Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

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Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

The Prince (Harry) and the “U.S. Person” (Meghan Markle) engagement – “I bet they have no idea”

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The mainstream media along with Isaac Brock poster “Mike” informs us:

“Breaking news!: With the upcoming marriage of Prince Harry with an American, the British Royal Family will now have to pay American taxes.. Maybe somebody in the government will wake up at that point. Meghan Markle is too rich to renounce without getting an unaffordable exit tax.”

And I bet they both have no idea.

Without Ms. Markle renouncing U.S. citizenship, it would seem that Ms. Markle will give the IRS a port of entry into the finances of the Royal Family. Think of it:

“Tax Colonization through marriage!!”

Clearly both Prince Harry and Ms. Markle need advice. In your comments could you please give them your best wishes and a bit of advice.

What should Prince Harry do?

What should Meghan Markle do?

What should the Royal Family do?

Letter to Secretary Mnuchin re: #FATCA & RBT from Nigel Green & Jim Jatras

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Campaign to Repeal FATCA

November 14, 2017

The Honorable Steven Terner Mnuchin
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20220

Dear Secretary Mnuchin:

The Campaign to Repeal FATCA (www.RepealFATCAcom) was launched earlier this year with one purpose: to get rid of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. FATCA is a textbook example of a badly conceived, badly written, and badly enforced law that doesn’t achieve its stated purpose but does inflict an excess of harmful consequences on citizens, American taxpayers around the world, the global financial and investment sectors, and the principle of national sovereignty.

As Co-Leaders of the Campaign, we are writing to you on the supposition that in a democratic country elections should have consequences. When a political party stands before the electorate on declared principles and makes specific promises, those principles and promises should be reflected in how that party governs under its mandate from the voters.
The 2016 Republican Platform reads in part:

“The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Foreign Bank and Asset Reporting Requirements result in government’s warrantless seizure of personal financial information without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. Americans overseas should enjoy the same rights as Americans residing in the United States, whose private financial information is not subject to disclosure to the government except as to interest earned. The requirement for all banks around the world to provide detailed information to the IRS about American account holders outside the United States has resulted in banks refusing service to them. Thus, FATCA not only allows ‘unreasonable search and seizures’ but also threatens the ability of overseas Americans to lead normal lives. We call for its repeal and for a change to residency-based taxation for U.S. citizens overseas.”

This Republican pledge to repeal FATCA rests on the deepest and most cherished American principles, not least a decent respect for the privacy of citizens who are not engaged in lawbreaking and are not even suspected of doing so. Even the IRS’s own Taxpayer Advocate Service has criticized FATCA’s “enforcement-oriented regime with respect to international taxpayers” with its “operative assumption [that] appears to be that all such taxpayers should be suspected of fraudulent activity, unless proven otherwise.”
Continue reading →

United Nations Human Rights Complaint: Seeking Advice and Additional Signatures

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Despite all promises and recent signs of hope, we “Americans overseas” (and those deemed to be such) have been ignored once again by the government that claims ultimate power over our lives. Now, and for the foreseeable future, we remain the only human beings on Earth who have an income tax imposed on them simply for who they are. We have been left out of the current tax reform plans developed by both legislative houses in spite of the huge efforts mounted collectively by those suffering under US tax oppression around the world.

While I am grateful to those individuals in the US government who have recognized our plight and plan to continue to search for ways to introduce the world standard of Residence/Territorial-Based Taxation to the United States, I fear that the efforts are too little, too late.

Except for the various lawsuits still pending (which could take years to resolve), domestic recourse has come to a crashing end. Our one remaining avenue of attack is in the international arena.

A Human Rights Complaint was filed with the United Nations in August 2014 and is presently awaiting assessment for acceptance into the complaints process. (Those not familiar with the history of our Complaint can find information on the link at the top of the sidebar.)

We have waited long enough. It is beyond time for our plight to be recognized by the international community as the forerunner of an entirely new form of governmental abuse perpetrated by a combination of outdated law and 21st century cyber-surveillance. Human rights in the computer age extend well beyond the food, clothing, and shelter issues which the UN has traditionally championed.

