As you folks know, the IRS decided that since I didn’t fill the first part of my Form 2555 out correctly, that I must owe them a bunch of taxes. And so they sent me a federal tax bill to my Canadian address, disallowing my Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE).  Today, at last, after several tries at sending them the properly filled out form, the IRS has decided that I don’t owe them anything after all.   I’ve only had to deal with this 2009 tax issue for quite awhile now–readers can retrace the multiple threatening letters and bills that I received from the IRS just by clicking the above link and the links in that link, and the links in those links.  The IRS has wasted its time with me.  I’ve been wasting my time.  I owed no tax.  Zero zip nada.  I am not a rich tax evader but a Canadian taxpayer and I renounced my US citizenship because I hate the hassles, the threats, and the intimidation that comes part and parcel with being an US person.

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I have been keeping an eye on Canadians for Tax Fairness for a long time as they are closely tied and connected to several pro FATCA NGO Groups in the US such as Tax Justice Network, Global Witness, Task Force for Global Transparency and Integrity etc. One of the key people in Tax Justice Network whom Canadians for Tax Fairness is associated with is one Richard Murphy of the UK. Murphy is a highly religous and militant Quaker who has called for all US Citizens outside of the US non compliant with US tax law to be sent to jail and that non compliance by overseas US Persons is a violation on their part of the fundamental laws of nature and in the Quacker religion they will all go to hell basically.

Now, who are Canadians for Tax Fairness? Well they are basically a front group bankrolled by the major unions in Canada such as PSAC, OPSEU, CAW, NUPGE, and CUPE.  (On the flip side for those who accuse me of being partisan the Frasier Institute is a front group too mostly for small and medium size oil, gas, and mining companies). On their management board are included several people we have discussed in the past such as Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks however, I will note one of the top people is someone named Murray Dobbin who is an NDP activist who basically left the party after Mulcair’s ascension to the leadership (I wonder what type of influence they expect in Mulcair’s NDP). Overall the board of directors is a lot of prominent people in the labor movement Ken Lewenza, Erin Weir, “Smoky” Thomas etc. Now CTF has had very little to say about FATCA however I will note they have launched a new website linked to below.

http://tackletaxhavens.ca/

Again no mention of FATCA however the website was clearly developed at some expense I suspect using union member dues. Take note Brockers who are/were members of the unions financing CTF.

http://www.taxfairness.ca/

It seems that 3.6 million precious Social Security numbers have been obtained by some enterprising group of people.  Data storage devices are nothing more than “mother lodes” of riches and the U.S. government seems to be incapable of closing off access.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/10/27/cyber-security-fails-as-3-6-million-social-security-numbers-breached-in-south-carolina/

This reminds me of the t-shirt that I used to wear as a kid to protest the war in Iraq.  It had all of the flags of the world with the US flag crossed out.  Not much has changed since, apparently.  But, what more can one expect from a two-party system?

Robert W. Wood
10/25/2012 @ 11:05PM |141 views

It’s cute to see movie portrayals of clumsy but good-natured Americans not fitting into some über sophisticated situation. But hearing big banks say thanks but no thanks to opening a checking, savings or investment account? Not cute. Being turned down for a mortgage because you’re American? That’s even worse. See Wary Swiss Banks Shun Yanks.

Sure, we might think a South American drug lord who is turned down is getting his just desserts. But these days, anyone but Americans seems likely to be welcomed into foreign banks. Welcome to FATCA, the global U.S. law that applies in earnest in 2013. Americans everywhere are facing ostracism and some are voting with their feet…

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Show your support to the contributor and comment away.  The article currently only has one comment from American abroad:

It is unbelievable that Americans living and working overseas are now being refused bank accounts and even mortgages, all over the world. The US system of citizenship taxation is completely wrong and has extremely negative effects, not only on Americans living overseas but on the US economy itself.

Imagine if California taxed every person ever born in the state of California, even those who had long ago moved to New York, Louisiana or Texas. That’s citizenship-based taxation.

And if California made every bank in every state of the whole country report directly to the California authorities the names and addresses of any client of that bank who had been born in California. That’s FATCA.
And if California imposed heavy fines and penalties on anyone who they discovered had NOT been reporting their income and their bank accounts to California, even if that person didn’t owe any taxes to California because they were paying hefty taxes to, say, New York. That’s the FBAR scandal.

FATCA should be repealed as quickly as possible before it blows up the world financial sector and even worse, has an extremely negative impact on the US economy overall, as foreigners pull out of US ventures and investments and take their money elsewhere.

http://www.rall.com/rallblog/2012/10/22/drinking-games-for-recovering-alcoholics

This comment by Jim Jatras is too important to let it be lost in our comment stream:

To Tim, Petros et al.at IBS:

The organizers at George Mason Law School inform me that the video of the event will be posted in a few weeks.  Yes, it was great to have a chance to offer a few points directly to Prof. Harvey and Jesse Eggert at Treasury.  Once the video is up, we can let viewers to decide who might be a flake and who is not.

Bottom line from the event is that it confirmed my sense going in of FATCA’s extreme political vulnerability and ripeness for repeal — if financial institutions (both US and non-US) and foreign governments would stop acting as, in effect, FATCA enablers.  Most significant: Prof. Harvey, Mr. Eggert, and pretty much everyone admitted in substance that FATCA as written can’t be enforced.   IGAs (intergovernmental agreements) are essential for the US to implement what would otherwise be an unenforceable regime.  No one pretended that FATCA could be successfully enforced solely as a unlilateral and direct U.S. imposition.  Either Washington will be successful in pressuring or tricking other countries into enforcing FATCA on themselves, or the whole scheme collapses.

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