Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Ex-U.S. citizen actor visited California for holiday without issues

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DonnieYenCeciliaWangWeibo

While nasty and vindictive Homelanders were expressing glee at the news that Roger Ver had been denied a U.S. visa to speak at a Bitcoin conference in the U.S., another covered expatriate was able to celebrate a much quieter Christmas and New Year’s holiday in Southern California with his Canadian wife. A recent article in Hong Kong’s Headline News confirms that Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen Chi-tan recently visited the U.S. and Peru with his family. His wife Cecilia Wang posted a picture of herself, Yen, and the kids in Los Angeles just after the New Year on Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo. As far as is known, Yen himself — unlike his wife — holds only a Hong Kong SAR passport and not a Canadian passport, meaning he does not enjoy visa-free entry but instead had to apply for an actual U.S. visa to enter the country.

Yen is an “accidental American” of a different sort: he was not born a dual citizen, but instead came to the U.S. with his family at age 11. However, he moved back to Hong Kong pretty much as soon as he reached adulthood, and achieved fame in the movie industry there through his roles in martial arts films. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 2009, and showed up in the Federal Register “published expatriates” list for Q3 2010; as he stated to Xinhua News Agency when they interviewed him a few years later about his renunciation, “now I’m 100% Chinese”. This was not Yen’s first visit to the U.S. since his renunciation, either; in July 2014, he went to Boston where his parents still live. Having U.S. citizen or resident relatives makes it more difficult to overcome the presumption of immigrant intent when applying for a tourist visa, but as Yen’s case demonstrates it is far from impossible either.

Even though politicians on both sides of the aisle keep threatening to banish us, many other ex-U.S. Persons both famous and obscure have had no issues in obtaining a U.S. tourist visa or entering through the Visa Waiver Program. Some have even moved back to the country, either on work visas or green cards. Unfortunately, even the mere threat of being denied entry to the U.S. to visit friends and relatives has left some U.S. Persons in other countries too afraid to cast off their unwanted citizenship.

Survey to Abolish FATCA: To be Presented to Congress

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https://www.abolishfatca.com/drupal7/civicrm/profile/create?gid=17&reset=1

In order to change the mindset of lawmakers that overseas Americans do not vote (only 7% of expats, 523,000 out of 7.6 million, voted in 2012), it is needed to gather and provide our own statistics to them to show

1) FATCA (implying also FBAR & RBT) is a very important issue to you and

2) you do intend to vote in 2016.

Only the statistics will be shown to Congress. The names and street addresses are used for auditors and are not shared with Congress.

Names and addresses are required for survey auditors. Likely, it is not required that you answer every box according to your own choices. You choose what you answer

Please encourage as many people as you can to take this survey. Timing is about one week.

Yes, this is from one side. It isn’t Whitehouse.gov and it isn’t Move On and it isn’t Democrats Abroad (the survey’s you have seen before).

This is from the party that is looking for co-sponsors of legislation to Repeal FATCA.

It should be obvious as to why it is important to show how big the voting block could be. If all the eligible of the 7.6 million were to state that expat issues are more important to them than domestic issues, than it’s possible to get some legislative relief.

Note that voters are supposed to drive legislators.

 

What Is Mythster Stack’s Response for This?

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no investments - Copy

Q: “How can I avoid FATCA?”

A: “Avoid US-sourced income, US investments and US investors/account holders and that should do the trick.”

http://www.ustaxfs.com/fatca/fatca-faqs/

This is just one FATCA compliance consulting house of all of the jillions of FATCA compliance houses .

FATCA is a way to get a bigger chunk of a shrinking pie.

Don’t forget to remind your legislators.

 

Congratulations to @ADCSovereignty lawyer, Joe Arvay, on today’s Supreme Court of Canada Decision

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Cross-posting from ADCS-ADSC.ca blog congratulations to constitutional lawyer, Joseph Arvay, and his team on today’s unanimous Canadian Supreme Court decision, with the disclaimer as rightly suggested…

This post and the Canadian Supreme Court unanimous ruling  is being cited solely to show the legal skills of Canadian constitutional lawyer, Joseph Arvay, and his team, not to discuss our agreement or disagreement with the ruling itself.

