The following is posted by me (calgary411) on behalf of its author, JCDoubleTaxed:

*******************

Most people do not have a twitter account. Twitter users tend to be politicians, press, opinion leaders, and celebrities. Joining Twitter will be a perfect New Year’s Resolution. It is easy and once accomplished you may enjoy the gratification of a resolution accomplished.

I shared the plan for this post with @wisecroneknows who commented:

“Just posting comments on IBS/FB isn’t screaming at the world to fix this…. they should not be frightened…. legislation is being drawn up now… shouldn’t wait for the inauguration. Even if they don’t actually tweet they can just simply like and RT. (AND…If I can do it anyone can).”

Twitter allows account names different from your real name. You might choose a Twitter name and profile picture related to highlighting the injustices of CBT and FATCA.

Twitter should be viewed as part of a range of means to communicate with politicians, press, opinion leaders and other US Persons overseas. Twitter is also useful for early notice on articles related to CBT so as to better get in early on comment sections.

On Twitter, hasthtag “#FATCA” is popular among Brockers. If you are new to Twitter you might search #FATCA to see what others are tweeting. People include hashtags when they want to send a tweet to a topic that others search for, such as #FATCA.

Addresses are included to send a tweet to particular people or groups. For example, a tweet with @SenWarren @RonWyden @SenSchumer will send the tweet to these three.

Some question if people really read tweets to them. Some politicians have staff manage their tweets for them. Some get so many tweets that “cut through” is a very slight possibility. So if one tweets @POTUS, for example, they may also include a hashtag or another address to increase the possibilities of getting noticed.

If you like what someone is tweeting then click on their address in a tweet and click follow. Their tweets will then show on your Twitter Home page. You might search a Twitter address for tweets to “retweet” (RT). Retweeting, or clicking on the arrows icon at the bottom of a tweet, is the same as sending the tweet from your account. Clicking on the heart icon or “liking” a tweet boosts the tweet further, as does both retweeting and liking other tweets and your own tweets. If two Twitter users follow each other they may send private messages to each other.

When others retweet or like a Tweet then this helps the tweets stay noticeable longer. Usually the more retweets and likes in the shortest time frame the better. Based on this information, we might create an amplified voice if we gathered at a particular day and time each week for tweeting about CBT injustices. How about:

each Wednesday @ 10 a.m., or earlier that day, (Ottawa/Washington D.C./ EST) from Wednesday 18 January. A program called TweetDeck may be used to schedule tweets.

If you search for a person or organisation then the first page that shows is the tweets, retweets, and likes by that person/organisation. Search again on that page and a “Top” tab and page appears of the most popular tweets to that person/organisation. The “Latest” tab and page is the most recent tweets to that person/organisation and those tweets with relatively fewer retweets/likes.

Good news is that for the hashtag #FATCA those in opposition to FATCA are crowding out the compliance organisations and those favouring FATCA. Usually the #FATCA “Top” page is full of tweets in opposition to FATCA and tweets against CBT that include “#FATCA.” Anyone wanting to use Twitter to do some research on #FATCA will mainly see tweets from US persons overseas in opposition to FATCA/CBT.

While Twitter only allows 140 characters there are a few tricks to expand on your message and give your tweet more impact. You may include in your tweet the URL of a news article and then such a tweet usually highlights a picture from that article and a snippet of what the article is about. Tweeting a jpg picture that you have added text to can amplify your message (I use the free software Gimp for that). An easier way is to use Word to type a message, and bold and enlarge it, then use a screen capture tool to draw a rectangle around your message and cut it into a jpg that may be attached to your tweet as a photo.

You may create your own collection of twitter images and urls of articles that you may tweet in future. You may click on a twitter image you like in a tweet and drag the picture to your desktop while holding down the mouse button.

More Brockers on Twitter and tweeting will mean greater highlighting of CBT injustices.

Don’t forget an important objective is to grow our community. Include urls of Isaac Brock Society posts, CitizenshipTaxation.ca posts, and related Facebook Groups in tweets and comments on articles.

