Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

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Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

JACKIE BUGNION RECEIVES AWARD FOR EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE TO AMERICANS ABROAD

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Jackie Bugnion ACA confers Eugene Abrams Citizenship Award for 2017 on Jackie Bugnion

THE EUGENE ABRAMS CITIZENSHIP AWARD 2017 WINNER

excerpts from the ACA site:
 
 

American Citizens Abroad, Inc. (ACA, Inc.) is proud to confer its Eugene Abrams Award for 2017 on Jackie Bugnion.

The Abrams Award, named for Eugene B. Abrams, ACA Executive Director from 1992-1994, honors Americans abroad who have contributed outstanding volunteer service to their community. This year, it is being presented to an American abroad who has been of invaluable service to the overseas American community around the world.

Mrs. Bugnion served on the ACA Board and Executive Committee for 12 years, from 2003 to 2015, and she was the driving force behind the development of Residency-Based Taxation (RBT), writing detailed RBT proposals, visiting lawmakers and giving speeches on several different continents. She was instrumental in creating relationships with key legislators and the tax writing committees on Capitol Hill, and she wrote policy papers which helped establish ACA as the premier thought-leader on issues affecting the community of Americans living and working overseas.
…….ACA and ACAGF owe a great debt of gratitude to Mrs. Bugnion for her years of service to the organization. She always had excellent insight into the problems facing Americans overseas and worked tirelessly to find practical solutions to these problems. Jackie’s dedication and commitment to the cause of Americans overseas and her committed focus to the issues of overseas taxation and compliancy issues helped bring RBT to the forefront of discussions in Washington.

 
The following are a set of videos, interviews and reports that demonstrate how clearly Jackie understands the problems of Americans abroad and her no-nonsense approach to fixing them.

CFA SOCIETY SWITZERLAND SPONSORS DEBATE – FATCA, THE WORLDWIDE END OF BANK SECRECY? JUNE 25-26, 2012 GENEVA & ZURICH

The CFA Society, Switzerland sponsored debates on June 25 & 26, 2012 in Geneva & Zurich. Of particular interest is listening to the architect of FATCA, J. Richard (Dick) Harvey, Jr. For a fine review of this by Wellington (a Brocker who attended the debate in Zurich) please see callousness of Mr Harvey & the U.S. government .


full debate – 2 hours

 
ACA DIRECTOR JACKIE BUGNION TALKS ABOUT #FATCA WITH JENNIFER CORDINGLEY OF DUKASCOPY TV – NOVEMBER 15, 2012

This short interview with Jennifer Cordingley of Dukascopy is very concise and you won’t find a better one anywhere. This is the one to convince your family and friends-no hysterics or complaining, just, “this is what it is” (and “oh by the way, its terrible“).

There is no direct representation in Congress or in the Administration for Americans residing overseas in Washington D.C., yet U.S. law seriously impacts the lives of Americans overseas through rules related to transmission of citizenship to children born overseas, through specific penalizing measures related to Social Security payments, and, in particular, through its unique citizenship-based taxation whereby the United States continues to impose its tax regime on Americans living outside of the country, even though they pay taxes where they reside. Most recently, in 2010, Congress passed the FATCA legislation (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), which makes it very difficult for Americans abroad to maintain bank accounts in the country where they live.

 

5 minutes
 
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Rep. Mark Meadows & Sen. Rand Paul – Important Letter to White House/Treasury Urging Action to Nullify FATCA

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Senator Rand Paul and Congressman Mark Meadows sent a letter this week to US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Director of White House Management and Budget Office Mulvaney.

Letter of Senator Paul and Congressman Mnuchin to Secretary of The Treasury and the Director of White House Management and Budget Office

Co-Leader of the Campaign to Repeal FATCA, Nigel Green, comments that:

“Mark Meadows and Rand Paul Letter to White House and Treasury Urging Executive Action to Nullify FATCA Is a ‘Landmark Moment’ and that “The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act “has only rolled on because of legally unauthorized ‘intergovernmental agreements,’” so cancelling them would “doom this terrible, toxic law.”

The full text of Mr. Green’s commentary are at PressWire and at ValueWalk.

The Little Red #FATCA Book – Review, Identify & Report on U.S. Persons How #FATCA affects the non-US World

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reposted from the citizenshipsolutions blog

As many of you know, the long-awaited #FATCA hearing will take place three weeks from today. This is exciting and followed by the news that Congressman Mark Meadows will reintroduce his repeal FATCA legislation. Closely matching is the effort of Nigel Green & Jim Jatras. The recent letter, endorsed by major think tanks, etc is here . We still await the hoped-for tax reform. The fate of those who have not yet chosen whether to become compliant and/or renounce hangs in the balance. Regardless of the outcome(s), our direction will become much clearer in the next little while.
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Shu Yi Oei: The Offshore Tax Enforcement Dragnet via Allison Christians

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reblogged from Allison Christians’ Tax, Society & Culture with permission

