Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Myth is renewed

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Can move this discussion further, after the little interesting budget thing in the Senate:

badger says

March 27, 2015 at 8:38 pm

The FATCA-Mythspinning machine leaps into action:

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/237110-endorsing-tax-evasion
March 27, 2015, 03:00 pm
‘Endorsing tax evasion’
By Rebecca J. Wilkins

“..The U.S. loses an estimated $150 billion in tax revenue each year to tax haven abuse – a revenue shortfall that honest taxpayers have to make up. About $40-70 billion of that revenue loss is from individual tax evasion…”

.”To oppose FATCA is to oppose transparency and cooperation and take the United States out of its leadership role in combating tax evasion. The United States Congress is faced with a choice. It can stand for openness, transparency, and honesty – or for tax evasion, secret bank accounts, and subterfuge.

In the geeky tax world, we often refer to FATCA as FATCATS. It helps us remember the acronym. The FATCATS are the ones with those offshore bank accounts. Will members of Congress protect them? Or will they stand with American people?

Wilkins is the executive director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition.”

Same old bullshit numbers pulled out of someone’s, er, pocket. And this deliberate lie makes me sick; “The United States Congress is faced with a choice. It can stand for openness, transparency, and honesty – or for tax evasion, secret bank accounts, and subterfuge.”

Right, that’s why the US Treasury signed IGAs that they have no authority to enter into, and why US banks do not and will not be providing EQUIVALENT RECIPROCAL information to other countries on all accounts held in the US. And why the US hasn’t and won’t sign on to the OECD CRS. No mention of the dirty secret of US extraterritorial taxation based on who your parent was or the geographic location where your mother gave birth…..

Let us remember those US resident homelanders who I am sure want a more transparent system – as long as they have the inside track on jiggling the rules for their own benefit:
ex. Take the Pritzker family trusts:
“……President Barack Obama’s nomination today of Chicago businesswoman and Forbes 400 member Penny Pritzker to be the Secretary of Commerce, her family’s legendary use of hundreds of offshore trusts to protect its wealth from taxes and the prying eyes of the Internal Revenue Service…..”……
http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2013/05/02/pritzker-family-baggage-tax-saving-offshore-trusts/

‘Pritzker Trust Dodges Illinois State Income Tax’
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2014/01/02/pritzker-trust-dodges-illinois-state-income-tax/

Plenty more material where that came from.

Yet, local legal everyday accounts in Canada – held where we live, to hold post tax wages, pay bills, save for education, disability, retirement, etc. are to be reported to the FINANCIAL CRIMES ENFORCEMENT NETWORK, because the US treats the education savings of a child in Canada with a US born parent as so much more likely to be ‘offshore’ assets belonging to a tax evader than say, the US resident owners of the family trusts like those of the current Commerce Secretary.

It’s Real -Amendment to Budget Resolution Sets Stage for Repeal of FATCA

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[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 25, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1901-S1956]
From the Congressional Record Online |through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]

TEXT OF AMENDMENTS

SA 621. Mr. WICKER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 11, setting forth the
congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year
2016 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal
years 2017 through 2025; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. ___. DEFICIT-NEUTRAL RESERVE FUND TO REPEAL THE FOREIGN
ACCOUNT TAX COMPLIANCE ACT.

The Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate
may revise the allocations of a committee or committees,
aggregates, and other appropriate levels in this resolution
for one or more bills, joint resolutions, amendments,
amendments between the Houses, motions, or conference reports
relating to fairness of United States taxpayers, which may
include the repeal of the provisions commonly known as the
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, by the amounts provided
in such legislation for that purpose, provided that such
legislation would not increase the deficit over either the
period of the total of fiscal years 2016 through 2020 or the
period of the total of fiscal years 2016 through 2025.

Hat Tip to Tim

Eritreans in UK fight back against diaspora tax

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According to a press release from earlier this month, Eritreans in the United Kingdom have filed a criminal complaint with police against Asmara’s ambassador in London over the ongoing efforts to force them to pay the diaspora tax:

Members of the Eritrean community in the UK have laid criminal charges against the Eritrean Ambassador to London. This is in line with the written instructions given by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office [see below]. These required members of the Eritrean community to “report any use of coercion of other illicit means to collect the tax to the police.”

Acting on this advice, members of the Eritrean community went to the West End central police station last night and filed a criminal complaint. This illegal tax collection is a clear violation of the assurance given by the Ambassador to the Foreign Office on 25th October 2013 that the tax collection had ended.