Happy New Years!
@JCDoubleTaxed

cross posted from citizenshipsolutions

An introduction to “tax residency” …

Most people equate residency with physical presence. They assume that where you are physically presence determines where you live. They further assume that where you live is where you pay your taxes. Conclusion: The country where you live is the country where you must be “tax resident”. Not necessarily!

There is no necessary correlation between where one lives and where one is a “tax resident”. In fact, “residency for tax purposes” may be only minimally related to “residency for immigration (where you live) purposes”. It is possible for people to live in only one country and be a tax resident of multiple countries. The most obvious example is “U.S. citizens residing outside the United States”.

The concept of “tax residency” is fundamental to all systems of taxation. The fundamental question, at the root of all tax systems is:

“what kind of connection to a country is required to assume tax jurisdiction over an “individual”, over “property” or over an “entity”?”

Continue reading →

This is an update on our Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit — just to let you know that the lawsuit is alive and is moving forward, slowly.

Today our litigators and the Government attorneys met with a Case Management Judge to resolve differences.

The good news is that we now have permission from the Case Management Judge to file a motion for the Charter-Constitutional trial and provide our evidence in support of the motion. Government will also file a motion, for which we have 28 days to respond, on an issue in which there is disagreement between our side and Government.

Once that Government motion and our response is sorted out, there will be another Case Management Conference to resolve remaining issues prior to trial and to schedule the hearing.

— I am sorry, but we do not yet have a trial date in 2017, and I will keep you informed on developments.

Thank you for your patience. By now, we all know that litigation against Government does not move quickly.

Finally, I want to thank the brave Plaintiffs and Witnesses for their courage: They make our lawsuit possible.

Stephen

Continue reading →

Given the trend of governments requiring their citizens and residents to report nearly everything (even Russia has now begun to require duals to register their 2nd citizenship), it’s amazing no one has come forth with a requirement to file a SpouseBar. Think of the normal approach the U.S. takes to anything foreign. “Alien.” Most countries have more benign terms in use for their non-citizen residents. “Permanent resident.” “Landed immigrant.” “Alien”- as if there were no similarities between an American and a human being that just happens to be from another country. “Foreigners” – being seen as some form of animal, wild, untamable, unworthy of freely mixing with the Homelanders but somehow, needing to be contained. And what are the three aspects the US always takes toward something foreign?

• First, the US hates anything FOREIGN.
• Second, the US hates anything regarding DEFERRAL.(Remember, “if you see the word foreign, the word penalty, is sure to follow”
• Third, the US hates LEAKAGE (for anything to get outside the US tax system)

After all, without a reporting requirement, that door undoubtedly opens far and wide to tax evasion. And certainly, the richer a couple is, the greater the risk of not meeting that noble goal of “paying ones fair share.”

The citizens of no other country have that privilege. Understand these disclosures are necessary to preserve freedoms of #Americansabroad https://t.co/7DLeRGqFov

— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) November 24, 2016

Keeping this in mind, President-Elect Trump has finalized the main appointments that will make up his cabinet. We looked at how many FBAR marriages there are currently (and still examining earlier unions). After all, some of these people are among the richest in the world. While there is a disturbing amount of physical abuse (allegedly in some cases) committed on the part of the males, so far we have found two couples that include an “alien spouse.” First of course, is President-Elect Donald J Trump. And then, of course, just as we had TurboTaxTimmy, our new Treasury Secretary may have some tax issues he is not taking care of.

Most expats have come across the issues of the gift and estate taxes, if for no other reason when trying to figure out what the value of an asset is (gift tax) vs how it is to be taxed (estate tax). Then there is the issue of an expat trying to get under the 2 million asset-test by gifting.

