The headline says it all and I thought it was so charming that I had to share it with you. This article was published earlier this month in the Luxembourg publication Paperjam.lu and it begins with this comment:
En 2009, on célébrait l’investiture de Barack Obama. Aujourd’hui, la Place espère ne pas subir la loi des États-Unis. (In 2009 we celebrated the investiture of Barack Obama. Today la Place is hoping it will not have to submit to American law.)
Anyone who tells you otherwise, anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about. That’s not the message we get from leaders around the world, all of whom are eager to work with us. That’s not how people feel from Tokyo to Berlin; from Cape Town to Rio; where opinions of America are higher than they’ve been in years.
U.S. President Obama’s State of the Union address, January 24, 2012
One of the things that bothers me the most about this hideous situation is that little emphasis is placed upon the responsibility of the US government/government agencies to notify citizens abroad of their requirements to file tax and information returns. I came across this list of recommendations from the Department of Treasury, Office of Tax Policy, May 1998 report, requested by Congress. This report has been discussed by Schubert1975 with regard to CLN’s being backdated to the expatriating act (with the effect of negating tax liabilities for many “citizens”). At the end of the report, are a number of efforts suggested to improve revenue collection while balancing “legitimate privacy and other interests of Americans living and traveling overseas.”
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Check this out to learn how the mainland regards those who renounce citizenship – I’m flabbergasted.
https://twitter.com/#!/renounceus/status/162051454004232192
February Event in Washington, D.C., to Focus on Tax Risk Issues
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — The Tax Council Policy Institute (TCPI) announced today that Douglas H. Shulman, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), will deliver the opening keynote speech at its 13th Annual Tax Policy and Practice Symposium, scheduled for Feb.15-16 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C.
I was asked to move this post here. It concerns my visit to the U.S. Consulate in Halifax to inform them that my wife and I had relinquished in 1973.
Karcan wrote:
Cross posted from USxCanada InfoShop
Uncertainty has two poles. One, external conditions may be unclear or unstable. Two, an affected person may be unable or unwilling to take action. Factors from the two poles may interplay. A high level of uncertainty tends to parallel a high level of risk.
Expatriate Americans start from a situation where much is confused. Why can’t life be as it has been, with most Americans de facto enjoying the same status as that of practically all other nonresident citizens throughout the world — taxed only in place of residence?
Questions proliferate. Who is an American? Can problems be solved by ceasing to be American? What is required to become compliant with US tax expectations? Is it possible to become compliant without paying extra taxes and/or exorbitant penalties? Is there any hope for an individual to complete in a correct fashion the complex, unfamiliar, multiple paperwork that needs to stretch back over a series of years? If not, will the individual face paying thousands of dollars to uncertainly qualified “professionals” who can offer no guarantees? Will the IRS launch an ongoing regime of torturous scrutiny?
Soon after I finished my PhD, I had the experience of teaching as an adjunct professor in Ontario. Eventually, I quit because I felt that the working conditions for contingent labor in higher education sucked–and they do: just google the terms “adjunct hell”. Then, I worked another job which I soon quit. But to damage my reputation after I quit, one of the people from the second job asked for a reference via e-mail from the first employer and soon a flurry of e-mails had damaged my reputation among about a couple dozen people. The first employer had even gone so far as to accuse me of “unpleasant breaches of trust”, not realizing that the term “breach of trust” is legaleze, usually for criminal behaviour related to money or the virtue of young women. Later, the man apologized to me, saying that what he meant is that I had let them down.
