Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

FBI: nearly twice as many renunciations in first seven months of 2013 as in same period last year

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 24 Comments

The FBI has released its latest report on Active Records in the NICS Index as of 31 July 2013. NICS now contains the records of 22,908 renunciants who have been stripped of the right to purchase firearms in the United States. This is an increase of 298 since last month and 2,254 since December last year; this compares to 1,184 renunciants recorded by the FBI in January–July 2012.

Based on past trends there should be about four or five relinquishers for every six renunciants, implying that somewhere around five hundred people gave up citizenship last month in one way or another, and four thousand so far this year, if the FBI didn’t miss any — though since only registered gun dealers & FBI employees can access the list, it’s rather difficult for ordinary members of the public to verify whether it’s complete or not.

Continue reading →

John Doe is DATCA (#FATCA IGA reciprocity) by another means?

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 14 Comments

From Bloomberg this yesterday

Norway Gets U.S. Help Chasing Citizens Dodging Income Tax Law

The U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, known as FATCA, may lead to dozens of agreements between countries [IGAs] to exchange information on bank accounts. The law requires foreign banks to turn over information to the International Revenue Service (IRS) about their U.S.-owned accounts or potentially face withholding taxes.

Norway is catching more tax dodgers abroad with fresh help from the U.S. legal system.

Federal courts in six states have allowed the Internal Revenue Service to issue [John Doe] summonses to U.S. banks at the request of the Norwegian government, and the banks may now have to give up information on people who used some kinds of credit and debit cards, Bloomberg BNA reported, citing the Justice Department.

This story has been previously reported at Forbes by Kim Novak, and Jack Townsend also noted it.  This is the latest development, in my opinion, of the domestic FATCA, or DATCA as I call it.  I have updated the history at this link.

There is also the step child of FATCA (Corp beneficial ownership) that was noted in this story:

Ranch House Near Reno is a Thriving Tax Haven, and It’s Not Alone

Notice this legislation introduced by Uncle Carl Levin  It too is part and parcel of the DATCA reciprocity that Robert Stack has promised the EU. Wonder what the Senators from Nevada, Delaware and Wyoming think of this blow back onto their states?

If we want to stop inappropriate corporate secrecy offshore, we need to stop it here at home as well!

«U.S. has forced terrorist groups to target Americans overseas»

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 18 Comments

Increased security in the U.S. has forced terrorist groups to target Americans overseas instead.

“The enemy is going to find an easier way. They’re gonna find softer targets, they’re gonna find ways that they can hurt us and it may not be bringing it to America in hijacked airplanes. It may be doing things when we’re not looking, in places that are vulnerable and every embassy is vulnerable if you think about it,” said Smullen.

The government has also issued a global travel warning for all Americans overseas. It will remain active until at least August 31st.

Time Warner Cable Enterprises

Tax Reform Unlikely Before 2015

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 23 Comments

… at the earliest due to the House rules limiting chairmanship of committees to three terms and impending retirement of Sen. Carl Levin.

This means the current chairman of the powerful Ways and Means committee, Dave Camp (Mich-R) is on his way out because he will soon hit the term limit although the battle for that quite coveted appointment has already begun, and because Camp is rumored to be making a run for Levin’s soon to be vacated Senate seat, he likely won’t be focusing on reforming much of anything anyway.

There is a whole lot of politics in play according to this article in The Fiscal Times, but the bottom line is that if American citizens abroad are hoping for an overhaul of the convoluted US tax code, and possibly relief from the tax on earned income worldwide in the form of a residence based tax, they shouldn’t look for that any time in the near future.

Congress hasn’t bothered with a comprehension refit of the US tax code since 1986, and there are more than a few issues that need attending to, but for the time being, they appear to have lost momentum and are allowing themselves to be more concerned with the titles and positions coming up for grabs than they are with Americans in or out of homeland.

Where is the US ambassador to Canada?

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 8 Comments

According to the Vancouver Sun, the US has yet to appoint a new ambassador to Canada and it’s not likely that one will be sent north from the country of exceptionalism anytime soon either.

The most recent ambassador was David Jacobson, a former Obama fundraiser, whose qualifications for the job basically boiled down to having raised a significant amount of cash for Pres. Obama’s war chest.

However, he finished his four-year term in June and has gone on to other deserved rewards for his toadyism (currently he is the vice-chairman of BMO Financial Group), leaving Canada ambassador-less as it heads into the murky waters of trying to maintain sovereignty in the face of a super-power neighbor that views it as a 51st state.

Ambassador positions are appointed and in the US are purchased via one’s fund-raising abilities for the winning POTUS candidate.

In 1975, former POTUS Richard Nixon testified before a grand jury about the practice of “selling” ambassador positions to the highest bidder, aka “fundraiser”, and said that it was a common practice, but that he tried to also appoint those who were qualified for the job as well. He also said that this was what he assumed most presidents did  and went on to cite an example from the Truman era:

“Perle Mesta wasn’t sent to Luxembourg because she had big bosoms,” Nixon said of the Harry S. Truman appointee. “Perle Mesta went to Luxembourg because she made a good contribution. But I may say she was a very good ambassador

It was rumored that the Canadian position was slotted for Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late Pres. John F. Kennedy, but she held out for Japan.

So who will our next ambassador be?

