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"This Is Not How A Free Society Treats Its Citizens"
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog,
631 people renounced their US citizenship in the 4th quarter of 2013.
This is an entire order of magnitude higher than the 45 people who renounced in 4Q/2012. And in total, 3,000 Americans renounced their citizenship in 2013– another record high.
The previous record (1,777) was set in 2011, which shattered the previous record before that (1,534) which was set in 2010, which was more than twice the number (742) that renounced in 2009.
You can see the trend here. And it’s not hard to figure out why it’s happening.
As the United States Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olsen recently told Congress in her scathing report about US tax policy:
“[T]ax requirements have become so confusing and the compliance burden so great that taxpayers are giving up their U.S. citizenship in record numbers.”
In her report, Ms. Olsen specifically points to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which was passed by Congress four years ago. She states that FATCA “has the potential to be burdensome, overly broad, and detrimental to taxpayer rights.”
That’s putting it politely.
I have written several times before that FATCA is one of the most destructive, insidious pieces of legislation ever passed. And the worst effects are only now -starting- to be felt.
Among other things, the law requires new disclosures for US citizens with foreign accounts. And just to make sure it’s absolutely clear how the US government views its tax serfs, they put this little ditty in the instructions:
“The fact that a foreign jurisdiction would impose a civil or criminal penalty on you if you disclose the required information is not reasonable cause [to NOT file this form].”
Basically they’re saying, ‘Even if disclosing this information would cause you to go to jail in a foreign country due to their confidentiality laws, we don’t give a damn. We still expect you to file this form. Otherwise we will throw you in jail in the US.’
(yes, there are potential criminal penalties for not filing this form…)
This isn’t exactly how a free society treats its citizens. It’s a constant threat of force with these people. Even the most mundane, bureaucratic tasks are cause for intimidation.
As I have pointed out so many times before, you can’t even apply for a passport (i.e. permission to leave the country) in the Land of the Free without being threatened with fines and imprisonment.
All of this has come at tremendous cost. Aside from permanent damaging the US government’s reputation and its role in the global banking system, the human cost is nearly incalculable.
Think about it– it’s not the Obamaphone recipients who are renouncing their citizenship and leaving the country. These are smart, talented, energetic people who could have actually contributed something.
And as this productive class gets out of dodge, they leave behind more people who want something for nothing… and fewer people to pay the bill.
It’s the same situation the Romans were in back in the 5th century.
Undoubtedly there are folks out there who would call the thousands of people who have renounced ‘cowards’ and ‘traitors’ (though they are in respected company given that the British considered George Washington a traitor).
But lest we judge ‘renunciants’ poorly, we should first ask– is it more honorable to lay down and let yourself be plundered by a bunch of blundering, bungling, deceitful politicians…?
Doubtful. Besides, divorcing yourself from your bankrupt, insolvent government is not the same as divorcing yourself from your culture or values.
You are who you are no matter what color your passport is.
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America is number one in health care.
Number one in education
number one in prosperity
For the top 30%, for sure. Not so sure about our trash-class in the bottom 70%.
Nothing keeps you safe from Putin, stupid fanboi.
Nothing keeps one safe from the plethora of unaccountable, untouchable federal agencies here, either. They can kill you or financially destroy you at will, and will spare no expense or resource to do so. All you have to do is get on their radar.
Putin gives you Polonium soup though.
Why do you worry about that, you have your kool-aid.
I'm not 'important' enough for Polonium. Polonium for me would not serve to intimidate the right group of fellow subjects. I'm also not rich enough for financial destruction, so for me it would be a team of jackboots with body armor and machine guns.
I have a son who teaches and lives in China. My observation is that on a daily basis most Chinese live freer than Americans. They report, document and pay taxes at a far lower rate than Americans. You cannot walk out and say the "The Chairman sucks!" but on a day to day basis they have far fewer government interventions. Their taxes are far simpler, lower and less intrusive. They use bribery to try and get restaurants and others to collect sales tax.
Freedom is a relative term these days. America is more prosperous...for now and primarily because of our head start. There is no guarantee it will last forever.
Say something in Swedish.
Also, you seem to pass yourself as quite the "expert" on Rassiah. Are you sure your "knowledge" about Russiah-the-Motherland isn't from RT.youtube?
Bork! Bork! Bork! - Swedish Chef
Laying on a bit thick?
The only nation where one can better oneself???
Upward mobility is not the forte of the US as it once was... All those bleeding heart socialist democracies have left it behind...
jack:
Me thinks you've been eating too much of that American Pie. The only place you can better yourself?
On what screwball scale can you come up with such a ludicrous assertion?
