U.S. Has World’s Highest Fee To Renounce Citizenship: Robert Woods
Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
*Dear President Obama, I am a Canadian married to an Accidental American* — who is considered US because he was born a *border baby* across the Canadian /American border…
I received the following by email — it is from Keith Redmond’s Facebook page (I still do not do Facebook so could not otherwise access). This story deserves its own post here. How many other Canadians who were border babies will one day sooner or later have their own OMG moments? There was a push to inform them in correspondence to mayors and a CBC broadcast. We wanted them to know of this site but that effort seems to not have connected with too many born across the border as long ago that is where the nearest hospitals were.
A truly heartbreaking story of a Canadian Accidental American…..
XXXXX to Accidental Americans
I just received the following heartbreaking story from a Canadian accidental. I wish there was something I could do or say to make her pain go away. I can’t. The only thing I can do is speak up and fight back on her behalf.
To all Accidentals. We need your stories and more stories. If we can collect more stories like this one out open letter to Obama will become extremely powerful. Please help us by 1) sharing your stories with us 2) writing to your domestic politicians asking them to act and also help you connect with other Accidentals 3) contact the press in your home country and 4) spread the word. Our strength is in numbers and nationalities.
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Dear President Obama,
I am Canadian, married to an Accidental American, but we only found this out this summer, and it has turned our world upside down.
My husband was born in xxx just because it was the closest hospital to the small border town his parents lived in, and medicare had not yet come to Canada, so the cost was the same here or across the border. He was taken home within a day of his birth, and lived his entire life up to now right in this same area. He grew up on a farm, and always dreamed of one day owning his own farm. We worked day and night to make that dream come true, went without to pay for the necessities, raised our children on our farm. Up until a few months ago, we were in the process of semi-retiring and our son taking over the farm, but now that seems impossible. We are faced with huge accounting fees, because there is so much work involved to comply when you own a business, and we will also face huge capital gains if we sell. All this just because of where he was born, it seems like we don’t have the right to live here in Canada. Our tax-free savings will be taxed, our investments will be taxed because they are “foreign” investments?? How are they foreign, we are Canadians!! Because we own a farm, we have over 2 million dollars in assets, so he can’t renounce without paying the exit tax. We are trapped, and for what? Because the US owns him? Because you need our money more than we do? We get nothing in return! I really don’t think you fully understand what this is doing to so many Accidentals who knew nothing about this until now. The amount of money you will get from us will make little difference to you, but will most likely bankrupt us and ruin our lives, lives we have struggled to make a success. You also know about the TPP and what that is doing to dairy farmers in Canada, because you are the county who wants to dump milk into Canada, so we are also losing there. Our future looks bleak. I have had to start taking anti-depressants and sleeping pills just to carry on. My husband is angry and moody, very hard to get along with. I fear that if this goes bad and he has to pay huge taxes, that I will lose him, he will kill himself before he will watch his farm fail and our son’s future be ruined. This is my biggest fear.
Another problem here is that it is impossible to know where to turn, we have accountants everywhere who don’t know a thing about doing this and they just scare people into dropping it and “taking the chance” that they won’t get caught. The first accountant we paid to talk to told us so many things we later found out to be false, like the spouse has to file, the children have to file, he will have to pay taxes on my income, so many other things that were not true. We paid 3 account firms before we settled down and hired one to do it. The work involved in this was astronomical! My entire summer was swallowed up between farm work and US tax work!!
So please, Mr. President, think long and hard about the people this is hurting. We are human beings trying to survive. You are a human being who holds in your hands the power to let us go, let us live our lives as we were before we learned of US citizenship taxation. Please, I beg of you, for thousands of Accidentals, give us our lives back, let us renounce without losing our businesses, our life savings, our hope for the future of our children and grandchildren. Do what you know is right, your proposal in the 2016 Green Book shows that you know about Accidentals and that is just isn’t right, please help us, let us go. We are not saying we want nothing to do with the US, that just isn’t the case, we respect the US for the most part, but knowing what citizenship taxation is doing to Accidentals and expats is disturbing to say the least.
Should these letters to President Obama not also be copied, as a minimum, to US Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders AND, ESPECIALLY, our new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau?