 

Congratulations to @ADCSovereignty lawyer Joe Arvay – SCC allows doctor assisted suicide

 

Joseph Arvay and team will use their same skills in working to uphold the rights of approximately one million Canadians, their spouses, their children, their business partners who presently face national origin discrimination (US-defined US citizenship / personhood) after the signing and implementation  by Omnibus Bill C-31, of an intergovernmental agreement to allow US FATCA law to override Canadian laws and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

IRS & State encourage ESL teachers abroad to join Streamlined?

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At least that’s my best guess of what they’re trying to do, based on the rather strange contents of (and omissions from) their latest guidance to U.S. Persons abroad. Patrick Martin of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP reports on recent State Department efforts to communicate with the diaspora about their IRS obligations. State sent out an e-mail blast, and posted the same message on the websites of various U.S. consulates and embassies, for example Tokyo, Bern, and Athens. The guidance was prepared by the IRS rather than State; State is merely the messenger.

Here’s the IRS’ complete answer to the question “What Forms May I Need” (I eliminated references to instructions and Spanish or “EZ” versions of forms):

1040, U.S Individual Income Tax Return
1116, Foreign Tax Credit
2350, Application for Extension of Time to File U.S. Income Tax Return (for U.S. citizens and residents abroad)
2555, Foreign Earned Income Exclusion
4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return
8802, Application for United States Residency Certificate
8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets
14653, Certification by U.S. Person Residing Outside of the United States for Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures

Form 8802 is only useful to you as an individual if you have a credible case for tax non-residence in the country where you are present, and a claim that such non-residence should exempt you from local taxation on some of your income which the U.S. also does not tax under its own system.

The mention of Form 8938 notwithstanding, this e-mail doesn’t appear to be aimed at accidental Americans or long-term emigrants who conduct all their finances locally — the largest category of non-resident non-filers who have assets which could be subject to fines and actually might owe U.S. taxes in unusual years (e.g. on the sale of a house). None of us have any claim to U.S. residency under a tax treaty. If the IRS were aiming at us, it would have been far more relevant to mention Forms 3520 and 8621 than Form 8802.

Nor is this e-mail likely to be aimed at short-term corporate assignees — who might be able to benefit from Form 8802, but in general have Big 4 assistance as part of their overseas assignment package and so are far likelier than average to be compliant with their U.S. tax obligations (thus artificially driving up the average income of FEIE users). Rather, the IRS seems to be trying to contact people to whom Form 8802 is relevant and who currently have a low rate of compliance. My guess is that means students, teachers, and researchers, in particular young graduates teaching ESL classes.

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Will Canada turn a blind eye to the IGA’s “faux reciprocity”?

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Post authored by Bubblebustin for you…

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This feature article covers what James Jatras told us long ago when he said that the FATCA IGA’s are “dead on arrival”. The US Congress will not pass the legislation to make these IGA’s truly reciprocal, but my question is,

Will our governments choose to ignore this fact when our banks are running scared?

It’s up to each any every one of us to tell our MP’s that the banks should not collect the private banking information on EVEN ONE CANADIAN when the US isn’t holding up it’s end of the deal!

This confirms my worst fear, that our governments may turn a blind eye to the US’s lack of legislative authority on this matter, again sacrificing us just to make things run smoothly for the banks. Is there any reason to think they’d act otherwise?

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Obama FY2016 budget proposes limited relief for accidental duals-at-birth who give up U.S. citizenship

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Not applicable to adult emigrants. No other proposals to simplify income taxes for individuals who don’t live in the United States. No help with the insane reporting requirements on foreign retirement & medical & disability savings plans. Some people may hope it’s a start from an administration which up until now has been totally deaf to the “special concerns and issues of Americans abroad” which the president claimed he would address when he was campaigning for our votes. Others will take it as what it appears to be at face value: a chance to get out while the getting is semi-good.  At page 282 of the “Green Book” (all links added by me):

Individuals who became citizens of both the United States and another country at birth may have had minimal contact with the United States and may not learn until later in life that they are U.S. citizens. In addition, these individuals may be citizens of countries where dual citizenship is illegal. Many of these individuals would like to relinquish their U.S. citizenship in accordance with established State Department procedures, but doing so would require them to pay significant U.S. tax.