Well, Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue and inspiration for boss from hell in the novel, The Devil Wears Prada, could be heading our way now that London and Paris are off the table. But odds are better that the Ottawa residence of the American ambassador will be sans ambassador for the immediate future.

Does the US State Department feel that Canada doesn’t need any special handling? That we are “sympatico” on all fronts? Or maybe this is just another rap on the knuckles for Ottawa, which has been curiously stubborn about giving into the White House of late and indeed, seems to be thumbing its nose a bit with talk of joint military exercises with China and declining to provide any material support in Syria.

Given that we are currently eight months, and counting, since the FATCA IGA signing was “imminent” with multiple signs from Obama that he is not going to consent to the KeystoneXL and the disinclination of the Canadian government to give in on allowing American police to run amuck within Canadian borders, one can only speculate about this latest development. And whether it is good or bad for Canada really depends on which side of the border the beholder is standing on.

NSA Sings This Land Was Made For You And Me

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 16 Comments

Welcome to the Homeland, Mexico and Canada!

Picture-of-the-homeland-map-via-the-Associated-Press

The Atlantic Wire reports on the head-scratching and ultimately face-palming presentation made by the NSA to a Senate Judiciary Meeting a couple of days ago.

Besides being informed that North America* is now just one, big, happy and trendy turquoise family, we learn of “9 threats involving U.S. Persons or Facilities Overseas” (lower left corner of the picture).  Does “involving” mean that we so-called U.S. Persons are under threat, or that we are a threat or, maybe, both simultaneously?  Perhaps the NSA can explain since they seem to know more about us than we do. Hey, at least we finally got our name on the map.

*and Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Cuba, the West Indies and, um, Greenland.

“Conservative” National Post: U.S. police officers on Canadian soil must answer to our laws

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 27 Comments

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/08/01/matt-gurney-u-s-police-officers-on-canadian-soil-must-answer-to-our-laws/

Notably National Post columnists Matt Gurney the author of the above piece has been in favor of enhanced US Canadian law enforcement cooperation(see below) but says the latest US demands are “too much”

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/07/11/matt-gurney-joint-police-chases-wont-kill-canadian-sovereignty/

From the land of the free to the @BarackObama #Orwellian #PRISM security state

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 36 Comments

 

What’s up in the “Land of the free and the home of the brave”?

The above two tweets reference articles in today’s Globe. Note the following from the second article:

Obama’s record on whistleblowing

Since taking office less than six years ago, Mr. Obama has pursued more espionage charges against government employees than all other past presidents combined. It was therefore unsurprising that when Mr. Manning pleaded guilty earlier this year to several lesser offences that would have brought him about 20 years of imprisonment, the government refused to bargain and opted instead to prosecute the most serious charges.

By throwing the book at, and making an example of Mr. Manning, Ed Snowden and all other alleged whistleblowers, the U.S. administration clearly hopes to send an intimidating chill throughout the civil service, and in so doing reduce the incidence of leaking.

Is this strategy, in combination with the imposition of curbs on civil liberties and constitutional rights, transforming the erstwhile land of the free into a something disturbingly Orwellian – a national security state? Not an insignificant query.

This is a good article and provides good opportunity for comment and discussion.

 

@TD_Canada begins #FATCA Hunt and embraces role as #IRS deputy – #expatriation anyone?

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 63 Comments

We have one more indication of FATCA causing problems for U.S. citizens in Canada. The first involved a bank account with the Royal Bank. In this case  the RRSP account of a Canadian resident was frozen because she was suspected to be a U.S. person. We now have more indications of trouble …

What follows is a comment that appeared on July 9. It is significant because it demonstrates how serious the hunt for “U.S. persons” will become. Look around they are everywhere. Who knows, maybe one of them can be your retirement plan.

Continue reading →

US Wants Its Police in Canada and to Have Them Exempt from Canadian Law

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 31 Comments

Toronto Star, 31 July 2013:

“The United States wants its police officers to be exempt from Canadian law if they agree to take part in a highly touted cross-border policing initiative, an internal RCMP memo says. … The debate over whose laws would apply to U.S. officers working in Canada raises important questions of sovereignty and police accountability, says the briefing note prepared for RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson.”

Does this have implications for anyone who winds up in trouble/penalties over tax issues?  Is Canada a sovereign country or is Canada the 51st State?  Some people call that country on our southern border the United States of Arrogance (I picked up that appropriate term from Blaze)  What could be more arrogant than wanting to be exempt from a country’s law, and use your own country’s law, when you are in their country?

In 1812, the US attempted to invade us in a concrete physical way.  Didn’t work.  Two hundred years later, they are attempting to invade us in an invisible way, little-by-little, and impose their law on us and they have the arrogance to think that Americans should be exempt from our law when they’re in our country.  We are not the 51st State, we are not a US colony, and we are not a US police protectorate.

Thanks to Lora and Schubert for discovering this news, which can be read at:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/07/31/pol-cp-us-police-sovereignty-cross-border-rcmp-memo.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/30/us_wants_exemption_from_canadian_law_for_crossborder_officers_rcmp_memo_says.html

And for further details and discussion on this programme also see Noble Dreamer’s post on this topic from last summer.

The particular development in today’s news is that they’re trying to get exempted from Canadian law whilst in Canada. This programme sounded problematic to begin with, and this implementation-of-US-law-in-Canada proposal sounds more similar to an occupying force than a partnership.