Astroturfing is real: Sharyl Attkisson
In a February 6, 2015 TedTalk, Sharyl Attkisson explains what astroturfing is and how it affects information on the internet:
Astroturf and manipulation of media messages | Sharyl Attkisson | TEDxUniversityofNevada
Attkisson a few days earlier testified about how the Obama uses astroturfing and other intimidation methods to stifle freedom of the press and to suppress information:
Sharyl Attkisson: If You Cross Obama Admin They Will Treat You Like “Enemies Of The State”
As victims of propaganda and media of control, we should understand the obstacles that we face when trying to spread our message.
The US government hunts down Expats to pay taxes–meanwhile the Clintons are cashing in
Corruption American Style:
Bill Clinton scored paid speeches while Hillary made official State Dept. visits
Kent Cooper, a former federal election regulator and respected political ethics analyst, said the blurred lines between State and the foundation in the Clinton world validated the axiom that “there are many pockets in a politician’s coat to line.”
“There are the official pockets, the political pockets, in this case the foundation’s pockets and then their own private pocketbooks, and you can see how special interests subtly work all of them with invitations, pressure and money to try to get what they want,” he said.
“There seem to have been no ethical boundaries or double checks on conflicts of interest between the activities of the secretary of state as a government official, the fundraising of a private foundation, the fees of a private consultant, and the personal income of a former government official, that being the former president.”
It is axiomatic that if government is run by criminals then law enforcement hunts down innocent people to make it look like they are doing something. Government officials cannot go after real criminals or they would have to put themselves in jail first.
Bernie Sanders: Demagogue of the Senate
I’ve noticed that some of the people on Facebook really like Bernie Sanders. But let’s make one thing clear: this senator is a demagogue:
“a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary., Eleventh ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003).
I have myself given up US citizenship. I know lots of people personally who have given up US citizenship. I do not know a single billionaire. I am not a billionaire. I did not leave the United States to avoid paying taxes. For crying out loud, I live in Canada where taxes are much higher than they are in the United States. This man has vilified me and others like me who have become targets of the Obama administration of exorbitant fines, destroying our rights of due process and presumption of innocence.
We should remember that the colonists felt that it was unfair that Britain tax them and that is why they led a revolution and gained the independence of the colonies, thus creating the United States of America. Bernie Sanders may not realize it, but the current policy of the United States towards expats is ten times the son of the Devil what British taxation policies were against the colonists. Most of us who have relinquished US citizenship are victims not villains.
Should a Canadian be forced to fill out W-8BEN to avoid losing her right to trade in her Canadian brokerage account?
LM has posed the following query to readers. It is another true life scenario in which the Canadian government and Canadian banks have put certain Canadian citizens at risk by promising to expose them to the US Federal government.
OK Brocker folks, I have a situation and need support /answers / information.
I invest with a Canadian FFI (for example, RBC-Dominion) and just got a W-8BEN from them that “has to be” filled out and signed; otherwise, they will no longer allow me to trade/invest with them. I spoke with my investment counselors associate (who knows my situation totally and has discussed much about FATCA with me) and told her I found it outrageous that I should be required to sign a US IRS form to say to my Cdn investment firm that I am not a US citizen. They (the FFI) got this exact same information from me back in 2013 via a “Substitute W-8BEN” when I transferred all my accounts there and I would be happy to sign an additional “Substitute W-8BEN” from them now. I’d even be willing to provide a copy of my CLN.
My recollection is that the IGA includes wording that allows Canadian FFIs to use their own equivalent of a W-8BEN (in this case, the “Substitute W-8BEN” with a page heading of XYZ Wealth Mgmt, ABCD Securities”) rather than the actual US form (which has, at the top “Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service”, so that any signature is “under penalty of perjury” to the US).I don’t intend to perjure myself or in any way lie, but is it required, under Cdn law now, that I must sign a US legal document to prove that I am not a US citizen to my Canadian financial institution? I would hate to lose my investment advisor of many years but this has really angered me and I’m sure I am not the only one who will be getting this document to sign now that the FFIs are beginning to look more thoroughly at “established” accounts.
Any advice / information / links to the part of the IGA stating that FFIs are not required to use the US form / etc would be very greatly appreciated.
Interview Opportunity — ABC News’ *Nightline* would like to interview an American living abroad who is in the process of renouncing his or her US citizenship…
NOTE: From Mark Twain’s earlier comment at Brock, re who to contact:
If you are interested in letting Nightline chronicle the days leading up to your renunciation, please contact Geoff Martz at geoff.martz@abc.com or private message Keith to discuss further.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmericanExpatriates/523975671101843/?notif_t=group_activity
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Also passed on to me by email, another notice from Keith Redmond:
FYI from Republicans Overseas: “Ben Carson will host a conference call with Republicans Overseas country chapter leaders worldwide to announce his support for our FATCA lawsuit and FATCA repeal on Oct 30.”
