Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

If you Decide to Comply, DON’T choose a Homelander Tax Compliance Professional

Posted on by Posted in Non Resident Taxation, Renunciation 73 Comments

I was very surprised to receive the following email on Friday evening. I cannot recall ever getting anything like this before. I will not identify the author because it is not proper to publicly share an email without the permission of the sender. It is not anyone I have ever heard of before and I doubt any of you have either. It took me a while to decide if I would answer or not. I tried to put my reaction aside after all, why be surprised that a tax compliance professional would demonstrate so little awareness outside of his/her experience. In the end, I simply could not ignore how I felt. I replied and have decided to publish the email without naming its author and my response.
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Part 9-2: Responding to the Sec. 965 “transition tax”: From the “Pax Americana” to the “Tax Americana” (cont)

Posted on by Posted in Non Resident Taxation 6 Comments

 

This is a continuation of the post “Part 9: Responding to the Sec. 965 “transition tax”: From the “Pax Americana” to the “Tax Americana”
cross-posted from citizenshipsolutions by John Richardson

The first portion of the post was published Nomad Capitalist, in 212 AD the Roman Emperor Caracella expanded Roman citizenship by bestowing Roman citizenship on all free men. A listing in Wikipedia suggests that:

The Roman jurist Ulpian‘s Digest stated, “All persons throughout the Roman world were made Roman citizens by an edict of the Emperor Antoninus Caracas” (D. 1.5.17).
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Part 9-1: Responding to the Sec. 965 “transition tax”: From the “Pax Americana” to the “Tax Americana”

Posted on by Posted in Non Resident Taxation, Transition Tax 7 Comments


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
cross-posted from citizenshipsolutions by John Richardson

Part 9: Responding to the Sec. 965 “transition tax”: From the “Pax Americana” to the “Tax Americana”

This is the ninth in my series of posts about the Sec. 965 Transition Tax and whether/how it applies to the small business corporations owned by taxpaying residents of other countries (who may also have U.S. citizenship). These small business corporations are in no way “foreign”. They are certainly “local” to the resident of another country who just happens to have the misfortune of being a U.S. citizen.

(Links to the first eight posts in this series can be found at the end of this post)

Introduction – The purpose of this post is …

to demonstrate that the “transition tax” is an example (particularly egregious) of the principle that (1) not only does the United States impose “worldwide taxation” on the “tax residents” of other countries, but (2) it imposes a separate tax regime on certain “tax residents” of other countries that is different and far more punitive than the regime imposed on Homeland Americans. Yes, you read correctly! Continue reading →

Part 8: Responding to the Sec. 965 “transition tax”: This small business thought it was saving to invest in business expansion – Wrong, they were saving to be robbed by America!

Posted on by Posted in Transition Tax 19 Comments

by John Richardson

This is the eighth in my series of posts about the Sec. 965 Transition Tax and whether/how it applies to the small business corporations owned by taxpaying residents of other countries (who may also have U.S. citizenship). These small business corporations are in no way “foreign”. They are certainly “local” to the resident of another country who just happens to have the misfortune of being a U.S. citizen.

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How is the IRS levying taxes to renounce US citizenship different from the Berlin Wall?

Posted on by Posted in Freedom 96 Comments

cross posted from Quora

NB: This title comes from the question asked
        at Quora and represents that individual’s
        mindframe


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
by John Richardson
Lawyer (1982-present)

President Kennedy at the “Berlin Wall”

On June 26, 1963 President Kennedy gave his historic “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech. After World War II, the administration of the City of Berlin was divided among the allied powers (Soviet Union, USA, Britain and France). In 1961, the Soviets created a wall in order to prevent their people from leaving the Soviet Sector. (The City of Berlin was actually inside East Germany). Among other things, President Kennedy’s speech included the line: “We have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in – to prevent them from leaving us.”
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Canadian FATCA IGA Litigation Update: Court has fixed Monday January 28, 2019 as trial date

Posted on by Posted in Ethics 30 Comments

Now appears more likely that we will get to trial in January 2019 in our Canadian FATCA IGA enabling legislation lawsuit in Federal Court.

The Case Management Judge has just advised:

“The hearing of this summary trial motion shall take place before this Court at the Federal Court, 701 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, on Monday, the 28th day of January, 2019, at 9:30 in the forenoon for a maximum duration of five (5) days. The number of hearing days may be reduced depending on the number of preliminary motions.”

Other:

“The following timetable shall apply to the motion for summary trial: (a) The Defendant [Mr. Trudeau’s attorneys] shall serve her evidence (with the exception of one expert report) by April 16, 2018. (b) The Defendant shall serve her remaining expert report by April 30, 2018. (c) Notice of any objections to expert reports shall be served by June 15, 2018. (d) A case management conference shall be held, by teleconference, on July 12, 2018 at 1:00 pm (Eastern) to address any motion to strike affidavits. (e) All cross-examinations shall be completed by July 31, 2018. (f) The Plaintiffs [Gwen and Kazia] shall serve and file their complete motion record by September 28, 2018. (g) The Defendant shall serve and file her complete responding motion record by November 16, 2018. (h) The Plaintiffs shall serve and file their reply submissions by December 7, 2018.

