Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

Sooner or later, if you have money, you must pay the U.S. – You can pay the Exit Tax now or the Estate Tax later

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Cross posted from RenounceUScitizenship

 

You can pay the Exit Tax NOW, or the Estate Tax LATER!

Sir John Templeton was one of the world’s greatest investors. In 1955 he founded the Templeton Growth Fund in Toronto, Canada.  Of course, it is now a PFIC. and PFICs are  “tax cancer” for U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens who invest in it will be severely punished. A good explanation of how PFICs work is here. (If you are  U.S. citizen you should consider selling all non-U.S. mutual funds.) In 1969, John Templeton renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to the Bahamas. In so doing, he avoided the U.S. estate tax. Furthermore, at the time that he renounced, the U.S. did not have an “Exit Tax”. Continue reading →

Let’s get the press involved more in our issues !

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Many of us have been escalating our efforts to post comments to articles related to our issues in national and international news organisation websites.  This is great and will increase our voice.  But couldn’t we try another approach in parallel?   I propose that we check the websites of local news channels for the 3 main networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) in every one of the 50 state capitals and all of the major cities we can think of and see if the search function on their site shows any articles for FATCA or other keywords related to our issues.  If not, we could write them an email inviting them to look at recent articles in the national and international press that we have commented on as well as IBS, ACA and other sites of interest.   Here is a sample email I just tried on a CBS affiliate:

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A hypothetical tax scenario: what if Eduardo Saverin had gone to Harvard as a visa student?

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Farhad Manjoo has a piece over at Pando Daily entitled “What Eduardo Saverin Owes America”. He gives a list of five specific items: his safe childhood, his erstwhile friendship with Zuckerberg, Harvard, the Internet, and the justice system. This made me think of the obvious counterfactual scenario: what if Eduardo Saverin’s family had moved to Europe instead to escape the threat of kidnappings in São Paulo, and he’d come to Harvard as a visa student? Four out of Manjoo’s five points still apply, but Saverin would face a far lower tax bill. Would Saverin owe any less of a moral debt to America? And what does the resulting tax situation have to say about the justice of the U.S.’ peculiar practise of taxing overseas citizens wherever we go?

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Response to Matias Ramos: The One Percent Deports Itself

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Here is the link to Matias Ramos blog post at the Institute for Policy Studies, The One Percent Deports Itself. He did not respond to my earlier comment, so I’ve written an e-mail in hopes to get some kind of concession.

Dear Mr. Ramos:

I commented at your blog. I took exception to your portrayal of those who relinquish their citizenship as the 1% deporting themselves. This is incorrect and a clear mischaracterization of the facts. I know many people who have renounced in the last couple of years. These are not wealthy people–indeed, some of them are even what you would call lower middle class.
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Foreign banks freezing out U.S. millionaires

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Here is a Washington Post article that just broke that seems to contain a lot of text that we have already seen at sources like Bloomberg and WSJ.  Nothing really that new.

Foreign banks freezing out U.S. millionaires

The comments page is interesting: there is one remark mentioning the fact that FATCA-level reporting is not required of American banks.  Perhaps IBS members could put some comments there.

Nicolas Santa still in federal custody

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FAIRBANKS, Alaska (BSP)  Nicolas (Claus) Santa, Bishop of Myra, has been in federal custody since his arrest at the North Pole on Christmas Eve, 2011.  Fish and Wildlife agents apprehended him and seized several tons of exotic woods forbidden by the Lacey act.  Santa has been charged with multiple counts of money laundering, illegal exportation of currency, illegally importing into the United States toys made of contraband–rare woods, ivory and other banned substances, as well as violating slave labor and child labor laws.  A grand jury has also indicted Santa on 190 counts of criminal failure to file the Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR).  For those charges alone, Santa risks a sentence of 950 years in prison and fines equal to 300% of his wealth.  Santa was laundering money from his illegal trafficking in toys.

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Toronto Star’s Michael Lewis, Saverin article: It’s about “Benign Actors”

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Michael Lewis at the Toronto Star covers the Saverin story and quotes me from an Isaac Brock Society comment.

See, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s taxing connection to U.S.-Canadian dual citizens

Lewis also cites Nina Olson (emphasis mine),

U.S. National Taxpayer watchdog Nina Olson in a public letter warned that the IRS is driving “benign actors” underground with draconian penalties and a byzantine international tax reporting regime.

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New WSJ article on FATCA

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Tax Rule Provokes Foreign Banks’ Ire

Takeways:

Whatever lobbying Democrats Abroad and ACA is basically completely ineffective and disregarded if you believe what is said in this article. I might send an email to Joe Green himself to get his reaction. An unnamed Treasury Department official appears to view the Democrats Abroad FBAR/FATCA survey as a “joke” because its anonymous. It appears Treasury has very much made up its mind on this issue prior to next weeks hearing.

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