The UK supported to a resolution in the UN Security Council in 2011, which outlawed the tax collection. Despite this the illicit collection has continued and this incident is no isolated case. In February 2014 we provided the government with secretly filmed video evidence of the tax being extracted in the London embassy.

This follows similar action three years ago by Eritreans in Stockholm, which led to suggestions in the Riksdag to pass laws banning the collection of the diaspora tax in Sweden. Two years ago, Ottawa also expelled the Eritrean Consul-General in Toronto for similar reasons.

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ADCS-ADSC Letters sent, requesting NDP, Liberal, Green and Conservative Party Policies on FATCA

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Cross-posting from MapleSandbox.ca: FATCA Letter to Leaders and MPs.  Thanks for posting, Lynne!

FATCA Letter to Leaders and MPs

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In this election year, ADCS has sent letters requesting Party policy on FATCA:

Letter to Leader of NDP
Letter to Leader of Liberals
Letter to Leader of Green Party
Letter to Leader of Conservatives
Copies of that letter to several Opposition Critics, Cabinet Ministers or some MPs.

As you can see, these letters are very similar. We ask direct questions relating to FATCA. As an example, here is the content of the letter to Thomas Mulcair:

Thank you to you, the NDP and some of your MPs for standing up for Canadian citizens and residents, whether born in the United States, in Canada or in any other country, against the American Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) enabling legislation.

You may be aware we have commenced litigation against the Government of Canada resulting from the Conservative government surrendering Canadian citizens, residents, laws, constitution and sovereignty to the United States for FATCA.

We are disappointed at your near silence since the FATCA enabling act was passed. We are, therefore, contacting you now to request your party’s policy in writing on what you would do if the NDP is elected to form the next government.

Specifically, we ask:

1. Will your party commit to repealing the FATCA IGA in its entirety?
2. If not, why not?
3. What action will your party take to protect Canadian citizens and residents from the demands of a foreign government under FATCA?
4. What action will your party take to uphold Canadian laws, the constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Canadian sovereignty as they relate to FATCA?
5. What action will your party take to agree with our lawsuit that the FATCA enabling Act violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Canada’s constitution? Will you direct the Ministry of Justice to quickly reach an acceptable settlement with us?
6. What action will your party take to ensure a foreign law does not prevail over Canadian privacy, human rights, banking and other laws?
7. What is your time frame for any commitment you may make?

Approximately one million Canadians, their families and business associates are affected by FATCA and many will want to know which party represents their needs and rights. Many will make their voting decision based on this.

We hope the NDP will fight for their rights as Canadians.

I will advise you of the responses we receive or if we do not receive responses.

Other Canadians may wish to write to their MPs and/or candidates in their ridings. You can share responses you receive here.

American diaspora’s rate of compliance with Selective Service registration

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In 1952, the U.S. government began making efforts to get the young men of the American diaspora to register for conscription, as a front-page article in the October 1952 edition of the Selective Service newsletter discussed:

S.S. Registrants Are Listed In Eighty Nations

Registration of draft liable Americans in foreign countries passed the 4000 mark in September, National Headquarters has announced, and estimates were that when all returns are in[,] the total would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 5000 …

Eighty countries have eligible young United States citizens within their borders. These registrants generally are in the process of classification by either a local board representing the home addresses they gave, or by Local Board 100 — Foreign, which has jurisdiction in those instances in which a registrant has given no United States address as his home. There has also been a sprinkling, totaling so far less than half a dozen registrants, from the trust territories.

Here’s a tabulation of the statistics presented in that article. Two countries — Canada and Japan — were mentioned in the article as having large numbers of dual nationals, and so I placed an asterisk (*) in the table for those countries.

All countries with 100+ registrants Selected countries with fewer than 100 registrants
Country Registrations Country Registrations Country Registrations
Canada* 781 Venezuela 28 Jordan 1
Japan* 578 Argentina 20 Liberia 1
Germany 378 Ecuador 5 Mozambique 1
United Kingdom 373 Bolivia 4 Pakistan 1
Philippines 333 Burma 1 Paraguay 1
Mexico 305 Egypt 1 Tanganyika 1
Italy 206 Ethiopia 1 Thailand 1
Remaining 59 countries ~1,000
 

 

In the Homeland there were more than 13 million total registrants by November 1952, or roughly 1/12th of the U.S. population at the time. A few years later, the Senate estimated that there were 600,000 U.S. citizens living outside of the United States. So unless the diaspora had a wildly different age or gender profile than the Homelanders, there should have been at least 50,000 U.S. citizen males of draft age residing in other countries, not just 5,000.

