Enjoli Saverin has covered Eduardo Saverin’s expatriation, and in the process, has given the Isaac Brock Society the spotlight.

Facebook’s Eduardo Saverin Joins Americans Renouncing Citizenship

Why Facebook’s Saverin Gave Up Citizenship

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Great analysis! Thanks Dan.

https://twitter.com/#!/renounceus/status/201047860702224384

Don’t know if any of you are familiar with Patrick Weil.  He is a researcher at CNRS here in France and he has written extensively on citizenship and integration issues.  He’s done some amazing work (I have read almost all of his books.)

A few days ago this article by him appeared in La Tribune, Une taxe internationale sur les ultrariches.

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Look who is getting into America’s banking system now.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/3-big-chinese-banks-enter-us-banking-market-185200086.html

I have been thinking about the IRS concept of Horizontal Equity and it has occurred to me that Horizontal Equity actually attempts to do something that the U.S. tax code has never claimed as one of its goals, and that is to “equalize outcomes” for all taxpayers.  The U.S. income tax system has always publicly been portrayed by the politicians as being a “progressive” tax system. A progressive tax system places the burden of income taxation on those citizens who have increasingly higher outcomes while putting little to no tax burden on those with lower incomes.  Having a tax system that varies the amount of income tax charged by using income as the guide for collecting tax is much different from having a tax principle that attempts to guarantee equality of outcome or assure that everyone strictly has access to only the same taxation rules without regards to differing circumstances.

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Cross posted from RenouceUScitizenship

https://twitter.com/#!/renounceus/status/200946182908948480

The OVDI Winners and Losers

The Winners: OVDI and OVDP  have been fantastic deals for: big time tax cheats resident in the United States and the “cross border professionals” who have will continue to profit from them for years to come. The big time tax cheats have settled with the IRS for pennies on the dollar. They will retain enough of their wealth to live happily for the rest of their lives. The “cross border professionals” (if they really are “professionals”) have generated enough business to fund their retirements.

The Losers: OVDI and OVDP have been vicious assaults on: Immigrants to the U.S., Green Card Holders and U.S. citizens living outside the United States. For them OVDI is a guarantee that their years of saving, investing, hard work, financial responsibility and attempts to comply with the law as they understood will lead to their financial ruin. Why did they enter OVDI? Why would they enter OVDI? More on that in a moment.

The Biggest Loser: Surprise! It’s the IRS and the U.S. government. By allowing U.S. citizens abroad, immigrants and green card holders to be part of the OVDI shakedown, and changing the rules of OVDP mid-stream, they have so eroded their credibility, that honest people are afraid to comply with laws that they are just learning about. It’s in the long term interest of the U.S. government to encourage tax compliance. Instead, citizens are renouncing, immigrants are leaving, and Green Card holders are turning in those cards. The word is out. People who would have immigrated to the U.S. will now go elsewhere. The United States of America has depreciated its most valuable assets –  “credibility” and “moral capital”. Both educated people and real estate investors (and others) may be reluctant to immigrate to the U.S. But, this is a subject for a separate post.

This post is for immigrants – Those who currently reside in “Form Nation“ Continue reading →

Wondering posted this on the How to Join thread where it doesn’t seem to be getting the attention it deserves:

James George Jatras is a Principal of Squire Sanders Public Advocacy, a Washington-based government relations firm. He previously served as a policy analyst at U.S. Senate and as an American diplomat. He can be reached at james.jatras@squiresanders.com.” His article: FATCA’s “Vulnerabilities Evident,” Washington Expert Claims, Calls for Repeal WASHINGTON,
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Many Americans Abroad Surprised by Tax Code's Nasty Bite

Here is a well-researched and presented article by Brian Knowlton of the New York Times. It is journalism like this that tells our real story and the often tragic consequences for children born to US parents living in another country or those born in the US to parents from another country. None of these accidental Americans asked to be US citizens and somehow are not given a choice in the matter. Being born by this accident of birth, wouldn’t it be fair if there were a choice for them to accept or not that US citizenship at some point? A choice should be theirs, not that of the US!
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I came across the following remark from Don at hodgen.com :

Don says:   May 9, 2012 at 8:32 pm

… Other interesting news, Michelle Backmann has become a Swiss Citizen, strange but true.

I wonder what her stance on FATCA is?