Tag Archives: Citizenship-based taxation
Legislation to help American expats imminent, London audience told
reprinted with permission of the author Helen Burggraf
American Expat Financial News Service
Photos by Steven Edginton, Politics UK
steven.edginton@hotmail.com
September 24, 2018
updated 1:02 PM CEST, Sep 27
Legislation that its proponents say would significantly improve the lot of American expatriates, many of whom have been left reeling by the Trump tax reforms introduced at the end of last year, will be introduced in Congress before the end of the month.
This was the message delivered to a London audience of around 80 mainly expatriate Americans last week by Republican Overseas global chief executive Solomon Yue, (pictured above, far left, and below), and again a few days later to an also mainly expat audience in Paris.
Today Yue is due to bring his message to expats in Frankfurt, with similar events scheduled for Berlin and Rome over the next few days.
Yue’s appearances were his latest on a global whistle-stop tour of key foreign business centers around the world that aims to rally support among – and ideally as well, the active involvement of – American citizens living abroad for legislative changes in the way their country currently taxes them, in the run-up to the midterm elections in November.
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Coalition Supports RBT – Letter to Ways & Means & Senate Finance Committee
Ending U.S. Citizenship-Based Taxation
Panel discussion with John Richardson, Solomon Yue, Olivier Wagner and Jim Gosart.
Two Programs with Solomon Yue in Toronto August 12 & August 16, 2018
In addition the meeting mentioned below, we would like to have a second, more informal program for expats and their families and friends. This format would be a more intimate question and answer which will be focused on individuals subject to the CBT regime. This would take place on Sunday, August 12, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm on the U of T campus. We need a confirmed number of individuals before booking a room. If you are interested, please email nobledreamer16 at gmail dot com Cost: $20
A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL OR ANOTHER ONCOMING TRAIN: THE POSSIBLE END OF U.S. CITIZENSHIP-BASED TAXATION
If you are an American citizen residing and doing business in Canada, you bear the pain of the heavy tax burden endured by all U.S. citizens due to the fact that the U.S. is the only major country that imposes worldwide taxation on its citizens no matter whether they live in the U.S. or in another country. In addition, the U.S. imposes significant penalty laden reporting requirements on U.S. citizens living in Canada and abroad.
Change is a possibility.
Did you know that there is a possibility that the U.S. Congress may introduce, debate and vote upon a bill that may ease this worldwide taxation burden on U.S. citizens living and working in Canada? This bill would enact ‘Territorial Taxation for Individuals (TTFI)’. It is a tax cut for 9 million overseas Americans by ending double taxation.
Solomon Yue, CEO of Republicans Overseas has been involved with drafting the TTFI bill. Mr. Yue, who is currently working with AmChams throughout the world, will present publicly shareable information about the TTFI bill, and discuss its progress as it journeys through the legislative process. He will be encouraging AmCham Canada to lend its support in the global effort to encourage Congress to move forward with this legislation.
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U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and Netherlands form international tax enforcement group
According to an article by Michael Cohn in Accounting Today, a multi-lateral tax enforcement group has been formed. The Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (or J5 for short), intend to “collaborate in fighting international and transnational tax crimes and money laundering.”
U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and Netherlands form international tax enforcement group https://t.co/x3bX03Ardw Enough Already! We've got Treaties, #FATCA , #CRS When will it end? pic.twitter.com/4DRrjKSVhg
— Citizenship Taxation (@CitizenshipTax) July 1, 2018
Membership of the J5 includes the heads of tax crime and senior officials from Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS CI), Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in the U.K., the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), and the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD).
Leaders of the group met Thursday in Montreal to formulate their plans. The J5 plans to work together to gather and share information and intelligence, as well as conduct operations and build capacity for tax crime enforcement officials. Areas of focus include cybercrime and cryptocurrency, data analytics, and enablers and facilitators of tax crimes. The alliance will concentrate on building international enforcement capacity, as well as enhancing operational capability by piloting new approaches and conducting joint operations, to bring perpetrators who enable and facilitate offshore tax crime to justice
New Accidental American Groups
In the last little while, there are 4 new Accidental American groups which appear to be under the umbrella of Fabien Lehavgre’s group ( website , Facebook , Twitter . I don’t believe I have seen any of these mentioned here so want to be sure this information is available so people are aware of it.
For those of you on Facebook and Twitter, kindly share, RT and like these pages. Thanks.
UK
UK #AccidentalAmericans. You have no more excuses to act now.
Join us and fight for your freedom.#FATCA #CBT pic.twitter.com/FfKIuvAVi2— Accidental Americans (@USAccidental) June 2, 2018
UK Accidental Americans Facebook Page
ITALY
Italian #AccidentalAmericans now have their own group to fight #FATCA and Citizishensiph Based Taxation pic.twitter.com/4vA5HXzBKO
— Accidental Americans (@USAccidental) June 3, 2018
Italian Accidental Americans Facebook Page
IRELAND
Irish #AccidentalAmericans. You have no more excuses to act now.