Just to remind, the relevant issue here is:

• an annual exclusion amount per donee per year There is no limit on the number of people that can be gifted to. There is no gift tax involved and no need to report
• US citizens and domiciliaries can also “gift split,” allowing married donors to exclude up to twice the annual exclusion amount per donee per year. Gift splitting is not permitted if either spouse is a non-US domiciliary and of course, there is IRS Form 709 to file. After all, we’re still talking about Form Crime
• An unlimited amount can be gifted to a spouse who is a US citizen
• There is an annual exclusion for gifts to non-US citizen spouses

So how will these rules affect our incoming members of the executive branch?
Continue reading →

Here is the video of the meeting that took place this past Monday, December 5, 2016 at the Atwater Library in Montreal. Once again, John Richardson and Andrew Grossman meet up to discuss, analyze and muse over the situation expats find themselves thanks to the complexity to the U.S. tax code. Bizarre!

Super thanks to David Zimmerly for making the trek (through snow), setting up/videoing, and already having the finished product!

ENJOY & please share widely!

 
A set of posts form a perfect companion set to this video. On John writes:

This series of posts developed from my “Educational Outreach” program for Americans abroad. It is an effort to respond in a practical way to the questions that people have.

“When in Rome, live as a Homelander” does, when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere.”

Chapter 5: Living Clean – How to live outside the United States in an #FBAR and #FATCA world

Results of search: "US citizens abroad come clean" https://t.co/MfcAU1EDPK … … – Q: Are #Americansabroad? Filthy, dirty, sweaty or grungy?

— Citizenship Lawyer (@ExpatriationLaw) April 19, 2015

Americans abroad are constantly told that they should “come clean”. They should file their U.S. taxes. This assumes that they are somehow “unclean” or perhaps “dirty”. The life of an “American abroad” is about three things:

1. “Thinking Clean” – The importance of “thinking clean” while living abroad.

2. “Coming Clean” – Atoning for the sins of “living abroad” and entering the U.S. tax system; and

3. “Living Clean” – Living as a Homeland American outside the United States

Whether you have yet to decide about coming into compliance or you have filed (but are unsure whether you or your tax compliance firm has actually done all that is required), check out this set of posts to get a taste of what’s involved:

“Coming Into Tax Compliance Book” – How Americans can come into U.S. tax compliance in a FATCA world

You can’t make this stuff up!

As requested by the Obama regime, 7000 suspected U.S. citizens were recently identified by the Kuwaiti government, assumed guilty of crimes unless proven to be innocent.

Under the U.S. citizen locating program called FATCA, 7000 suspected U.S. citizens have been rounded up in a database of names now stored centrally in the Kuwaiti government, as reported by the Arab Times.  Those suspected U.S. citizens await an unspecified fate.

These citizens had previously been living undisturbed in the country amongst other nationalities. However, the recent Obama legislation has required the government identification of U.S. citizens in every country of the world.

In Kuwait, it is identified that each American is worth approximately $328,000, although it is not specified as to how that value might be realized by other actors.

The Kuwaiti government now has the addresses, telephones, and asset values of all U.S. citizens that it was able to locate. The files are stored in ways that are not specified and are transferred over the open internet without encryption. It is not specified as to how many lower level I.T. contractors or politically connected managers have access to the information.

Some of the information collecting Kuwaiti organizations are Al Hilal Islamic Fund, Noor GCC ISLAMIC FUND, Al Durra Islamic Fund, and Kuwait Insurance Company. The collected information is delivered to the Kuwaiti government under Operation FATCA.

http://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/7000-kuwaitis-2-3bn-fatca-reveal/

Global U.S. Citizen Target

When some politician or media gives that standard line “#FATCA’s unintended consequences” — think twice about whether you should be pacified by the author’s pandering.

Michael Parenti, in “To Kill a Nation–The Attack on Yugoslavia” describes also the “unintended consequences” of the actions carried under orders of the 1999 leader of the executive branch after having been caught with his pants down.  During this time, the to-be-FATCA-implementing Secretary-of-State was hiding in embarrassment from the U.S. public, but this SoS-IGA-implementer-to-be was known in the targeted villages and cities at that time as The Mistress of the War.

