Cross-posted from the
As Just Me commented,
That is a good synopsis for the Non Believer that American Citizenship is a problem to be dealt with. Putting your head in the sand gets much more difficult when confronted with this list.
I like how it summarizes into 4 categories..
By acts that re-establish US ties
By getting married, divorcing or dying
The Czech government recently approved the Finance Ministry’s intention to sign an intergovernmental agreement with the USA on providing information on bank accounts of American citizens to the US tax administration. The data would be provided by the Czech tax administration office.
http://www.pragueconnect.cz/en/s462/PragueConnect-cz/c1735-Finance/n21470-FACTA-Czech-USA
. FATCA Fact Finding Forum Report Part III
We took a break after Professor Christians’ presentation and began again with a brief talk by Anglican Archbishop Dorian Baxter who is the President of the Progressive Canadian Party. He related a very funny story of a conversation with an older member of his congregation who lamented that we no longer had Steve Jobs, nor Johnny Cash or Bob Hope. They talked a bit about this and then applied to current state of Canada – we have no jobs, no cash and no hope!
He emphasized that we need to hold the CDN govt accountable to the standard of the Westminster model of Parliamentary Democracy. This relates to a core principle of the Progressive Canadian Party and the illegal “merger” of the Canadian Alliance Reform Party (aka “CRAP”). This provoked much laughter. Then he applied the Westminster ideal to the fact that FATCA is an invasion of CDN Autonomy as well as the Canadian Treasury as it is a money grab of millions of dollars from Canadian families, their children and their children’s children.
Part II
We then started with this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q9QoHXt6I4
The emphasis on how bizarrely the indicia rules could be interpreted began to be a framework of the discussion.
We then heard from Professor Allison Christians. She studied tax law in the US and has an LLM from New York City University. Point was made that this university has some sort of monopoly on producing international tax lawyers.
I’ve just returned from the program. I’m not sure I can really catch all of the most important aspects but the good news is, there were two people recording the proceedings and one plan is to post on YouTube, so you all will be able to hear the presentations as well as capture the spirit and intensity of the meeting. I was quite struck by the difference in how it feels to connect with others about this in the way we are accustomed to; i.e., in the sort of impersonal, anonymous feel to posts on the internet and how much stronger the impact of peoples’ words are, when you are actually experiencing them, face-to-face. Hopefully, this will be the first of many, many more meetings for those of us trying to get FATCA repealed.Please note that I am trying to paraphrase what was said and any mistakes or wrong impressions given are due to my failings. It is impossible to correctly quote everything that was said. I am refraining from mentioning any personal information that was given, though awareness of this during the meeting strongly influenced the impact each speaker had.
FATCA Fact Finding Forum – Should Canada Allow US Tax laws to extend into Canada?
Should Canada be governed by Canadians or by the US?
This just out in the Tribune of Geneva newspaper about pressure EU countries are putting upon Swiss bank secrecy. Swiss People’s Party (Central Democratic Union) deputy Yves Nidegger, like the majority of his party, is opposed to all cooperation in taxation matters: Continue reading
FATCA did make it so to speak as an issue to do something about.
From the recommendations:
The Canadian Bankers Association highlighted that the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act applies to Canadian financial institutions and account holders. In its view, future trade agreements concluded by Canada should prohibit the extra-territorial application of foreign laws to Canadian financial institutions.
Crossposted from RenounceUScitizenship
RT @FATCA_Fallout Renouncing US Citizenship — Trend, Overreaction or self-defense? http://t.co/ew8MAaEE http://t.co/a6bCVbCu #FATCA
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) December 13, 2012
Nobledreamer’s comment to this article about renouncing U.S. citizenship is worth a post and that is exactly what this post is. One of best descriptions of the problem I have seen. It’s in language and a format that anybody can understand it. Thanks! Continue reading
As if federal citizenship-based taxation wasn’t bad enough, on the recently updated website of the Virginia Department of Taxation, we see a blatant attempt to scare people born in Virginia into paying taxes they don’t owe, by reiterating the falsehood that an American citizen by definition must be domiciled in one of the fifty states — since of course as we all know, no one ever checks out from the Hotel California Greatest Country on Earth™ besides a few rich ingrates fleeing the estate tax:
Virginia residents who travel outside the country, or take up temporary or permanent residence abroad, should be aware of the filing provisions discussed below. If you are a Virginia resident who accepts employment in another country or moves outside the United States for other reasons (including military orders), the fact that you are living abroad does not mean that you are no longer considered a Virginia resident for tax purposes. Unless you have established residency in another state, you will still be considered a domiciliary resident of Virginia, and will be required to file Virginia income tax returns.
A domiciliary resident of Virginia is one whose legal domicile in the technical sense is in Virginia. Unless an individual acquires a legal domicile in another state, he or she is still a Virginia resident. This applies even if the person is residing in another jurisdiction and may have been residing there for a number of years. The fact that a person has been absent from Virginia, whether in the foreign service of the United States or in the exercise of private enterprise, does not in any way cancel out their Virginia citizenship or legal domicile.
