Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

It certainly would be significant to get the attention of someone like Commander Chris Hadfield. I wish you all the best in your attempt, JC. He became a hero to Canadians, someone for Canadian children to look up to. Will he recognize some of our Canadian children who are defined by the U.S. as having U.S. citizenship and all of the same U.S. tax compliance consequences he will have?

@Calgary411

Request for IBS Feature: Contact with Chris Hadfield

By Tuesday 18 Nov: I will attempt contact with Commander Chris Hadfield – very high profile Canadian with US personhood (snowbird rules). Hadfield has flown two space shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station.

He also sang the Canadian anthem during the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens game on 18 January 2014. He is famous for a rendition of David Bowie’s Space Oddity which he sang on the International Space Station and posted a popular video on YouTube, among many videos.

This may be subject of IBS commentary the message and the medium for such contact. He only has 1+ Million Twitter followers so I thought about contacting him there. Here are three Tweets that I thought of sending starting Tuesday (that might get modified tweaked depending on comments):

How best to appeal to him without scaring him away? Do we send him to just the home page of IBS?

@Cmdr_Hadfield Esteemed Canadian/US needed for mission: Ground Control to Uncle Sam. Re: unjust US taxes https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/ #FATCA

@Cmdr_Hadfield Esteemed Canadian/US needed to highlight unjust US tax laws applying to Canadians https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/ #FATCA

@Cmdr_Hadfield Canadians Ginny & Gwen need support to fight American Financial Imperialism/Savings Confiscation https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/ #FATCA

I also found out that he has his own website with potential for attempted e-mail contact: http://chrishadfield.ca/

Will Commander Hadfield have completed all necessary paperwork for his times in the USA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hadfield — Form 8840 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8840.pdf for his Closer Connection Exception Statement for Aliens? Canadians here hope so!

Fearing Up for #FATCA– with all Necessary Propoganda from the Administration

As the administration and friends were looking for someone else to fund both their deficit and their new domestic jobs bills (such as 2010 HR 2847 Jobs for Mainstreet Act), they looked around for new ways to get money from people they didn’t like. However, they needed to get it from people who couldn’t fight back. They also needed to make sure that no one else would come in and defend those people.

G.Obombda Barracks (G.O.B. or OB for short) asked his team: “What is the largest segment of US citizens that can’t fight back?” His team answered: “There are 7.6 million US citizens living outside the USA, and we make it difficult for them to vote–as difficult as we can, that is”

OB: “Any others?” Team: There are 10’s of millions of legal immigrant residents, whom we don’t need to please because most of them can’t vote.

OB: “Is that all you got?” Team: “Course not—they all got spouses and kids”

OB: “Better. But not good enough.” Team: “A bunch of ‘em got business partners, too”

OB: “What else can you get me?” Team: “We can get you entire families overseas with green cards”

OB: “Looking better and better.” Team: “And their green cards don’t even need to be active or usable.”

OB: “I like it. Let’s call them all “US Persons” What else?” Team: “Here’s the best part–they don’t have to BE those things, they just need to be SUSPECTED to be those things”

continued

or copy past link: http://bancdelasteroideb612.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/america-gang-bangs-its-own-citizens/

What’s most upsetting to us is the meme manufactured and controlled directly out of that big white house. It is nearly impossible to take on this attack upon on head on. The resources that are devoted to screwing us are way too high.

The post is meant to instill the importance of what we all know–that something is needed to start a new meme about US expatriates (and green card holders, and immigrants, and spouses, and business partners……).  Some new meme needs to overtake Schumer’s and Levin’s and Bill Nelson’s and Barbara Boxer’s smearing of US persons.

An author, John Gaver,  has recently opened a window to allow “the real story”

Here is how he responded to some multiple blasts from one of our colleague dissidents:

@… @kred65 @… Tell me how that story can be written 2 address the reader’s question “How does it affect me?” & I will.  

This gives an opening to either present US citizens in a good light, or to present the administration in a bad light, depending upon how the author skews the information.

Here is the  incorrect information he provided in his article, which ellicited some nasty feedback from Brockers and others

http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-drives-record-10-000-wealthy-u-s-taxpayers-to-renounce-citizenship

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On Friday, November 7th, I attended the Remembrance Day ceremony at the elementary school where I live. I wore my ceremonial dress, as requested, and joined a couple of veterans who were also in attendance. During the singing of “O Canada”, for the first time in my life, I felt really conflicted. After 30+ years as a law enforcement officer in Canada, during the singing of our national anthem, it started to really hit home that the current Canadian government does not consider me to be a Canadian.

