Petros Principle 12: The criminals are in DC
Psalm 10.1-2 (RSV)
Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,
and the writers who keep writing oppression,
to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be their spoil,
and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
Psalm 94:20-23 (RSV)
Can wicked rulers be allied with thee,
who frame mischief by statute?
They band together against the life of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent to death.
But the LORD has become my stronghold,
and my God the rock of my refuge.
He will bring back on them their iniquity
and wipe them out for their wickedness;
the LORD our God will wipe them out.
Commentary:
Often people assume that FATCA was about catching wealthy Homelanders who were putting their money in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes. But in the above video, it comes out of the horse’s mouth what FATCA is all about by design–“far reaching steps to catch overseas tax cheats”–not tax cheats who have their money overseas–the adjective “overseas” modifies the noun “tax cheats”. The manner in which FATCA has been implemented has shown that the intention was always to snare innocent so-called Americans abroad.
Democrats Abroad have attempted to get a same country exemption for expats, but the regulators have not simply been slow to make it happen but have stonewalled. So we should please stop saying that the intention of FATCA was to catch Homelanders putting their money in banks abroad. The intention has always been to catch innocent people. Moreover, the repeated petitions to find relief from FATCA and FBAR have fallen on deaf ears, showing that the US government is run by sociopaths who have no empathy for the people they are destroying.
One reason that an unjust law is no law (PP7) is because it will punish innocent behaviour. So a person living in Canada who works, opens bank accounts, invests in investment vehicles, who owns a personal corporation, who abides by the Canadian tax code, is an innocent person, full stop. That person is not a “tax cheat”. Thus, FATCA is itself a crime because of its criminalization of innocent behaviour.
Psalms 10 and 94 (cited above) show that it has long been recognized that evil rulers can create unjust statutes which criminalize innocent people. The Psalms invoke God himself to deal ever so severely with such wicked rulers. In several comments on my last post, a certain Jay said that lying to authorities is unethical. In his view, expats must only fill out good faith forms to the IRS. And yet doing that very thing has exposed not a few innocent people to the full brunt of bad laws and has turned them into victims. Evidently, Jay’s ethics do not conform to this ancient traditional view of law. In my view, Petros Principles are an ethical response to unjust laws, by providing wisdom by which innocent people may protect themselves and find the least bad solution in the face of laws designed to criminalize them.
The true criminals are the makers and enforcers of laws like FATCA. Such people cannot withstand scrutiny. The following documentary, Clinton Cash, sheds light on a criminal couple in DC who have gamed the system to make for themselves hundreds of millions. And such people have the audacity to come after my meager savings?
Previous Discussions
Human rights trump money: Why We must say no to FATCA
Ignorance is an excuse in the case of FBAR
The Real Intent of #FATCA: You are not “Collateral Damage” — You are the Target
Previous Petros Principles:
(1) What the IRS can’t know unless you tell them can’t hurt you.
(2) Fear makes the IRS more dangerous than it really is.
(3) Haste is the devil.
(4) Those most hurt by the IRS’s persecution of expats have engaged the services of cross-border compliance condors.
(5) Those least hurt have done nothing.
(6) Home is where you live.
(7) An unjust law is no law.
(8) Don’t feed the beast.
(9) Do the minimum in trying to achieve the least bad outcome.
(10) Lying to prevent a crime is a virtue.
(11) Cynical derision of Homelanders is healthy.
About: Petros is the alias of the founding administrator of the Isaac Brock Society. Petros Principles are guidelines that have helped him and others deal with the United States’ world-wide tax invasion.