Under the proposal, an individual will not be subject to tax as a U.S. citizen and will not be a covered expatriate subject to the mark-to-market exit tax under section 877A if the individual:

1. became at birth a citizen of the United States and a citizen of another country,
2. at all times, up to and including the individual’s expatriation date, has been a citizen of a country other than the United States,
3. has not been a resident of the United States (as defined in section 7701(b)) since attaining age 18½,
4. has never held a U.S. passport or has held a U.S. passport for the sole purpose of departing from the United States in compliance with 22 CFR §53.1,
5. relinquishes his or her U.S. citizenship within two years after the later of January 1, 2016, or the date on which the individual learns that he or she is a U.S. citizen, and
6. certifies under penalty of perjury his or her compliance with all U.S. Federal tax obligations that would have applied during the five years preceding the year of expatriation if the individual had been a nonresident alien during that period.

The proposal would be effective January 1, 2016.

This didn’t appear to be covered in the table of revenue estimates. Correction: As Tim points out, the revenue estimate is in the summary tables file on the White House/OMB website, rather than the Treasury website. They estimate it would cost $400 million over ten years, with more than half of that coming in the first three years as people scramble to take advantage of the offer.

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“I relinquished 20 years ago, let them prove otherwise”

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I relinquished 20 years ago, and they know it. If they decided to re-write history, they obviously can’t play nice, and I’m not going to play with them. I got as far as talking to the vice consul, and she wanted me to start by taking an oath that we both knew was false. I am proudly Australian, let them prove otherwise. — ProudAussie, 1 February 2015

We’ve suggested here several times that Washington should bear the burden of proving continued U.S. citizenship in the event an emigrant claims loss of citizenship occurred long ago — especially if the claim of continued citizenship is accompanied by a demand that an emigrant fulfill one of the alleged duties of U.S. citizenship or submit to punishment for failure to fulfill such duties. The U.S. government should have to prove not only that an emigrant took actions which could only be performed lawfully by U.S. citizens but that such actions were actually taken with intent to retain U.S. citizenship. To require otherwise is a deliberate perversion of the spirit of the Warren Court’s efforts to prevent the executive from using nationality law as a tool of punishment.

Unfortunately, the law as it stands — 8 USC § 1481(b) — places the burden of proof “upon the person or party claiming that such loss occurred”, and in October 2014 the State Department updated the relevant sections of the Foreign Affairs Manual to ensure that consular officers understand all the nuances of their power to make negative recommendations in relinquishment cases when they feel the emigrant has not provided sufficient evidence of action or intent to meet the burden of proof.

The legislator who wrote § 1481(b) — a detractor of the Warren Court’s rulings on nationality — falsely claimed he intended to place the burden of proof on the government. He was certainly aware that it would not always be the government asserting loss of citizenship; a very peculiar phrase in § 1481(b) suggests he was not only aware of such instances in general terms but knew in detail the legal strategies used by an individual in one such case. So this legislator lied to his colleagues and the public to get his law passed. He apparently expected he could avoid any scrutiny of his lies by making vague and jingoistic speeches, and he was correct — half a century later, it’s beyond the power of any mortal to hold him to account.

This legislator was quite famous, too: if you were alive when he was in office you’ll likely be familiar with his name, and even if you weren’t you’ll recognise the name of the infamous committee he headed, whose annual report crowed about its great achievement of getting this law passed.

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“Seize the Day” – An All-Day Event for All “U.S. Persons” – Info Session & Forum – February 14, 2015

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WHERE:University of Toronto, St. Michael’s College, Carr Hall Room 405

100 St. Joseph Street – Toronto ON M5S 2C4 MAP

WHEN:SESSION ONE: 9:00 – 11:00 am Info Session

“2015- Solving U.S. Citizenship Problems-Have You Received a FATCA Letter?”