Furthermore, the U.S. government apparently estimated that 50,000 children were being born to U.S. citizens in other countries each year, suggesting that the total population estimate of 600,000 might have been far too low. So the diaspora’s Selective Service non-compliance rate was at least 90%, and probably even greater — similar to what we’ve seen in recent years with FBAR.

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Congressional Research Service Jan 2015 report attributes anti-expat legislation and keeps the dastardly stuff alive

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http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40623.pdf was found by JC and placed in a comment.

It is a recent release which I haven’t seen discussed elsewhere.

Tax Havens: International Tax Avoidance and Evasion
Jane G. Gravelle Senior Specialist in Economic Policy
January 15, 2015
Congressional Research Service

It has quite a history of tax proposals which are claimed as having originated from the Obama administration.

Plus a history of the dastardly ones we know of (Ex Patriot Act, MAP 21, etc)

Lots of unconstitutional solutions upon 7.6  million US citizens and 10’s of millions of immigrants, in order to chase after a small quantity of bad guys.

This one pulls its own unfootnoted number for total tax evasion out its whazoo.

Don’t get bogged down by the corporate discussions.  The individual discussions come in the last pages.

You’ll learn about the history of the attack on expats and that the dastardly proposals have not gone away.

 

Options to Address Individual Evasion …………………………………………………………………………….. 34

Information Reporting ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 34

Multilateral Information Sharing or Withholding; International Cooperation ……………… 34

Expanding Bilateral Information Exchange ……………………………………………………………. 35

Unilateral Approaches: Withholding/Refund Approach; Increased Information Reporting Requirements……………………………………………………………………………………. 35

Other Measures That Might Improve Compliance ………………………………………………………… 35

Incentives/Sanctions for Tax Havens …………………………………………………………………….. 35
Tax Havens: International Tax Avoidance and Evasion
Congressional Research Service
Revise and Strengthen the Qualified Intermediary Program ……………………………………… 36

Place the Burden of Proof on the Taxpayer …………………………………………………………….. 36

Treat Shell Corporations as U.S. Firms ………………………………………………………………….. 36

Extend the Statute of Limitations ………………………………………………………………………….. 36

Greater Resources for the Internal Revenue Service to Focus on Offshore …………………. 37

Make Civil Cases Public as a Deterrent …………………………………………………………………. 37

37 Strengthening of Penalties ……………………………………………………………………………………. 37

Address Tax Shelters …………………………………………………………………………………………… 38

Regulate the Rules Used by States to Permit Incorporation ………………………………………. 38

Make Suspicious Activity Reports Available to Civil Side of IRS……………………………… 38

Summary of Enacted Legislation in 2011 ………………………………………………………………………….. 38

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act  (P.L. 111-147): FATCA ………… 38

Reporting on Foreign Accounts …………………………………………………………………………….. 39

Deduction of Interest for Bearer (Nonregistered) Bonds ………………………………………….. 39

Additional Information Reported on Tax Returns ……………………………………………………. 39 Penalties ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 39

Statute of Limitations ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 39

Reporting on Foreign Passive Investment Companies ……………………………………………… 39

Electronic Filing …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 40 Trusts ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 40

Treat Equity Swaps as Dividends ………………………………………………………………………….. 40

Summary of Legislative Proposals …………………………………………………………………………………… 44

American Jobs and Closing Loopholes Act (H.R. 4213, 111th Congress) …………………………. 44

President Obama’s International Tax Proposals ……………………………………………………………. 45

Provisions Affecting Multinational Corporations and Other Tax Law Changes …………… 45

Provisions Relating to Individual Tax Evasion, Not Enacted in the HIRE Act …………….. 49

The Wyden-Gregg and Wyden-Coats Tax Reform Bills ………………………………………………… 49

Chairman Camp’s Territorial Tax Proposal (Included in H.R. 1, 113th Congress) and Senator Enzi’s Bill (S. 2091, 112th Congress) ……………………………………………………………. 50

Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act ………………………………………………………………………………………… 51

111th Congress (S. 506 and H.R. 1245) ………………………………………………………………….. 51

112th Congress (S. 1346 and H.R. 2669) ………………………………………………………………… 52

113th Congress (H.R. 1554, S. 1533, and H.R. 3666) ……………………………………………….. 53

114th Congress ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 53

Finance Committee Proposal, 111th Congress ………………………………………………………………. 54

The Source of the Standard Offshore Lie

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Who is the criminal? You–because you live “offshore”–or the media and politicians because of their “truths” ?

http://www.nestmann.com/government-stats-strike-again#.VQ0LgU1_lMt

“Here’s another big, fat, hairy lie being trotted out right now by President Obama, Congress, and the mass media: ‘Offshore tax evasion costs the US Treasury more than $150 billion annually.’

