NRP’s Morning Edition, and Planet Money have continued a series they are doing on Offshore Tax Havens. This provides an opportunity to educate NRP readers and journalists, that some of the issues they talk about also apply to Americans Abroad. Here is the link to their most recent story.. Continue reading
Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
Breaking News: Eritrea agrees to eliminate citizenship based taxation in Canada
Story just appeared in the National Post:
“Canada will consider the embassy’s request for renewal of his accreditation once it has received written confirmation that Eritrea has complied in full with the department’s expectations … and therefore the consulate has effectively ceased to collect the 2% ‘recovery and rehabilitation’ tax and the donation for national defence,” read the note, a copy of which the National Post obtained.
“If Mr. O. Micael continues to carry out tax solicitation and tax collection activities in spite of Canada’s express disapproval and view that such activities are incompatible with the normal performance of consular functions, it will expect a notification from the Ministry stating that such person has been recalled from Canada.”
Note to US Senators if you go ahead with Passport “revocation” bill you will essentially be forcing US Consular Personal in Canada to do the EXACT same thing Eritrean officials were almost booted out of the country over. I do have to say it interesting the Canada took such strong steps against Eritrea especially compared to the US and the FATCA G5 countries notwithstanding the resolution of the UN Security Council. A principled Canadian foreign policy perhaps.
Obligations of US citizenship include taxes and possible military service
War resister who sought refuge in Toronto deported to US
This issue has generated some attention in the Toronto area. See the site Resisters.ca
I bet this person doesn’t care too much about citizenship-based taxation. She clearly has bigger problems. But, she will be crossing the US border. I wonder if she has been filing her taxes and FBARs. I somehow doubt it.
Canada for President
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19594334
A bit of satire to lighten the mood 🙂
Most countries encourage retirement planning – but American Exceptionalism = Twilight Zone
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzlG28B-R8Y]
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Home ownership good tax free investment in Canada http://t.co/LiM7Igj4 – but not tax free cap gain for US citizens – http://t.co/fagi7afY
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) September 19, 2012
Interesting article in today’s National Post.
Question: This article makes the point that home ownership is treated as a retirement planning vehicle for many Canadians. A principal residence is NOT a tax free capital gain for US citizens. As you know citizenship-based taxation disables US citizens abroad from retirement planning. Many US citizens are dual Canada/US citizens. 3% of the population of Canada are US citizens. How can the US prevent 3% of the population of Canada from retirement planning? This is a direct assault on the sovereignty of Canada. The government of Canada needs to wake up to this.
Does this effect of US citizenship-based taxation violate human rights laws?
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Leaving aside the effect of this on US citizens abroad, this is also very bad for the “Homelanders”. This policy discourages home ownership. Obviously this will have a negative effect on wealth and financial planning in the US. If I were an investor in the US, I would invest in rental property. The US is becoming a nation of renters, and debtors with few assets.
I can’t believe that there is no serious discussion about tax reform going on during this election. There is a clear link between home ownership and wealth. A discussion of “tax rates” is NOT a discussion about tax reform. “Form Nation” has simply gone out of its mind. Every time I think about what the US is doing, I feel as though I have entered the “Twilight Zone“. There is no rationality to it at all.
Be happy you don’t live in the Twilight Zone.
Timeline for renunciation of U.S. citizenship in South Korea
Just a brief snippet of information I came across today: immigration lawyer Moon Sang-il said in a blog post on Monday (link in Korean) that the average time for renunciation of U.S. citizenship in Seoul is two to four months. His statement was in response to a question from an anonymous reader who just had his/her first appointment at the embassy. Presumably he means four months from first appointment to renunciation, rather than from first appointment to receipt of CLN. Still, that’s much faster than what’s been reported for some other countries.
This would roughly match the timeline which New Frontier Party political organiser (and former Southern California Korean American community leader) Chris Nam faced: he started the procedure to give up his U.S. citizenship in July 2011, and actually swore the oath of renunciation in September. I’m not sure when exactly he got his CLN, but the Federal Register only got around to publishing his name in last quarter’s suspiciously small list — almost a year after he set the process in motion.
Manal Corwin of US Treasury visits Brussels, Paris, and Singapore this week to discuss FATCA
http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/media-advisories/Pages/09172012B.aspx
Unfortionately the Brussels visit was today. She will be in Paris the rest of the week then Singapore. Maybe she can drop in Eduardo Saverin while she is in town. No Canada visit announced. According to the press release she met with all EU Member States and is meeting with some OECD members but it is not clear which ones.
Nevada for Obama calls FATCA an Obama “Accomplishment” Take that DA
http://www.barackobama.com/nv/entry/nv-100-in-100-accomplishment-no-6-071712/
Feel free to comment but I suspect any negative comments will be taken down.
Changes to the IRS site
Came across the following article today:
Note the new policy of collecting the IP addresses of visitors.
A Minnow (ij) ‘Opts Out’ of the IRS’s OVDI, and gets the correct result. A simple warning letter.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the travails of IJ, on Jack Townsend’s blog, you have missed a remarkable story.
IJ is a Chinese immigrant to America who came to our shores via Canada. He got caught up in the OVDI, and after a long struggle decided to “Opt Out”. He was prepared to fight in the Court of Appeals, if necessary! But, thankfully, reason at the IRS’s Opt Out management review committee did prevail, and he was finally released from this lengthy OVDI torture with just a FBAR warning letter. Frankly, that was all that was ever necessary to obtain a compliance objective. It was the correct decision. You can read more of IJ’s story, at this post.