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Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

Canada’s Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP): Canada’s Finance Minister Flaherty responds regarding this, as well as the RESP and TFSA

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I have today received a letter dated May 16, 2012, from the Honourable James M. Flaherty, Minister of Finance. I had no idea why I did not get a reply to my correspondence when I knew others had, so I am very pleased to finally get Mr. Flaherty’s letter. It does not give me what I’d like to hear, but it stops my guessing regarding the use of the beneficial Registered Disability Savings Plan for my son and the disabled family members of other such Canadian-American families.

He has confirmed that the RDSP (as well as the TFSA and RESP) are not recognized in the Canada-United States Income Tax Convention but that my concerns on this matter will be considered when the Convention is next open for renegotiation.

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Misunderstanding the Ex-Patriot Act

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This is my first post here and I want to give my huge thanks to Petros and all of the contributors to the Isaac Brock Society. You’re doing great work and I and many other expats appreciate it. I know some of you are already familiar with me due to reading my Overseas Exile blog and I have a confession to make: I steal stuff from you guys. You’re awesome 🙂

Please note regarding the following: I am not a lawyer and this is my interpretation of the law. I think it’s correct, but if I’m full of it, please feel free to tell me why.

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Schumer Casey bill removes all doubt about U.S. insanity – may accelerate pace of renunciations!

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Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship

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Niall Ferguson – law more important than democracy – how we keep our politicians under control is key

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Don’t know how many of you are familiar with Niall Ferguson – author of “The Ascent of Money” and “Civilization”. Anyway, his ideas are interesting and his books are quite readable. His latest book is called “Civilization” and it has been converted into a TV presentation. Continue reading →

RCMP ‘to ease Canadians into the idea’ of U.S. agents in Canada

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Amazing, have a look at this.

Note the following comment to another post:

Don Pomodoro

Whew…I really hope for you guys over there in Canada that the “North American Union” nightmare never comes to pass. I couldn’t see it happening now, but if the US were to fall apart in the next ten years it might view such a union as the only way to compete with the BRICs, Latin American Union, EU (if it still exists…:P), etc in 20 years’ time. They’re too full of themselves in the US currently to push it through or promote it at all.

NAFTA could be the back door to an NAU though. Remember, lots of eurosceptics (that is, mainly British politicians and the far right across Europe) point out that the EU was originally just an Economic Community – When the UK joined in the early 1970s, for example, they thought that they were just joining a free trade zone and not a political union.

Be on your guard over there!

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/rcmp-ease-canadians-idea-u-agents-canada-201905380.html

Comparing renunciation rates around the world

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Curtis Poe, a fellow U.S. Person abroad and occasional Isaac Brock Society commenter, has an interesting post over at his blog Overseas Exile comparing renunciation rates in New Zealand and the United States. He wrote to New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs to get their data, and he’s looking for renunciation-of-citizenship data from other countries as well. This was as good a kick-in-the-pants as I’m ever going to get to compile and summarise the data that I’ve been bookmarking over the past few months from various Asian countries, so I’ve written it all up below. I’ve also done a bit of my own back-of-the-envelope analysis: the U.S. renunciation rate may look small, but it’s actually rather high compared to other countries which allow dual citizenship. Since we have commenters from all over the world here, hopefully some of you can help Curtis out with data from your own countries as well.

What Schumer Can Learn From George Washington

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Professor of law Richard Samuelson over at the Library of Liberty and Law points out a striking difference between Senator Chuck Schumer’s attitude toward the private property of dissidents and that of the “Father of our Country”. When some members of the population seemed to prefer the protection of the British rather than the freedom of the new country and were thinking of leaving:

“General Washington did not demand that such enemies of their native country, as he thought them, should pay an exit tax. The Americans were fighting to protect their property from arbitrary taxation. Loyalists were free to choose loyalty, and they were free to take their personal property with them. If there was, on principle, no exit tax demanded in the darkest days of the American revolution, it is hard to see how one could be justified now.”

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Ex-PATRIOT Act full text released: you too could be a “specified expatriate”

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The GPO has just published the full text of Schumer’s proposed Ex-PATRIOT Act (S. 3205). The act creates the new category of “specified expatriates” (a subset of 877A(g)(1)’s “covered expatriates”) and gives rules for determining who is a “specified expatriate”. It then imposes a tax of 30% on U.S. capital gains of “specified expatriates”, and makes them inadmissible to the United States. Continue reading →