That’s today’s number. In 2001, it was $70 billion annually. By 2010, the number was $100 billion. According to a recently published Senate report, it’s now $150 billion.

That’s one hell of a jump. Either the rich are totally sticking it to “the man,” or someone has been massaging the numbers just a tad.

Let’s look at the history, shall we?

The $70 billion figure originated with Jack Blum, an attorney and former congressional researcher. Blum cited this figure in 2001, when he signed an affidavit in support of an IRS summons for records from MasterCard and American Express.

He never explained how he arrived at this number……….”

Reminder: “Have You Received a #FATCA Letter?” Hamilton ON March 26

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HAMILTON Thursday, March 26, 2015

6:30 – 8:30 pm – $20.00

McMaster Innovation Park Room 1A, 175 Longwood Road S.,
Hamilton, ON L8P 0A1 MAP
 

Why am I getting letters from my bank all of a sudden?

What individuals are U.S. taxpayers? Who is a U.S. citizen?

I have never heard of these requirements! What determines the income that must be reported to the IRS? What “Information Returns” are required to be reported to the IRS?

I am only a snowbird! Why does this affect me?

What are the ways I can become compliant?

What costs are involved in renouncing U.S. citizenship?

 

WHO: John Richardson, B.A., L.L.B., J.D., is a Toronto lawyer and a member of the Ontario Bar.
Citizenshipsolutions.ca

Hope to see you, your families and friends! Spread the word!

Information presented is NOT intended or offered as legal or accounting advice specific to your situation.

Timeless Wisdom: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

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images (2)
 

The other day, Barbara put up this lovely comment:

“I wish to take the opportunity of this thread to thank the creators of and contributors to the Isaac Brock Society. Until a month ago, I was running scared, losing sleep, calling so-called US tax experts in London, the USA and Hong Kong, trying to get a clear picture of my husband’s and my situation and how to remedy our small “errors”. Each advisor I spoke to made me more frightened, and had me nearly convinced to fork over US$500 to submit “revised” back-year FBARs per year. The compliance condors had me by the short hairs.

Thank God I found this site at last, and figured out what the condors were doing. With the plethora of information, resources and advice available here–not always in agreement with each other–I have changed from frightened out of my wits to simply mad as hell.

A big warm thank you to everyone!“

 

First, it was great to hear that Brock is doing what it was meant to be doing; getting the word out so people could get the information they need to try and put an end to the fear and terror caused by the IRS and the condors.It got me thinking about the beginning of Brock and one of the earliest posts that was about this very subject:

“We can’t trust the IRS – But can we trust the accountants and lawyers?”

Since the publication of that post on December 12, 2011, there have been some changes; almost no one thinks about OVDP 2009 and the bait-and-switch regarding FAQ35 anymore and most people would likely enter Streamlined before they would consider simply following the law and submitting returns via the Fact Sheet 2011-13 (though it is still a valid way to come into compliance, and is how I did it over 3 years ago). One thing the post does do, is demonstrate how utterly terrifying it was then and any Brocker/Sandboxer who has been around that long might be forgiven for some of the “harder edges” in terms of anger, cynicism and driven determination to make this stop. Just read some of these (horrible) stories that are linked in the article; while the situation remains unpleasant, frightening, unfair and all the rest of it, it seems we are no longer hearing that people are losing everything they have.

I also began to wonder, how much has Brock/Sandbox education kept from the clutches of the condors? How much money may have been denied those who really did/do not have our best interests in mind? All of us have gained from Brock, there’s no question of that. And money might be part of it but I think most of us would feel that the site offered more important things. Just for fun, please take part in this poll:
You can vote for as many options as you like!
 


 
Now, back to the main focus of this post: showing how in spite of improvement, one aspect that has NOT changed, is that of whether we can trust the accountants and the lawyers. I would really like to hear your reaction as to whether or not you think things have improved; is there any difference in what is happening to people, or is there just as much fear-mongering as before? Are there more predicatable facts and outcomes? Or does the whole situation remain confusing and frightening?
 


 


 
Reposted from December 12, 2011

We can’t trust the IRS – But can we trust the accountants and lawyers?
 
The post is a comment responding to the blog post – IRS issues Fact Sheet For U.S. or dual citizens residing outside of the U.S., to which Petros commented :
 

They [the IRS] can’t be trusted when they talk about reasonable cause, because they don’t really indicate what reasonable cause is.

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