Guys and Gals, we have an opportunity to weigh in with comments to David Jolly’s NYTs article on Tax Complexity for American’s abroad.  It is not often the New York Times, the newspaper of record in America, does an article on our issues.  It would be a shame to miss the chance for some reasoned comments from Isaac Brock readers and commentators.

The article is now on their
blog, and can be accessed under the title Americans, The Taxman Cometh.  You will have to create a free account, but you can remain anonymous if fear is the reason you are being silent.  There are only six comments so far, and I know this group is capable of far more than that!   Thank you!

I spoke with Atossa Abrahamian of Reuters regarding my case.  Her article is now available online, and I am pleased with her general tone; she treats us favorably and does not accuse us of being tax cheats, like so many other journalists have done.

It’s a safe bet that he would not be able to keep an American passport.

As reported on April 9th, Democrats Abroad Canada held its annual general meeting on March 25th in Toronto. The minutes provided a very brief mention about DA’s FBAR/FATCA task force. Today, a new communiqué was released detailing the task force’s recent and upcoming activities. We are now heading into lobbying season, it appears, with both DA and ACA poised to make their annual pilgrimages to D.C. to plead our case – particularly interesting in an election year. Continue reading →

Gotta love that Joe Biden. Well, at least he’s honest. Barack and Joe believe that they can tax the world into prosperity. What a novel idea? A “Global Tax”. I can’t figure out what he means, but he seems to be talking about it in the context of corporations.  That said, I’m quite certain that Biden doesn’t know what he means either. Continue reading →

A frequent contributor, Em, e-mailed her story to me.

I am Canadian (born in Canada).  My husband is American (born in the USA) and became a Permanent Resident of Canada in 1996. We lived in the USA for 12 years after we got married in 1982. I was issued a green card that year which I never used — did not earn any wages in the USA — did not access any USA benefits — did not pay into Social Security and will not therefore be claiming it for myself in retirement. We came to Canada to visit my parents in the spring of 1994. My mother was taken to the hospital just hours before we arrived. Several weeks later she passed away but my father was not able to take care of himself and his home so I stayed to help.
Continue reading →