Shu Yi Oei (Tulane) has posted an important new paper on U.S. offshore tax enforcement, of interest. Here is the abstract:

Taxpayers who hide assets abroad to evade taxes present a serious enforcement challenge for the United States. In response, the U.S. has developed a family of initiatives that punish and rehabilitate non-compliant taxpayers, raise revenues, and require widespread reporting of offshore financial information. Yet, while these initiatives help catch willful tax cheats, they have also adversely affected immigrants, Americans living abroad, and “accidental Americans.”
This Article critiques the United States’ offshore tax enforcement initiatives, arguing that the U.S. has prioritized two problematic policy commitments in designing enforcement at the expense of competing considerations: First, the U.S. has attempted to equalize enforcement against taxpayers with solely domestic holdings and those with harder-to-detect offshore holdings by imposing harsher reporting requirements and penalties on the latter. But in doing so, it has failed to appropriately distinguish among differently situated taxpayers with offshore holdings. Second, the U.S. has focused on revenue and enforcement, ignoring the significant compliance costs and social harms that its initiatives create.
The confluence of these two policy commitments risks creating high costs for the wrong taxpayers. While offshore tax enforcement may have been designed to catch high¬-net-worth tax cheats, it may instead impose disproportionate burdens on those immigrants and expatriates who have less ability to complain, comply, or “substitute out” of the law’s grasp. This Article argues that the U.S. should redesign its enforcement approach to minimize these risks and suggests reforms to this end.

The paper provides a thorough review of the panoply of offshore enforcement programs and mechanisms and documents the harms of their dragnet approach, especially on the most vulnerable and least likely targets. A significant contribution to the literature.

 

Collective psychotherapy – U.S. citizens outside U.S. – Not what they take from you, it’s what they leave you with

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cross-posted from renounceuscitizenship blog

Going back to a general thread from a few weeks ago – on law and morality – this post speaks more to the effects of the law when it is not rooted in morality. On one level, an apologist might claim that “doing one’s duty” and “paying one’s share” is moral and is necessary to maintain funding and order in a society. However, when such a law is applied to those who live outside that society, as we all know from experience, unexpected conflicts, resulting punitive actions and penalties tend to denigrate the quality of life. We are not talking about “quality of life” amounting to physical comforts or financial wealth. By “quality of life, what is referred to is mental stability, emotional trustworthiness and the ability to move through difficulties with a sense of direction and confidence. When these parameters are stifled by confusion/lack of clarity of what is expected, and ridicule and negativity is directed toward those affected, the result is a not an issue of lack of compliance but rather, wrongly imposed requirements that simply make people anxious, immobilized by fear, depression and a general inability to adjust to the situation. How this can be justified when those same people ARE compliant in the society where they live, strikes many as simply being immoral.

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The Wisdom of Moe Levine Moe Levine (not that I ever met him) was considered to be one of America’s greatest trial lawyers. Although he died in 1974, his wisdom lives on his book (appropriate called) “Moe Levine on Trial Advocacy“. He (legend has it) was a master at delivering the closing statement in his jury trials. When arguing for a severely injured plaintiff he (according to the commentators of his time) would tell the jury (referring to a badly injured client):

“It’s not what you take from them it’s what you leave them with.”
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Information Session – Solving U.S. Citizenship Problems with John Richardson

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FATCA is in full swing. The fear-mongering of the tax compliance industry continues. A recent suit involving a dual U.S.-CDN citizen is launched and while NOT typical of the average Canadian, major fears arise. Will the IRS extend its program of penalties to the minnow? Will the U.S. Republicans manage to achieve Tax Reform that would include a move to RBT? Will FATCA finally be killed off?

If you are still sitting on the fence wondering what to do and where you stand, now is a good time to make sure you have the facts. Many are still choosing to #RenounceAndRejoice! Should you?

Next meeting is in Vancouver, Tuesday, May 23, 2017

This is Fantastic! Don’t Think We Have Ever Had Support Like this!

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Came across this today: Ways & Means committee members letter

I do not have permission to reproduce in full but here are a few excerpts:

Dear Speaker Ryan, Majority Leader McConnell, Rep. Brady, and Sen. Hatch:
As free-market and taxpayer protection organizations representing millions of Americans,
we urge that repeal of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)—a plank in the
2016 Republican Party Platform—be included in any tax reform package sent to the
White House.

Since FATCA’s introduction, Americans living overseas have lost access to their banking
and investment accounts as foreign financial institutions drop clients rightly perceived as
toxic. This has not only impacted the welfare of the estimated nine million Americans
who live and work abroad but hampers small businesses owned and operated by
Americans attempting to compete internationally

FATCA repeal bills will soon be introduced in the House and Senate. We urge the
leadership and committees of jurisdiction to include this vital correction of misguided
enactment of the past administration by including it in any forthcoming tax bill

There is a list of 24 individuals/organizations. I ask any Tweeps to RT like mad to show our appreciation for what they are doing. PERFECT timing for the Rally tomorrow! Perhaps someone could put together an email list for those who do not Tweet.
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Did Mr. #FBAR really pay a surprise visit to Canada?

