history of the case and how it relates to the Can/US Tax Treaty. https://t.co/WyBfb55deL

— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) March 29, 2022

I came across an interesting article today. The article is of interest for at least four reasons which include:

29173_collecting_another_countrys_taxes__recent_experience_in_the_canada-u_s__context

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MARCH 30, 2022 FATCA IGA LEGISLATION TRIAL HAS BEEN HELD AT CANADA’S FEDERAL COURT OF APPEAL: We wait for the decision in 4-6 (?) months — Crown argued that FATCA turnover is minimally intrusive, just like a T5 slip — Our side still disagrees.

As current AARO Board member Monte Silver seeks re-election, he is joined by a team of anti-CBT activists, many, if not all, of whom will be familiar to Brock readers.

Karen Alpert of Fix the Tax Treaty and Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation

Fabien Lehagre of l ‘Association des américains accidentels

Keith Redmond of American Expatriates Facebook group and Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation

John Richardson of Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty and  Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation

Monte Silver, active in FATCA/CBT litigation in Israel and US

Laura Snyder of Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation

Marc Zell, counsel for plaintiffs in lawsuit by Accidental Americans against US Department of State regarding renunciation fee

Thanks to JC for his comment on the media and blogs thread sharing Monte Silver’s Facebook post:

“CHANGE IS COMING
Two years ago, AARO (association of Americans Residing Overseas) asked me to join the board of directors and head it’s tax advocacy. Two years have passed and in mid- March 2022 or shortly thereafter, AARO’s public members will elect a new board of directors.
I believe that AARO can do great things in the area of expat advocacy, and beyond. However, I realized that this requires a fresh team. So I reached out to the most respected expat community activist leaders (ie people who do stuff!) to join me. Within days, they all agreed.
Fabien Lehagre, Karen Alpert, Laura Snyder, John Richardson, Keith Redmond and our fearless Washington DC lawyer Marc Zell are all part of the team.
We are now on the ballot. But to win we need you to join AARO and vote.
Together we can have fun, do neat things and take our advocacy up a few notches.
To join AARO and learn more – visit

Read about AARO‘s activities on FATCA and US citizenship-based taxation matters on the AARO site, on their “Issues”and “Advocacy” pages.

FATCA IGA Legislation Trial at Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal — Court files now say: “Order dated 10-DEC-2021 rendered by Chief Justice Noël Matter considered without personal appearance The Court’s decision is with regard to the hearing scheduled for 13-DEC-2021 in Vancouver Result: adjourned to a date to be fixed by the Judicial Administrator at the earliest convenience of the parties…”

As this last day of covid calendar year two crawls through its final hour, this new article outlines collateral damage on the renunciation front. Sauve qui peut!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/31/americans-seeking-renounce-citizenship-stuck

Circa December 24, 2011 Breaking News: In anticipation of #FATCA, Santa Claus arrested as part of Obama #FBARFundraiser https://t.co/5hqKrFYXtx

— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) December 24, 2021

Over the last ten years, the Isaac Brock Society has been a source of research and education. It has also been a source of news reporting:

“Reporting On What The Mainstream Media Would Never Have The Courage To Report”

For example …

On December 24, 2011 Brock (per Petros) was the first to report the arrest of Santa Claus along with the shocking accusation of Santa’s possible US citizenship.

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A Tenth Anniversary

People often overestimate what they can achieve in one year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years!

From @HelenBurggraf 2016: Isaac Brock Society: Blog of Canadian 'Accidental Americans' becomes global info resource https://t.co/ZZMQObwGmX

— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) December 18, 2021

The Isaac Brock Society was launched in December of 20211 on wordpress.com. In early December 2011 I received an invitation from Petros (one of the original founders of Brock) to participate as an author. My first post was on December 12, 2011. That first post was the first in more than 500 more original posts and (I am guessing) thousands of comments. Brock was formed after the summer of 2011 which was a particularly significant period of US hostilities toward Americans abroad. This hostility was facilitated in equal parts by:

– the media (delivering messages from the IRS and compliance industry)
– the IRS (conflating resident Americans with Americans abroad)
– the cross border compliance industry (pressuring long term Americans abroad to enter the OVDI/OVDP programs)

The Summer of 2011 And The World Which Spawned Brock

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