Tag Archives: UK

Ginny Writes to London Mayor Boris Johnson. Help Stop FATCA with ADCS.

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November 22, 2014
Boris Johnson
Mayor of London
Greater London Authority
City Hall
The Queen’s Walk
London SE1 2AA
Dear Mr. Johnson:
RE: IRS
Yes, Boris Johnson I know just how you feel.
But the article is incorrect about the amount for the cut off and you would owe a lot more than just the capital gains on your house. Fines and exit fees could amount to hefty penalties for failure to file income reports when you, like a lot of of us, didn’t know about these until recently. Because the IRS never informed anyone or published their regulations in any way that the public would see.
The USA is the only country in the WORLD that taxes by citizenship, rather than residence. They need $$$ to fund their deficit and they are now going after every person in every country that they consider American. Like you, many people who lived in the USA for a few years or more who had no choice where they were born, never have considered themselves US citizens. You are a British citizen clearly. You have no ties to the USA. I know that feeling too.
However, to date there are only two people in the world, my co- plaintiff and I who are taking on this issue (in our true home country Canada, as full Canadian citizens, in our courts) because Canada entered into an agreement with the USA which turns over our banking information via our CRA. Just as the UK has done by entering into a similar intergovernmental agreement. As you are now finding out. I am not saying that to toot my own horn. I am saying it so that you might consider another option.
You might consider launching your own legal protest in the UK on behalf of people there like you, that the USA deems to be tax invaders. I bet that might be an interesting political launching pad for you, considering the USA went to war with the UK over off shore taxing in the first place. As in the ‘real’ Tea Party Revolution. I assume you well know your history? And that you see the irony?
And you have political cache that I don’t.
It’s not easy and it sure is expensive. But principles and access to justice are very important things to stand up for, in my opinion. Your mentor, Mr. Churchill would no doubt be proud of you if you did.
All the best, Boris.
Ginny Hillis,
Windsor Ontario, Canada
[Plaintiff in Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit against Government of Canada]

Is FATCA the new Franklin expedition?

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There has been quite a bit of publicity in Canada in the past few weeks regarding a new high tech search for the ships of the doomed Franklin expedition. The location of the  HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror has been described as Canada’s greatest historical mystery.
I’m sure most of you know that Sir John Franklin set out in the mid 1840’s to find the elusive Northwest Passage. He and his crew all perished. Since then there have been many attempts to find the ships or relics of the crew and their equipment.
So, what does this have to do with FATCA? Well, one thing most researchers agree on is that Arctic explorers of the day, especially from England, totally dismissed the collective wisdom of the Inuit .Of course the Inuit had learned over many generations how to survive in the most severe conditions. But  the English saw the Inuit as primitive savages from whom nothing could be learned.
As Victoria and Christophe point out in another thread, cultural differences may have some part in the lack of flexibility of the IRS as they continue to develop FATCA regulations. Are the lawyers at the IRS frozen in time like the body of one of the  Franklin crew members, John Torrington?

FATCA has been described using several metaphors, most commonly as a train. Perhaps it should be referred to as a ship sailing in foreign waters. One of its few success stories (if you can call it that and I know many American-Swiss would not describe it that way) has been in Switzerland, a landlocked country.
Is the USS FATCA also doomed?