October 19 is Election Day in Canada
If you are a Canadian citizen, you have the opportunity, and IMO the responsibility, to vote in the October 19 Canadian federal election. Certainly if you reside in Canada, and (with some restrictions I won’t go into here) even if you don’t.
This is Canadians’ opportunity to pass judgment on whether the government of Stephen Harper has stood up for Canada, for Canadian values, for Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and for Canadian citizens. And to decide whether maybe some other party should be given the chance to govern our country, for the better (we all hope).
My personal advice is to vote for anyone other than the Conservative in your riding, either the candidate most likely to defeat the Conservative candidate, or if you can’t figure out who that might be, perhaps the party leading in the national polls as of today (the Liberals) and hence with the most credible chance of getting more seats than the Conservatives and hence forming our next government. Or, if you have an incumbent MP who isn’t a Conservative and whom you respect and like, vote for that incumbent.
If you can’t bring yourself to vote for anyone other than a Conservative, but are appalled at Stephen Harper’s idea of governance of Canada, take former Progressive Conservative Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador Danny Williams’ advice, and just stay at home and don’t vote this time around. Ignore that absurd recommendation by the Globe and Mail, which said the Conservatives deserve another mandate but Harper doesn’t. In our parliamentary system you can’t make that distinction, it makes no sense. Harper is the Conservative leader, if the Conservatives really wanted to they could have deposed him but didn’t, and trying to say the Conservatives aren’t to blame for Harper’s style of governance is utterly ridiculous. They’re all joined at the hip.
But VOTE. If you’re eligible to vote in this election and don’t, IMO you’ve lost any right to complain about the outcome.
Treasury Department Finally Begins Document Delivery to RepealFATCA.com on FOIA Request Concerning FATCA ‘Intergovernmental Agreements’!
cross-posted from: Repeal Fatca.com
Source RepealFatca.com | filed in News | Author James George Jatras
Ten days shy of two years after I was told via letter that Treasury would give “expedited treatment” to my FOIA request for records related to FATCA “Intergovernmental Agreements” (IGAs), they finally have begun to be delivered. This follows persistent and determined intervention with the Department by Congressman Bill Posey (R-FL8), a respected member of the House Financial Services Committee who has been the leading voice on the Hill questioning the IGAs’ legal authority.
As indicated in the cover letter from Ryan Law, Treasury’s Director of FOIA and Transparency, additional documents may be provided following State Department review.
The initial tranche of documents can be downloaded in PDF format here. Note that I have not reviewed or modified these documents. This is a “raw dump,” and I rely on readers to review them and notify me at repealfatca@gmail.com and the interested public of anything of significance.
Mr. Law’s letter to me dated October 9, 2015, which I received via email on October 14, can be downloaded in PDF format here.
Jim Jatras
Editor, RepealFATCA.com
Louise Arbour, “My children and I are caught in a useless bureaucratic nightmare”
Does this sound familiar?
From the 15 October Globe and Mail.
Louise Arbour
Louise Arbour is former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, former international war-crimes prosecutor, former UN human rights commissioner.
“When he retires from his post, the Governor-General of Canada will have his bank accounts subjected to heightened scrutiny. So will his parents, his spouse and his children, for the next 20 years. So, too, will the Chief Justice of Canada, all Supreme Court and appellate court judges, ambassadors, counsellors, deputy ministers, generals, past and present, and all their family members. They should expect calls from their bankers asking questions about the sources of deposits and other transactions. And if one of their children happens to have a joint account with a third party, all that would have to be explained to the bankers who are required by law to exercise such vigilance.
“Why is this happening? Because all of these people have been designated as “politically exposed domestic persons” (PEDP) under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act. Why should they be subjected to this intrusive procedure for 20 years after they leave office? No idea. And why should their children also be under this regime for 20 years? Equally puzzling.
“In fact, I can think of an answer. It’s because all this was put in place with no one having any idea it was happening. This is hardly surprising given that it was buried in the massive omnibus budget bill of 2014 known as Bill C-31. Equally troubling, most people wouldn’t care anyway…”
Full article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/caught-in-a-useless-bureaucratic-nightmare/article26813887/