Parenti enlightens us: “Top policy makers are intelligent, resourceful, and generally more aware of what they are doing than those who see them as foolish and bungling. US policy is not filled with contradictions and inconsistencies. It has performed brilliantly and steadily in the service of those who own most of the world and who want to own all of it. That some critics may not know what policy makers are doing does not mean the policy makers themselves do not know what they are doing. That Western leaders make misleading statements about their goals and intentions does not denote confusion on their part but a desire to confuse their publics as to what interests they are really serving. That they are misleading others does not mean that they are themselves misled, although of course there are times when they make mistakes and suffer bafflement in regard to tactics and timing.”

When the law tries to paint us all “offshore tax evaders”, and it turns out they are talking about us, there are lessons to be learned as to how the media and politicians operate to accomplish a mission. Whether you are ready to hear this author’s entire premise or not, it gives a valid lesson as to how a population of diaspora can be used to accomplish a political and economic goal.

http://michaelparenti.org/ToKillANation.html

Don’t allow yourself to be pacified by the talk of “FATCA’s unintended consequences” and plan your strategy knowing that it wasn’t an unplanned attack.

Information Session

Of particular interest is the issue of the Australian “Super.”
While all expatriates worldwide experience country-specific problems, this one is perhaps one of the worst. By law, Australians are required to contribute to their own retirement; this system is unique among government-sponsored retirement planning. Why on earth should the U.S. be able to tax these?

Online Renunciation Information Session with John Richardson – 9 Jan 2017

Presented by: John Richardson is a Toronto citizenship lawyer, the co-chairman of the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty as well as the Alliance for the Defeat of Citizenship Taxation. He is a member of the ACA Professional Taxation Advisory Council. He holds the degrees of B.A., LL.B., and J.D. He is a member of the Massachusetts, New York and Ontario bars. His law practice focuses on “Solving the Problems of U.S. Citizenship” including relinquishing and the “Exit Tax”. He gives programs for expats all across Canada and Europe. He writes extensively at citizenshipsolutions.ca

WHEN: Monday 9 January 2017
10:00 AM AEDT (Sydney, Melbourne);
9:00 AM AEST (Brisbane);
9:30 AM ACDT (Adelaide);
7:00 AM AWST (Perth);
UTC: Sunday 8 January 11pm. Convert to your time zone
Program will last for one hour

REGISTRATION: HERE

If you are interested, leave your email address here and in early January we will send you instructions on how to join the information session

What’s this about?

Since Australia agreed to the FATCA IGA in 2014, Australian financial institutions have been asking ALL new account holders and some existing account holders whether they are U.S. citizens. Many have no idea of the consequences of admitting to U.S. citizenship, a U.S. place of birth or being born to U.S. parents. In this one hour session, John Richardson will address the following topics:

Who is a U.S. citizen?

What about those born in Australia who
a) were registered with the consulate and have U.S. passports, but never lived in the U.S.;
b) were NOT registered with the consulate and do NOT have U.S. passports.

Look before you leap!!

• The pitfalls of entering the U.S. tax system – a brief overview of what it really means to be “U.S. tax compliant” in Australia
• Can the U.S. really tax my super?
• The ATO says tax treaties “eliminate double taxation,” so why can the U.S. tax my Australian income?
• How do I relinquish/renounce U.S. citizenship?
• Is a CLN necessary? How can I document loss of citizenship without a CLN?
• How is relinquishment different from renunciation?
• Didn’t I lose U.S. citizenship when I became an Australian citizen?
• There’s an EXIT TAX???

Other topics

• How renouncing U.S. citizenship may put your superannuation (and other savings) at risk
• How to renounce and exit the U.S. tax system cleanly and avoid being a “covered expatriate”
• I have just learned about the FATCA problem! The difference between “responding” and “reacting” – things you should NOT do!
• I thought I lived in Australia! Why do I have to follow U.S. law when I live in Australia?
• What can the U.S. do if I’m non-compliant?
• If my bank has identified me as a U.S. Person, can I satisfy the bank without entering the U.S. tax system?

 

THIS SESSION IS OF A GENERAL NATURE. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO AND SHOULD NOT BE UNDERSTOOD TO OFFER LEGAL ADVICE OF ANY KIND.