Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

Sun Life prepares to turn clients over to IRS for processing – bitter end to a company with a proud history

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This post appeared on RenounceUScitizenship.

https://twitter.com/FATCA_Fallout/status/280386438913196032

 

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNtIDy78DdE]

 

Once upon a time there was a Canadian life insurance company. It’s name was Sun Life. Sun Life was founded  in 1865 in Montreal (predating Confederation by two years). It was a proud Canadian institution. It was in the business of protecting families. The story of Sun Life parallels the history of the world since 1865. It is an international company with a presence in most of the developed world. It saw itself as a “good corporate citizen”. During World War II the wealth of Great Britain was stored in the Sun Life building in Montreal. During World War II the company provided entertainment for Canadian troops abroad. After World War II it helped “protect” the middle class of North America. The name “Sun Life” meant “trust”. If you want to learn about Sun Life, review a bit of history and understand Sun Life’s important role in Canadian history, I urge you to watch the video history of Sun Life financial. Continue reading →

20 Ways to Catch a United States Person Living Abroad

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Cross-posted from the

FATCA Discussion Thread (Ask your questions)

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

By showing up in gov’t, tax authority exchanges

By participating in online activities

Czech Republic IGA in works

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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

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. 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.

Continue reading →

FATCA Fact Finding Forum Report – Part II

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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.

Continue reading →

FATCA Fact-Finding Forum Report – Part 1

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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.

Continue reading →

Finance Committee publishes budget recommendations

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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.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/411/FINA/Reports/RP5932243/411_FINA_Rpt14_PDF/411_FINA_Rpt14-e.pdf.pdf

Why people renounce US citizenship: A most Noble perspective

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Crossposted from RenounceUScitizenship

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 →