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An interesting reference to a pay-walled issue of Tax Notes Today{2014 TNT 216-3 (11/7/14)} on Jack Townsend’s blog:

“Regarding so-called quiet disclosures — when taxpayers file amended returns and delinquent foreign bank account reports without coming in through the offshore voluntary disclosure program or the streamlined program — Best [senior adviser to the deputy commissioner (international), IRS Large Business and International Division] said, “The IRS recognizes that a quiet filing is a choice that the taxpayer has.”
But Best added, “We would prefer that taxpayers come in through one of our programs so that we have tracking mechanisms, information gathering mechanisms set up, but ultimately it’s up to the taxpayer.“

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When: Sunday, November 30, 2014, 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Where:Carr Hall, St. Michael’s College, U of T, 100 St. Joseph St., Toronto ON M5S 2C4
MAP

Admission: $20 individual or $40 for a family of up to four people. Payable in cash at the door, please (to cover costs). Hope to see you and your families on November 30. Spread the word!
 
This session will feature a very special guest speaker!

 
The IRS made changes to the “Streamlined Program” (a “relaxed” way for delinquent U.S taxpayers to catch up with their U.S. tax and information reporting forms) on June 18 of this year.
Further guidance was given on October 08. Snowbirds in particular, face a potential conflict. It is commonly misunderstood that anyone can stay in the U.S. for up to 180 (actually 182 or less) days per year without any tax consequences. In fact, the manner of counting days is subject to a complex way of computing the total number and of course, there is a form to be filed in the event one is over the limit. In the same manner many expats have been caught off guard with respect to filing tax and information returns, snowbirds who are unaware of the correct procedure are at risk.

Should one be so unfortunate as to be cast into the U.S. taxation net, the Streamlined Program might appear to be a way out. Even better, recent IRS indications are that they will presume that those outside the U.S. were non-willful non-filers, which will eliminate penalties. What could be better? However, in order to qualify for the non-U.S. residence status, one must not have spent more than 35 days in the U.S. for the past three years. The Catch 22 is in order to qualify for the U.S. resident version of Streamlined, one must have filed U.S. tax returns for the previous 3 years.
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Where: McBain Community Centre – Room A – 7150 Montrose Rd., Niagara Falls, Ontario L2H 3N3 MAP

When: Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 8:00 – 10:00 pm

Admission: $20 individual or $40 for a family of up to four people. Payable in cash at the door, please (to cover costs). Hope to see you and your families on November 11. Spread the word!

FATCA and extra-territorial taxation

Generally the question of whether one is a “U.S. person” (citizen, Green Card Holder, resident, substantial presence test) is determined under U.S. law. FATCA has the effect of enforcing the taxation of “U.S. persons” who reside outside the U.S. By changing the definition of “U.S.
person”, the U.S. can increase the number of “U.S. persons” residing in other countries. FATCA – by identifying “U.S. persons” – is the enforcer of extra-territorial taxation. The combined effect of “U.S. person” taxation and FATCA is that the U.S. can increase or decrease its tax base in other countries. If more people are deemed to be U.S. persons the tax base will increase. The FATCA rules make clear that the U.S. and only the U.S. will define what is a “U.S. account” (held by a “U.S. person”).

Interestingly the IRS has offices outside the U.S. (London, Frankfurt, Paris and Beijing). As FATCA becomes fully operational, one wonders whether the IRS will establish more “Local Office(s) Internationally”. FATCA is likely to make the IRS a “U.S. export”.

The U.S. is gradually expanding the number and kinds of people that it deems to be taxable “U.S. persons”. Leaving aside the question of “citizens”, it’s important to realize that U.S. “residents” (which can include people who do NOT reside in the U.S.) are taxable “U.S.persons”.
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Continued from Part III

Solution

This article was written in response to a request for a step-by-step explanation of FATCA that would help Americans understand what it is all about. I would like to conclude with an illustration similar to the one with which I began. If you were born in California but moved to Massachusetts in your 20s and lived there the rest of your life should you have to pay state taxes to California until the day you die? If you lived in Denver at one time and then moved to Atlanta should you have to keep paying municipal taxes to Denver for the rest of your life? Your answer to both questions, I’m sure, would be a resounding, “No! That’s ridiculous!” Of course it’s ridiculous and so is having to pay taxes to a country in which you no longer live. Continue reading →