Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Racist anti-citizenship bill? Or common sense?

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Reader Suki sent me the following email.

Hello Peter,

Check out this link, http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/01/05/1402821/rep-steve-king-opens-new-congress-with-unconstitutional-bill-to-end-birthright-citizenship/.

“It’s the first week of the 113th Congress, and one House member is already trying to stop children born in the United States to undocumented parents — whom he calls “anchor babies” — from gaining citizenship.”

King’s bill is clearly racist, but what a different perspective I have on this issue now.  If I could have prevented my son (born in Tampa) from becoming a US citizen, I would have…

Cheers,

Suki

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Press Release: FATCA, Stanley Fischer – complaint asks release of $250,000 seized of “US Person” by Israeli Bank HaPoalim

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13-01-03 PRESS RELEASE: FATCA, Stanley Fischer – complaint asks release of $250,000 seized of “US Person” by Israeli Bank HaPoalim

 The complaint asks the release of $250,000, unlawfully seized from “US Person” by the Israeli Bank HaPoalim, BM.  The conduct has no foundation in either the law of the State of Israel, or the law of the United States, but appears to have been induced by Bank of Israel’s Stanley Fischer unparalleled, unconditional submission to the United States FACTA. Petition, previously filed with the Israeli High Court of Justice claimed that Fischer exchanged his loyalty to the State of Israel and its law with loyalty to another nation and its law, and/or loyalty to financial institutions and their interests. The case captures the financial crisis in a nutshell – criminality by financial institution is patronized by national banking regulators and the national highest courts.  In this case – under the guise of compliance with United States law by Israeli banks. Eventually, the territory of “FACTA-compliance” is likely to coincide with the territory of the financial crisis, through corruption of banking regulation of other nations, under United States coercion.

White House Petition to Replace Citizenship taxation with a Residency Based System

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There has been a new petition launched on the White House Web site with this proposal:

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:

Change US tax law from citizenship based law to residence based law.

The above link to this petition was alerted to me by Bertpug on Shadow Raider’s thread about rewriting of the Internal Revenue Code.

ACA is announcing the petition on its website and in its news update and probably on its FACEBOOK.

I thought we should headline it here, so it has more visibility.  It is a long road to 25,000 signatures requiring an Obama Administration response.  Realistically it will have absolutely no resonance or support with Homelanders and the newsertainment media. It certainly should be more impactful and important than the petition to deport Piers Morgan.  However, sadly, we know it will not, unless enough Americans abroad raise their heads from the sand and do something!

Yesterday morning around this time, it only 271 signatures.  This morning it has gone to 377.  Only 24,623 to go!

 

Diane Francis’s “Expensive Perch”

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Cross-posted from USxCanada InfoShop

 
Diane Francis
Canada take note: America’s tax system is messy but good
HuffPost (4 Jan 2013)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/diane-francis/canada-america-tax-system_b_2411458.html

Dual citizen Francis uses her “expensive perch” to claim a “unique perspective” that the U.S. system of “checks and balances” has just now become operational — despite “a big fiscal mess, due to panic over 9/11, the 2008 debacle and unjustifiable tax cuts and wars paid for with a national credit card.” Meanwhile, Canadians are judged to “pay higher taxes because there are no checks and balances.” Comment: It is a pleasure to think that a person with this narrow tax-focused mindset will continue to be subjected to the highest taxation going in either of the two systems, together with the costs and uncertainties and risks of compliance with U.S. filing requirements.
 

Are FATCA proponents the natural allies of beleaguered United States citizens abroad?

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TodundSteuer made the following comment which is worthy of our notice:

FATCA is a large, clumsy, crude and unilateral attempt by the United States to cudgel, bluster and otherwise persuade the world to subscribe to the US American totalitarian assumption that the financial affairs of every denizen of the planet should be an open book to whatever sovereign entity claims the right to tax that person.

Over the years since the Civil War the citizens of the United States, with no historical experience – yet – of a totalitarian regime have been steadily surrendering power at every level: individual, familial, community and state to a centralized, Federal government.

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FATCA good or bad, you decide by Nigel Green

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FATCA good or bad, you decide

Nigel Green is blogging again on FATCA impacts.  Usually, I just put his blogs up on the ‘Ask your FATCA questions’ thread to maintain records of articles coming out.

However, thought I would give this one headline billing, as he is asking the question from an Homeland CEO, “Should the US force FATCA on the world? I’d love to hear your comments?”

So, let’s help supply some comments, shall we?

Note:  I see he has picked up on James Jatras interview with iExpats.

 

Cook v. Tait 2: The presumption of GOVERNMENT benefit

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This post is excerpted from a post at RenouceUScitizenship.

The presumption of GOVERNMENT benefit wherever the citizen may live

This is my second post on Cook v. Tait. The following comment to the first post appeared at the Isaac Brock Society.

Very well done! That was a lot of research on your part and a great starting point for meaningful thought-provoking discussion.

Although you covered some of them, the list of liabilities for Americans abroad keeps growing as time progresses. Lawmakers like Levin, Rangel, Grassley, Schumer etc will never stop dreaming up new ways for putting the screws to ex-pats.

What I am interested to know is, what government benefits would the Supreme Court try to use to justify the “….presumption that government by its very nature benefits the citizen and his property wherever found,”?

– The right to enter the US? Anyone with a foreign  ”visa waiver” passport has this.

– The right to work in the US? Americans abroad are obviously not there to exercise this. Besides, the unemployment and underemployment situation in the US has been less than desirable for many years.

– The protection of the US? How many US citizens abroad are sitting in jail somewhere on trumped up charges while the State Department takes the line that “we cannot interfere with the other country’s justice system?” Does the US government provide the citizen with a public defender if he cannot afford a lawyer him/herself? Does the Embassy charge a fee if the Consular prepares any paperwork on the citizen’s behalf?

– If the US citizen’s property located abroad is stolen, does the US send police to investigate the crime?

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Gérard Depardieu desertion to Belgium… Nay Russia? Article on CNN with some comments about US tax issues.

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I just came across this article on CNN about the Depardieu saga.  Whatever you think about Depardieu’s manner of reaction to the 75% tax (since blocked by the Constitutional Council of France), I thought that the comments to the article that mention US extraterritorial tax Policy, the FFIE, FTC, etc would be interesting, and I would encourage Brockers quickly to respond the the comments to the CNN article (as I have done, but awaiting moderation), in order to take the oppourtunity to speak to more Homelanders and others about the détails of the issues we face.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/04/opinion/france-depardieu-poirier/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

FATCA Ends 2012 with a Whimper, Stumbles into 2013

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James George Jatras

www.RepealFATCA.com

 January 4, 2013

Proponents of the “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) – a/k/a “the worst law most Americans have never heard of” – fell short at the end of 2012 on two key indices, further puncturing its air of presumptive inevitability:

  1. The Treasury Department had predicted that 17 countries (already a shamelessly padded list, with inclusion in that number of three tiny British Crown Dependencies) would finalize intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) with the United States to impose FATCA on themselves by December 31.  The actual result at year’s end?  Signed IGAs with the UK, Denmark, Ireland, and Mexico.  Switzerland and Spain reportedly also have “initialed” agreements, whatever that means.
  1. The Department had also expected to finalize the draft regulations applicable to foreign financial institutions (FFIs) by year’s end – but that didn’t happen either.

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