http://bvinews.com/bvi/premier-julian-fraser-is-irresponsible-the-bvi-is-not-a-us-police/

http://bvinews.com/bvi/early-elections-may-be-prompted-by-fatca-maduro/

http://bvinews.com/bvi/bvi-not-helping-united-states-to-collect-sensitive-info-on-its-citizens-premier-smith/

The US Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) continues to fuel heated discussions here in the British Virgin Islands, and social commentator Edmund Maduro is now asserting that an agreement would be a constitutional breach that warrants a call for early elections.

Under FATCA, the United States is trying to collect taxes from its citizens and companies here in the BVI and elsewhere around the world.

The BVI Premier, Dr. D. Orlando Smith, has hinted that his government may sign a related Inter-Governmental Agreement with the United States, adding that such FATCA approach would be the best option for the territory.

Opposition member Julian Fraser and Maduro think otherwise. Fraser has maintained that a FATCA agreement would result in the BVI government ‘trading’ the liberty and private information of some citizens to the United States.

The BVI citizens and residents likely to be affected are those holding US citizenship.

More:

Premier Dr. D. Orlando Smith on Tuesday dismissed claims that his government has been conspiring with the United States to collect sensitive information on its citizens.

The information is said to be linked to immigrant status, citizenship, property ownership and income.

“The BVI government is NOT collecting information on the citizenship and immigrant status with the United States on its citizens, nor is the government diving into their property ownership or income,” Premier Smith noted in a brief reference to the matter.

He was responding to Third District representative Julian Fraser who last week told a public meeting in his constituency that the BVI government has been ‘volunteering to do the United States policing of its citizens’.

Such policing, he said, has nothing to do with the topical issues of ‘Tax Haven’ and Tax Information Exchange Agreements.

“The United States in its decision to hunt and tax its citizens and permanent residents across the globe on property and savings interest is now allied with the NDP Government in the Virgin Islands,” Fraser told his constituents.

Note: The NDP party of the British Virgin Islands has nothing to do with the NDP Party of Canada.

And not one from 1974, either, but from last Monday. Read the whole thing here. Some excerpts:

Thousands of Americans are renouncing their citizenship and are taking permanent residence in foreign countries. Some analysts associate these developments to what they term “America’s uncertain future” … Wages in the United States are low and many hard working people struggle to afford life’s basic necessities. Other burning issues include a degrading public health system, a half-dead retail sector and an arguably chaotic political environment …

Americans who have relatives and friends outside of the United States are choosing to renounce their U.S. citizenship and relocate to countries with better economies. It has emerged that Americans are forced to renounce their citizenship as a way of circumventing the stiff legal requirements on foreigners in countries where they seek employment or business opportunities. “They then take the tough decision of renouncing their U.S. citizenship for a foreign one in their quest for a better life” …

Continue reading →

In the latest news, Jeremy Hobson was kind enough to leak to NPR listeners what is going on in the minds of hundreds of millions of Americans, such as Senator Shumar, Senator Reed, President Obama and many others.  According to him and Marty Schenker from Bloomberg, the American people would rather renounce their US citizenship than to pay taxes.

HOBSON: And as you have reported at Bloomberg, some people just renounced their U.S. citizenship to avoid taxes.

SCHENKER: It really is extraordinary. In the first half of this year, one – over 1,100 Americans had walked into their embassies and basically turned in their passports versus only 235 for the whole of 2008. And these are people who just are calculating it’s better not to be a U.S. citizen than to face having to pay taxes or prosecution.

NPR Story

From this NPR leak, we have learned that there are only two reasons why stateside Americans have not yet renounced their US citizenship:

1. They don’t pay any US taxes
2. They pay US taxes but have not yet had the opportunity to move to a different country (a requirement for renouncing)

As a non-American, I have found that people generally change their citizenship for a large variety of different reasons which usually has nothing to do with taxes.  Americans must be unique in this regards, differing greatly from the rest of the global population. It is only the Americans who figure that renunciations are only about taxes.