Join us and fight for your freedom. pic.twitter.com/KaaE9S0UPC— Accidental Americans (@USAccidental) June 3, 2018
Irish Accidental Americans Facebook Page
BELGIUM
Les "américains accidentels" de Belgique s'organisent.
Rejoignez-les en envoyant vos coordonnées à belgium.aaa@gmail.com pic.twitter.com/k8Flx1zMJq— Accidental Americans (@USAccidental) May 7, 2018
Chapter 2 – Brock project: Seeking stories from current or former “U.S. Citizens” who are/were destroyed by attempting to comply with U.S. @CitizenshipTax AKA @NonresidentTax
Background …
In a rare instance of “concern” for Americans abroad, Congressman George Holding (Republican North Carolina) may be proposing a bill that could allow some U.S. citizens to live outside the United States and NOT be subject to U.S. tax on their “non-U.S. income”. This would be a “shocker” and a real “Game Changer”. Unsurprisingly this possible initiative has large support including support from ACA, Republicans Overseas, Democrats Abroad, Accidental Americans, etc. Each of these groups (yes each of them) has contributed to and supported this initiative in various ways. Even so, there are partisan fault lines …
There are certain groups/individuals who would NOT support this change (some for ideological reasons and some because they don’t believe the changes would benefit them personally). In any event …
How you can follow the developments …
Interestingly, @SolomonYue of (dare I say) Republicans Overseas, is actively communicating with individuals impacted by this in an ongoing Twitter discussion. “JC” of Isaac Brock fame, (who you all know) is also an active contributor to the Twitter conversation. (You will see other participants) who you will recognize.
In any event, as you all know, the central issue is that U.S. tax policies:
1. Make it impossible for U.S. citizens to move from the United States AND integrate into the tax systems of other countries (if you don’t “quite” understand this, then this post is not for you);
2. Impose very severe punishment on those who (ironically) do attempt compliance with this collection of U.S. tax laws that make life impossible.
As I suggested in the previous post, it seems to me that:
The penalties imposed on Americans abroad who attempt U.S. tax compliance, are far worse than:
The penalties imposed on Americans abroad who do NOT attempt U.S. tax compliance.
The purpose of this post and the anticipated comments is to explain why this is the case!
So, why I am writing this post?
If you want to be a Shareholder in our Canadian Business then you must Renounce U.S. Citizenship
cross-posted from citizenship solutions
by John Richardson
The unified message from all should be that: The United States should stop imposing “worldwide taxation” on people who have “tax residency” in other countries and do NOT live in the United States! This is a message that all advocates of tax reform can support. As recently explained in a post from “ACA”, the mechanism (RBT vs TTFI) used to achieve this change is less important.
Congressman George Holding speaks on Residency Based Taxation | The American – for Americans in the UK & Europe https://t.co/KT24VsgmFv
— John Richardson – lawyer for "U.S. persons" abroad (@ExpatriationLaw) March 30, 2018
It is no secret that Congressman George Holding is working on a proposal to end the U.S. practice of imposing “worldwide taxation” on those who have “tax residency” in other countries. If successful, this would be a positive change for the United States, U.S. citizens who choose to live outside the United States and the residents of other countries. None of these should be burdened by the extra-territorial application of U.S. tax laws!
Comment #2 on “Think You Can Leave the U.S. – Think Again
“There is something fundamentally wrong with a country where compliance with its laws
forces you to (eventually) renounce your citizenship.”
This post is based on a comment by John Richardson. The comment is a response to
a post by laurainparis on the Thom Hartmann blogsite.
*******
Laura, you conclude your last comment with:
“In asking his question Thom demonstrates the importance of how the United States treates it citizens when they leave the country. He demonstrates that this is an important question not just for Americans who live outside the US, but for ALL Americans, regardless of where they live. Because anyone who thinks they can leave the country, anyone who comforts themselves with this idea – anyone who asks the question “why don’t more Americans leave?” – they are deluding themselves. There is no freedom for Americans. Americans are not free to live normal lives outside the US, unless they are financially and emotionally prepared to STOP BEING AMERICANS (that is, renounce their citizenship). The word “ironic” doesn’t begin to describe the situation. The words “impossible” and “tragic” do.”
A tragic situation indeed.
What’s most interesting and tragic is that:
The ones who try the hardest to comply with the U.S. rules are the ones who ultimately are forced to renounce. I have assisted a very large number of people in renouncing their U.S. citizenship (and thereby ending U.S. jursidction over them). A high percentage of people I have assisted are people who:
1. Have tried for years to comply with the “alphabet soup” series of laws and reguations that govern the lives of Americans abroad; and
2. Realize that compliance is no longer possible.
The only remaining Americans abroad will be “noncompliant” Americans abroad
In the long run, the only Americans abroad who will be able to retain their U.S. citizenship are those who do NOT attempt compliance with these laws. There is something fundamentally wrong with a country where compliance with its laws forces you to (eventually) renounce your citizenship. This is a problem that has escalated over time.
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