In preparation for “reminding” the world of our United Nations Human Rights Complaint against the United States for its triple policies of CBT, FATCA and FBAR (as applied to “overseas” residents):

  1. we would like to invite those who didn’t have an opportunity to sign the Complaint to do so. Those interested may make a request to read the Complaint by emailing calgaryfouroneone@gmail.com. You will be sent a link and a password. After reading the document, if you would like to have your name appended to it please let Calgary know. Your name will remain utterly confidential and will never be revealed to anyone in the United States government. ANYONE affected by US extra-territorial tax policies — citizens, renunciants, spouses, business associates — ANYONE who has or has had a stake in this issue — is welcome to sign!
  2.  we need help from people in positions of power and/or influence who are sympathetic to our cause. Is anyone in contact with Sophie int’Veld, for example? There are several individuals in France such as Keith Redmond who have done a stunning job on behalf of this community. Do any of these folk know anyone who can lobby for us at the UN and get this process sped up? We desperately need this sort of help.
  3. we need ideas from all of you as to how to proceed and get our efforts publicized accurately while under the UN’s publication ban. Silence is no longer an option. If you think the UN is a waste of time, we need to hear that too!
  4. and a special request to those on Twitter and Facebook: please post links to this thread on any and all sites concerned with this issue. We need to reach everybody!

Every year on the anniversary of the Complaint’s submission (August 7) we have sent a “Support Document” which details testimonials of harms suffered due to US tax policy and reported online over the previous 12 months. In 2017, with tax reform a very real possibility, we decided to wait until now to send this year’s document. It will be sent to the UN next week [postponed to mid-December to allow for a new round of efforts in Washington to prove successful or not]. It would be terrific to send them more signatures as well!

This fight will be over when the United States of America abolishes CBT.

 

1,376 published expatriates in Q3 2017 Federal Register list of people giving up US citizenship

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The Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate for Q3 2017 has just been placed on public inspection for publication in Thursday’s Federal Register, three days later than required by law. By my count, this list contains the names of 1,376 people who renounced or otherwise relinquished US citizenship under any paragraph of 8 USC § 1481(a), as compared to 1,004 people who renounced US citizenship (under 1481(a)(5) only) added to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in July, August, and September.

Following Q3 & Q4 2016, this is only the second time since 2011 that we’ve had two quarters in a row of Federal Register numbers being significantly higher than NICS numbers, the way they should be every quarter. Even then, the Federal Register list is far from complete: contrary to some media reports, it’s basically impossible that the list includes people who give up their green cards, and no one has ever identified a single green card abandoner in the list, despite the message at the top claiming that “long-term residents, as defined in section 877(e)(2), are treated as if they were citizens of the United States who lost citizenship”.

The people named in this list probably completed the State Department’s painfully slow and expensive formalities to apply for a Certificate of Loss of Nationality around mid-year at the latest, but that’s just a guess. I can confirm that one name in this quarter’s list belongs to a man known to have relinquished in April 2016 or earlier. For the US government, that’s positively speedy — last quarter’s list had relinquishers from 2013 and 2014.

As always, after the jump you can find discussion of recent media reports about relinquishers, as well as a table of past NICS and Federal Register statistics.

Continue reading →

Possible Good News About the Upcoming Congressional Decision

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I felt this message from JC on another thread deserved its own post. Below is JC’s message containing important information relayed to him by Jackie Bugnion.
***
Somehow I got on an e-mail distribution list. This was sent on 26 October. Posted here with permission.

Message from Jackie Bugnion

Hi everyone,

Last night I saw a statement of Brady published in Politico on his latest on tax reform. The last sentences is truly encouraging. The article is below. I understand “letting them pay taxes only where they live” to indicate RBT. Since the Ways and Means has announced that it will publish its legislative draft next week, the language is most likely already determined. There have been several proposals for tax reform of Americans abroad from various organisations. Let’s all get behind whatever Congress comes up with and show a united front. This is a one chance in a lifetime to improve the situation of Americans abroad. Please activate your networks in this sense.

Best,

Jackie Bugnion

This was at the end of a POLITICO e-mail, sent 25 October.
He[Brady] said the committee is considering an issue dear to U.S. citizens living abroad — letting them pay taxes only where they live — though no decision has been made.

Some additional e-mail trail, I will not disclose sender:
Just listening to Ari Fleischer on TV about the tax reform bill and he said something that I wasn’t aware of, but some of you might be: He said that once the bill comes out of W&M Committee it goes directly to a floor vote. There are no floor amendments or changes permitted. Thought this is something to look for.