ADMISSION: $20 per individual or $40 for a family of up to 4 people

Payable in cash at the door, please (to cover costs).

 

WHEN: SESSION TWO: 12:00 – 6:00 pm Open Forum

“Have You and Your Family Been Harmed by U.S. Government Tax Policy?”

ADMISSION: FREE
 
 

WHO: John Richardson, B.A., LL.B, J.D.

Member of the Ontario Bar

citizenshipsolutions.ca
 

SESSION ONE

“Have you received a FATCA letter or been warned of the consequences of being a U.S. person?”
 
Why am I getting letters from my bank all of a sudden?

The “FATCA Hunt” – the hunt for U.S. persons (whatever that is) began on July 1, 2014 which was “Canada Day.” Although both the definition of “U.S. person” and whether one meets the definition is not always clear, the search has begun. The level of FATCA awareness has begun. Some organizations are actively warning people that “U.S. Person-ness” matters. The purpose of the warning is presumably to encourage people to “come clean” and deal with their U.S. tax situations. In some cases, there is no particular warning – just a letter indicating that they are suspected to be a “U.S. person.” Often one must prove to the institution sending the letter that one is not a U.S. person.

What individuals are U.S. taxpayers? Who is a U.S. citizen?
 
There are individuals that the U.S. government would define as “U.S. citizens” who:

  • do NOT agree that they are U.S. citizens because they have performed a “relinquishing act” under applicable U.S. laws;
  • do NOT even know that they may be U.S. citizens because they have never lived in the United States
  • are citizens and residents of countries that do NOT allow multiple citizenships

To put it another way: one’s status as a U.S. citizen is NOT always clear.

I have never heard of these requirements! What determines the income that must be reported to the IRS? What “Information Returns” are required to be reported to the IRS?

  • FBAR (Now called FinCen 114)
  • FATCA 8938 – Report of Specified Foreign Assets
  • 5471 – Information return for Foreign Corporation
  • 3520 – Information return for a “Foreign Trust”
  • 3520A – related to the 3520
  • 8621 – for CDN Mutual Funds
  • 8965 – for exemption from ACA insurance

I am only a snowbird! Why does this affect me?

  • Substantial Presence Test
  • Form 8840 Closer Connection Exception Statement for Aliens
  • Caution: Streamlined Programs & 35 day rule – Catch 22

What are the ways I can become compliant?

  • Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program – AKA “OVDP” – Not appropriate for the vast majority of people
  • Streamlined Compliance – A pre-packaged way to “clean up” past compliance problems
  • Obeying the law – filing amended tax returns outside the “IRS Created” programs
  • Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures

What costs are involved in renouncing U.S. citizenship?

  • The costs of a total of 6 years (5 years prior to the year of renunciation plus the year of renunciation) of tax compliance and information returns
  • The cost of any back taxes and penalties
  • A $2350 administrative fee
  • possibility of having to pay an “Exit Tax” (which can be the biggest problem)

 

SESSION TWO
 
We want you to send your stories and videos of harm done to you by CBT to us by February 14, 2015. These will be sent to WASHINGTON DC
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It Hurts My Heart: On Renouncing American Citizenship

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Reposted with permision

 

IT HURTS MY HEART: On Renouncing American Citizenship

Essay by Christina Warren with Photographs by Lars Deutschlaender

Kleineschanze2_sm

Bern, Switzerland is built on a horseshoe bend of the river Aare. Its old town is in the center of this horseshoe and is designated a UNESCO World-Heritage site. Bridges lead to the ‘younger’ neighborhoods. Mine, the Monbijou, is only a ten-minute walk from the Bundeshaus or Parliament building. My favorite route to the old town is through Flora Park, past the gated compound of the American Embassy

FloraPark_sm Dreifaltigkeitskirche_sm

and through the Kleine Schanze, a park

bordering the Bundeshaus and offering

views of the Alps. I have taken this

walk countless times, passing the embassy,

sometimes stopping to light a candle at

the Dreifaltigkeitskirche, a catholic church

located just outside the Kleine Schanze.

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