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cross-posted from citizenshipsolutions

The FBAR Chronicles continue …
 

First, A Public Service Announcement – Mr. FBAR Get’s A New Filing Due Date

This is one more of my posts about Mr. FBAR. Mr. FBAR is a mean, nasty vicious thug who has no place in any civilized society.

Thomas Jefferson once said:

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

My thoughts are that:

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have FBAR without outlaws, or outlaws without FBAR, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

Unfortunately, Mr. FBAR has become the new symbol of American citizenship. Furthermore, Mr. FBAR disproportionately affects the local bank accounts of Americans abroad – becoming (in effect) a form of “domestic terrorism” against U.S. citizens living outside the United States.

Mr. FBAR As Applied To The Canada U.S. Dual Citizen …

As reported by CBC news, Global News in Canada, The Isaac Brock Society and various Facebook groups. a U.S. Canada dual citizen (Jeffrey P. Pomerantz – the Defendant) has been sued in Washington State, by the U.S. Department Justice, to collect FBAR penalties for the years 2007, 2008, and 2009. It appears that at the present time, the Defendant lives in Vancouver, Canada.

The actual “Complaint” filed in the Court which summarizes and explains the Government’s allegations is found here. (If you have read this far, you should pause and read the Complaint.)
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U.S. State Department rejected two visa applications in 2016 based on Reed Amendment

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As I just noticed, last week the State Department released one of the final missing pieces of their Report of the Visa Office for Fiscal Year 2016: Table XX, “Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Visa Ineligibilities (by Grounds for Refusal Under the Immigration and Nationality Act)”.

This latest update reveals that two out of the tens of thousands of people who have renounced citizenship since 1996 were denied U.S. non-immigrant visas last year under 8 USC § 1182(a)(10)(E) (colloquially known as the Reed Amendment) because they had renounced U.S. citizenship for the purpose of avoiding taxation by the United States. One was later able to overcome the finding of inadmissibility.

This is the first time the State Department have formally admitted to denying visas on that basis. However, for decades they have been denying visas to about a half-dozen ex-citizens or ex-green card holders per year whom they believe left or stayed outside the U.S. to avoid the draft.

The State Department acting on their own cannot legally find you inadmissible under the Reed Amendment, and the Foreign Affairs Manual warns consular officers against doing so. They need a determination of inadmissibility from the Department of Homeland Security. DHS have said they can only make such determinations if ex-citizens “affirmatively admit to renouncing their U.S. citizenship for the purpose of avoiding U.S. taxation” — the IRS cannot offer DHS any assistance, due to provisions protecting the confidentiality of tax returns, and State can only tell DHS what the renunciant tells State.

DHS revealed all these difficulties in a November 2015 report, which both myself and Patricia Moon have previously discussed. It is not clear whether the two individuals denied visas by State last year were the same two individuals mentioned in that 2015 report (to whom DHS had previously denied entry), though I suspect that may be the case.

In short, don’t tell DHS or State the obvious truth about why you want to stop being a U.S. citizen, and they — unlike the IRS — officially won’t treat you any worse than they treat other non-citizens. (Unofficially, there do seem to be a few reports of consular officers getting angry that anyone would dare apostatise from the American civic religion, and then using an outlandish finding of 8 USC § 1184(b) “failure to overcome presumption of immigrant intent” as an excuse to deny a visa.)

The FATCA Master Plan Revealed

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Global News has the following report:

U.S. sues Vancouver dual citizen for over $1M for not reporting accounts

This is big news. And it reveals and confirms my prediction of what FATCA would be used for:  To go after the bank accounts of “US persons” living in foreign countries by using FBAR fines and FATCA information. I called it the Master Plan.

A few observations on this article:

(1) Clearly this lawsuit should help the ADSC lawsuit. Here is a case of real hazard that failure to protect Canadians from IRS intrusiveness will result in.

(2) This case is not based on tax owed, and so this is purely an FBAR matter. But IRS code has no jurisdiction in this matter.

(3) The article doesn’t say where the lawsuit is taking place, but then says that the papers were deposited in Seattle in Federal court.

(4) The fine of $100,000 or 50% of account is wrong: Or did it go up from $10,000?

(5) President Donald Trump has made no difference in the persecution of so-called “Americans abroad”.

(6) This is a Canadian living in Canada. He is therefore an innocent person being sued by the government of the USA, for small money. I.e., he is a minnow, and what Nina Olsen has called a benign actor.

(7) The lawsuit shows that QI provisions are not sufficent for the USA government to seize Canadian accounts in Canada.

(8) The Justice Department is not suing this person in Canadian court. But perhaps that will come next.

See also:

U.S. government suing Canadian resident for $1.1M over bank form