October 29, 2017 Canadian FATCA IGA Legislation Litigation Update: Government delay in obtaining their expert witnesses

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OCTOBER 29, 2017 CANADIAN FATCA IGA LITIGATION UPDATE:

Our trial on Canada’s FATCA IGA legislation in Federal Court will now be delayed further because Mr. Justin Trudeau’s lawyers are having problems obtaining their expert witnesses (our side’s experts have already filed affidavits).

The problem is that Government’s contracting/procurement process is not functioning as it should, and Government is having difficulty establishing the necessary retainer contracts for each of the experts they wish to use.

The hoped for time frame for the experts contracts is now end of November; however, Government experts want at least 12 weeks to prepare their affidavits.

I can’t give you a firm date yet on the trial, but speculate that trial might take place sometime early summer 2018.

— Each year more and more Canadian citizens are rounded up and turned over to a foreign country…

Continue reading →

US expats given hope of lower tax bills

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US expats given hope of lower tax bills

Republicans edge towards eliminating need to pay levies overseas and at home

published in the Financial Times
by Demetri Sevastopulo and Barney Jopson in Washington

You can read the article by answering a simple question that appears when the page loads. I cannot post the entire article due to copyright restrictions.

Here are some excerpts:

Millions of US citizens working overseas could see their tax bills lowered by an overhaul of the tax system as Republicans edge towards eliminating a requirement for American expatriates to pay taxes both overseas and in the US.

Kevin Brady, the Republican head of the House ways and means committee, which is drafting a tax reform bill, said lawmakers were considering the measure, which has been the focus of lobbying by Republicans Overseas, a group of party donors around the world.

“It is under consideration. They have made the case,” Mr Brady said in response to a question from the Financial Times at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. “Lawmakers representing that area of the tax code have made that case.”

The US Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby group, has urged policymakers to consider US-only taxation for individuals, too, arguing that taxing foreign income hurts American managers at the overseas affiliates of US exporters.

Mark Mazur, who was the top tax official in Barack Obama’s Treasury department, said he supported the change, arguing that it was necessary to address the “inequity” of an expat paying tax on the same income to both the US and a foreign government.

“If you take two people, one works in London, one in New York, working for the exact same US multinational — if they make the exact same amount of money you might think they should be taxed exactly the same,” said Mr Mazur, who heads the Tax Policy Center.

Solomon Yue and Michael DeSombre are also mentioned in the article.

There are quite a few comments with JC doing Yeoman’s Duty.

October 24, 2017 Canadian and United States (RO) FATCA IGA/FATCA Litigation Update

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OCTOBER 24, 2017 FATCA IGA legislation/FATCA litigation update.

Canadian (Alliance for the Defense of Canadian Sovereignty [ADCS] is the “client”) FATCA IGA legislation lawsuit:

We are suing (since 2014) the Government of Canada (specifically Justin Trudeau’s Attorney General and Revenue Minister), in Federal Court for rounding up Canadians having a U.S. taint and turning them over to a foreign government. We argue that this violates Canada’s sovereignty as an independent nation and its Charter of Rights that is meant to protect all Canadians.

As to next steps, it now appears likely that most, if not all, of our brave lay witnesses, who provided written affidavits demonstrating harm, will NOT be examined by the Government lawyers. This is good news as it means that we will get to trial “sooner”. We do expect, however, that our expert witnesses will be cross-examined by Government next.

Continue reading →

Re-instating US Citizenship after Renunciation

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Thanks to Helen who has written this post on Re-instating US Citizenship after Renunciation.  It’s a topic that doesn’t have a lot of coverage, and your knowledge and thoughts will be appreciated.

*****

I was granted my CLN in Sept 2014, the last day before the price increase from $495 to $2350.

I need to try to re-instate my US citizenship due to schooling needs of my son, as I am not finding adequate provision for his special needs in my resident country overseas and would like to return to the US for him. He is a US citizen.

The CLN is a 2 sided document.  On page 2, the back side covers Appeal Continue reading →

Ottawa Brock Lunch – Saturday 18 November

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We’ll be getting together for lunch Saturday, 18 November, at 2:00 pm at Montana’s BBQ Restaurant, 1750 Ogilvie Road, Ottawa.  Plenty of free parking on site, also accessible by city bus.

We’re currently expecting 10 people — hope you can come, too!   Please rsvp by posting a comment here or e-mail me at pacifica at isaacbrocksociety dot ca

Coming from Montréal?  A Montréal Brocker would appreciate a ride. I can put you in touch by e-mail