Trusty Robert W. Wood at Forbes covers-off the new “how-to” video collection the IRS has released to help Foreign Financial Institutions navigate their way through the terrifying new FATCA Portal of Mordor. As it turns out, the greatest immediate danger to FFI drones might be falling asleep and hitting their heads on their mahogany desks as they attempt to watch these stultifying videos in their entirety.

As Mr. Wood concludes:

The videos may make registration a little easier. They may even give foreign financial institutions a warmer feeling about the process. Individual viewers, particularly Americans abroad who may feel caught in FATCA’s net, are less likely to give these films a thumbs up.

Monday, August 12, 2013 Here’s The Law That’s Driving Record Numbers Of Americans To Renounce Their Citizenship

This is an interesting view in the US:

Of course, every law has compliance costs, and it’s not even clear that it’s such a big problem if more Americans, presumably dual citizens living abroad with relatively weak ties to the U.S., are renouncing citizenship.

So, it’s not a problem when Americans renounce in response to bad policy.  I wonder how one defines “weak ties”?  I’d define it as being a growing gap between the US and its diaspora.   Only the American diaspora seems to care about bad policy:

This has been a major point of complaint for organizations representing American expatriates.

This is not a complaint for stateside Americans?  It’s not only a “compliance cost”, but also a federal crime concerning national origin discrimination.  It is great that stateside Americans care nothing about their diaspora and don’t mind it when they renounce in response to bad policy.  Yet, do they really need the exit and diaspora taxes to demonstrate such?

Since their origins, both the Isaac Brock Society and Maple Sandbox have been invaluable sources of information and a productive forum for intelligent discussion. These discussions have matured to a point where we have a much greater understanding of the overreach of the United States government into the lives of those who choose to permanently live outside of the United States or are ‘Accidental Americans’. This summer, we have seen contributors to Brock and Sandbox quoted in various publications and even have articles published in The Hill.

However, in Canada, the issues discussed here, primarily Citizen Based Taxation and FATCA, are virtually invisible to our elected representatives, the media and the general public (with the exception of the Green Party of Canada).

Living in an advanced Western democracy, with a modern and model Constitution, Canadian citizens and permanent residents can and should expect our government to protect us in many ways. We expect police and fire services, safety regulations, affordable and accessible health care,protection of our land, our borders, our resources, and our economy. And when some of those protections fail or are inadequate, we expect public debate and action by our government.

Can anyone honestly say that the Canadian government has protected U.S. persons in Canada from CBT?

We do know that Canada has limited influence over U.S. tax policies. However, except for RRSPs, why haven’t TFSAs, RESPs and RDSPs been included in any of our treaties or other agreements with the U.S.? Instead, they are treated as taxable foreign trusts, with compliance difficulties and penalties.

Why are our mutual funds and ETSs classified as Passive Foreign Investment Corporations, thereby making them subject to discriminatory taxation, complicated forms and penalties for honest mistakes?

As far as FATCA is concerned, the jury is still out. We simply don’t know the shape of a Canada-U.S. FATCA IGA and how it will compromise our Charter rights and freedoms and our privacy rights.

In spite of all the wonderful discussions we have been having, I feel we are hampered by the lack of a legally registered organization with a spokesperson the media can turn to. Instead, on those rare occasions when FATCA or other issues affecting U.S.  persons in Canada is mentioned, reporters usually turn to professionals with a vested interest in promoting compliance and fear.

This proposed organization would be one of Canadians defending Canadian interests, values and laws from the intrusion of U.S. extra-territorial taxation.

The organization could begin with just a few core members to get things started and look after the not very difficult or costly task of provincial registration. Then it would recruit members. Both the Maple Sandbox and Isaac Brock Society can be used to promote membership. There would be a small membership fee to defray expenses.

It is my opinion that the organization would be more effective if the core group was located in Ottawa or Toronto. There appears to be a more concentrated population of duals and former Americans in those cities. The location would also be closer to political and media centres, and thus possibly have more legitimacy in the eyes of the media and the powers that be.

The organization itself might not launch any lawsuits over FATCA, but would assist anyone or any other group, such as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, with both financial and research assistance.

So, the question is, where do we go from here? Is just discussing the problems of CBT and FATCA enough or do we need boots on the ground, so to speak?  Please share your ideas.