Part 7: Responding to the Sec. 965 “transition tax”: Why the transition tax creates a fictional tax event that allows the U.S. to collect tax where it never could have before

Posted on by Posted in Non Resident Taxation, Transition Tax 118 Comments

 

cross posted from citizenshipsolutions

    by John Richardson
 

Introduction

This is the seventh in my series of posts about the Sec. 965 Transition Tax and whether/how it applies to the small business corporations owned by taxpaying residents of other countries (who may also have U.S. citizenship). These small business corporations are in no way “foreign”. They are certainly “local” to the resident of another country who just happens to have the misfortune of being a U.S. citizen.

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U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review/reverse (denied) “standing” of plaintiffs in U.S. FATCA/FATCA IGA/FBAR lawsuit

Posted on by Posted in Law & Morality 43 Comments

Spearheaded by Republicans Overseas and the Jim Bopp legal team, a group of plaintiffs (including myself) previously filed a lawsuit in U.S. Court arguing the presence of “…injuries to [“]Americans[“] abroad caused by the coercion of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act(“FATCA”) and Intergovernmental Agreements (“IGAs”) purporting to implement FATCA….”

This lawsuit (15-250; Crawford et al.) was filed on July 14, 2015 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

It begins: “… This is a challenge to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”), the intergovernmental agreements (“IGAs”) unilaterally negotiated by the United States Department of the Treasury (“Treasury Department”) to supplant FATCA in the signatory countries, and the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (“FBAR”) administered by the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”). These laws and agreements impose unique and discriminatory burdens on U.S. citizens living and working abroad…”

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court subsequently dismissed the lawsuit because of a perceived lack of “standing” of the plaintiffs.

The U.S. Supreme Court has now declined to review the case, meaning that the decision of the lower court dismissing the lawsuit because of lack of standing of the plaintiffs — remains.

See this link for links to the recent relevant petitions and the standing arguments.

The Plaintiffs-appellants were: (a) Mark Crawford; (b) Senator Rand Paul, in his official capacity as a member of the United States Senate; (c) Roger Johnson; (c) Daniel Kuettel;(d) Stephen J. Kish; (e) DonnaLane Nelson; and (f) L. Marc Zell. The Defendants-appellees were: (1) United States Department of the Treasury; (2) United States Internal Revenue Service; and (3) United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Republicans Overseas now wants to move forward with a new FATCA-plus lawsuit having plaintiffs expressing different characteristics that would successfully deal with the “standing” issue: “… [we] will regroup to fight another day by recruiting a FATCA and FBAR victim who didn’t sign a settlement agreement with the IRS & paid one of two fines to the IRS in the following states: AR, IA, MN, MO, NE, ND, & SD. Please help us to get the word out. We are committed to take down FATCA tyranny judicially, legislatively, and administratively.”

[— Our Canadian FATCA IGA enabling legislation lawsuit will move to trial (very early next year we hope) in Canada’s Federal Court. However, we can expect that Mr. Justin Trudeau’s attorneys will use a somewhat similar argument on “harm” — that none of our plaintiffs, witnesses, or Canadian citizens turned over by our own Government to a foreign country have really been “harmed” — or even if they have been harmed, all is justified to prevent U.S. from imposing financial sanctions on Canada.]

If you want to be a Shareholder in our Canadian Business then you must Renounce U.S. Citizenship

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad, Non Resident Taxation 18 Comments

cross-posted from citizenship solutions

    by John Richardson

The unified message from all should be that: The United States should stop imposing “worldwide taxation” on people who have “tax residency” in other countries and do NOT live in the United States! This is a message that all advocates of tax reform can support. As recently explained in a post from “ACA”, the mechanism (RBT vs TTFI) used to achieve this change is less important.

It is no secret that Congressman George Holding is working on a proposal to end the U.S. practice of imposing “worldwide taxation” on those who have “tax residency” in other countries. If successful, this would be a positive change for the United States, U.S. citizens who choose to live outside the United States and the residents of other countries. None of these should be burdened by the extra-territorial application of U.S. tax laws!

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March 22, 2018 Canadian FATCA IGA litigation in Federal Court update: New timetable

Posted on by Posted in Law & Morality 82 Comments

March 22, 2018 Canadian FATCA IGA litigation update:

The attorneys for our side (our side are Plaintiffs Gwen and Kazia, the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty — the “client”, and our supporters) and the attorneys for Mr. Justin Trudeau’s Government have just agreed on the timing for the next steps of our Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit in Canada’s Federal Court.

Here is the new timetable for our litigation:

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