Posted on 07/22/2013 2:28:18 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Beware the sledgehammer used to crack the nut. In this case, the nut is the U.S. government's laudable goal of catching tax evaders. The sledgehammer is the overreaching effect of legislation that is alienating other countries and resulting in millions of U.S. citizens abroad being forced to either painfully reconsider their nationality, or face a lifetime of onerous bureaucracy, expense and privacy invasion.
The legislation is Fatca, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. To appreciate its breathtaking scope along with America's unique "citizen-based" tax practices, imagine this: You were born in California, moved to New York for education or work, fell in love, married and had children. Even though you have faithfully paid taxes in New York and haven't lived in California for 25 years, suppose California law required that you also file your taxes there because you were born there. Though you may never have held a bank account in California, you must report all of your financial holdings to the state of California. Are you a signatory on your spouse's account? Then you must declare his bank accounts too. Your children, now adults, have never been west of the Mississippi. But they too must file their taxes in both California and New York and report any bank accounts they or their spouses may have because they are considered Californians by virtue of one parent's birthplace.
Extrapolate that example to the six million U.S. citizens living overseas. Many, if not most, don't know about these requirements. Yet they face fines, penalties and interest for not complying—even if they owe no U.S. taxes, own no U.S. property, have no U.S. bank account and haven't lived there in years—if ever.
A particularly alarming aspect of Fatca is that it seeks to co-opt foreign banks as long-arm enforcement agencies of the IRS
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
British mayor of London, Boris Johnson, like many others, are "accidental Americans."
Boris Johnson was born in New York, where his father worked for the U.N.
Unless Mr. Johnson has actively renounced his citizenship, which requires an appointment at a U.S. Embassy, forms and fees, he is still an American citizen.
Mr. Johnson repudiated his American citizenship in a newspaper column once, but it's far from clear that this would satisfy U.S. authorities. Mr. Johnson, have you filed your taxes and reported all your U.K. bank accounts to the U.S. Department of Treasury yet?
Tina Turner did...............
A country shouldn’t be able to create onerous burdens in renouncing citizenship. If you’re no longer going to be a citizen of their country, any paperwork documenting that the person doing the renouncing is actually the person in question and that they’re doing so voluntarily, should be adequate, bureaucratic rules be damned. The whole POINT of renouncing citizenship is to remove yourself from their jurisdiction.
If you’re a person of means and you try renouncing American Citizenship, the IRS will have you under its radar to see how much taxes you might have avoided (in their eyes — evaded) the past many years.
That’s the kind of country America has allowed itself to become...
When I was a kid, I often heard about how totalitarian societies would strip people of their possessions if they tried to leave. It occurred with the Nazis; it occurred with the Communists in Stalin's Russia. This sort of wealth control is un-American, in the sense of what that phrase used to mean.
Today, surrendering your citizenship is a "taxable event," meaning you owe the IRS tax on any capital gains you've accrued, even if the property isn't US property, or if most of those gains are not real due to inflation. Many foreign banks won't even take accounts from American citizens because they aren't worth the hassle.
I read somewhere that the children of diplomats born here while their parents are serving are not considered citizens. It was an article about how “anchor babies” of illegals shouldnt be automatically granted citizenship and used diplomats children as an example of other babies born here that do not get citizenship. The point was to shoot a hole in the common myth that everyone born here automatically is an american. there were a couple of other examples but i forget. i suppose he could have worked for the UN but was not “technically” a diplomat so there could be more to your example than i am aware so im not calling you wrong or anything.
OK, let’s give Boris Johnson a pass... what about the other accidental Americans who were born here?
If they make a lot of money in their home country, is the IRS required by law to go after their income?
The more oppressive the government the onerous and expensive it costs to renounce your citizenship. I once heard that Cuba required people to give up even the clothes they are wearing to emigrate.
So what if you work in a foreign country and are paid by a firm in that country ...
It’s the financial equivalent of the “Berlin Wall.”
Which originated with the 16th Amendment, in which the citizens and states of the early 20th century gave the government its income by allowing it to directly levy income tax on individuals. To prove this is what the 16th amendment is, tax law avoids normal constitutional due process and self incrimination to name a couple losses of constitutional protection. Now we learn the government treats foreign banks and countries are harboring US government stolen property on the chance a US citizen living aboard owes taxes. Does this sound like your income is your property??
The ultimate freedom is the freedom to vote with your feet and leave.
RE: So what if you work in a foreign country and are paid by a firm in that country ...
Let’s put it this way... if you are a German Citizen working in America, you are NOT REQUIRED to declare your income in America to be taxed. However, if you are an American working in Germany, you ARE REQUIRED to declare your income in Germany to be taxed.
If you have money in a bank overseas, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO DECLARE INTEREST earned in that bank overseas to the IRS.
If you own a property overseas and rent it out or sold the property for a profit, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO DECLARE THE INCOME FROM THAT PROPERTY OR PROFIT FROM THE SALE OF THE PROPERTY in your American tax form.
RE: The ultimate freedom is the freedom to vote with your feet and leave.
We still have that freedom, but it ain’t going to be cheap.
Which is why secession is a right of the states.
The U.S. is the only country that taxes its citizens on their world-wide income, no matter where they live.
Other than the U.S., there’s also Eritrea. It imposes what is derisively termed a “diaspora tax” on its citizens.
The difference, Eritrea’s equivalent of the IRS is not as powerful as ours.
Ours is so powerful that we can BULLY a country like Switzerland into giving up the names of secret bank accounts of US citizens to the IRS.
All of these illegals who are wanting a pathway to citizenship—do they know what they are asking for? Work a lifetime here, retire back to their native land and are forever required to file US tax returns.
Tina is a wise woman.
Tina is a wise woman.
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