Number one id Education? HUH? 95% of the folks out there can't find their dick , never mind world cities. Are you talking about the US having world renowned universities ( also some of the worst). Yeah sure they do, but have you heard of Oxford or Cambridge or the Sorbonne?
I could go on, but rather than American pie, I suggest you try Humble Pie
"Number one in education
Number one in science
number one in prosperity"
Have you lost your fucking mind?! We are so far down the list on just about ever list there is, except deficet spending. If you are talking about an education at Harvard maybe. But our K-12 students are way down the list below many Asian and European countries in terms of education.
Only if you accept the PISA methodology, which doesn't control for the effects of educational streaming in non-US countries.
The US accepts a lot more that the world consigns to drudgery. Factor that out and the US would be at the top if not in the top 3.
+100 Jack.
The fish are practically jumping into the boat.
Looks like the Wookie Army has considered this a mattering topic with a viral downvote strain.
Somehow that is a way of saying exactly that.
If one can provide something going into that direction, well, that would be something indeed.
You speak Swedish and have family there and you think it's hard to migrate to Sweden? Wrong! Check their migrations verket website, it is quite easy to just submit a business plan and get over there. You have to invest, to create a business. Not *that* hard to do. Sweden is a fantastic country and at the top of my list. Very welcome. In fact on my last trip I spoke to a few people at random and said in English I am thinking t move to Sweden and resettle there and the overwhelming response is "WELCOME".
Sweden is considered the best place to live if you are a women.
Sweden is therefore considered the worst place to live if you are a man.
Misandry runs rampant throughout this country.
The fact that some fucknut politician in Sweden attempted to pass a law that required ALL MEN in public buildings to sit down while urinating tells me all I need to know about how unfriendly to men this country really is.
Sweden even has a nutbar far left feminist party onboard in the house making decisions and drawing up all sorts of ridiculous laws. Fuckers created a ratings chart for film based on if the movie is female friendly or not.
Jack, I don't know how to read your avatar. Either you're a female and thus I see why you'd want to move to Sweden, or, you're a dude and you have no balls.
Read it up folks, here is the truth on income tax. The 16th Amendment is a farce, it did not change the fact that direct taxes must be apportioned among the states by population (per head count). The income tax is an indirect tax, and this is how it works. The statutes place the income tax liability on the EMPLOYER and the federal collecting agent only (never on the employee). The liablity only commences when an employee fills out a W4 ALLOWING THE DEDUCTION. This way the money is between owners. The employer owes it, it is not his, and you have not recieved it yet, so it isn't yours. Read the W4 very closely. There is a section that allows NO deduction because you had a right (didn't have to get the refund) to a full refund last year, and expect the same this year. There, I just saved you from reading those long ass statutes (read it yourself anyway).
FATCA is a pain in the arse - if you have assets worth over $50k offshore you must report? Fuck me, that might buy one year of college. Why is the limit so low? So the US government knows where to seize your assets.
Foreign bank account and foreign transfers reporting - if you have a bank account balance $10k you must report your bank account numbers to US Treasury and the foreign bank must report this data also. (Which is why they hate doing business with US citizens.) $10k doesn't even buy you half a college year, again why so low? So they know where to seize your assets.
What amazes me is there so little push back by US citizens. As a resident, these reporting requirements just fuck me off.
And transfers of over $2k now must be reported by the transfer agent to the treasury. Clearly if you're transferring money offshore you're a criminal or terrorist. Fuck, you're lucky if $2k buys you one year of text books.
This is financial repression at its finest, just scares the shit out of me to find out what's next.
Shouldn't have tried circumvention in the first place.
Americans interests reflect the percent of GDP which is entirely domestic commerce. Something like 90%. Europeans' biggest economies are in the 60's at best, and let's recall these countries are both pretty small and contiguous with lots of other small trading partner countries. Export dependent economies also have plenty of reason to be mindful of the abroad. You can factor that in also the next time you hear the complaint that 90% of American don't "even have a passport!". Until pretty recently, one should add, Mexico and canada and a lot of those little Caribbean countries didn't require Americans to have a passport on them.
If you like your FATCA, you can keep your FATCA
ObamaPhone people can rig up a raft and sail to Cuba as far as I’m concerned. Watch for the Ophone reception to cut off 2 miles out. Good luck mouth breathers. It’s been nice knowing ya!
+ un millon!
ROR! Buena suerte mouth-breathers!
It's the old greedy fucks that think somehow they can take it with them on their final journey...
why don't we all e-mail our congressimbecile and senator on 4/15/14 to abolish the IRS
Re: abolish the IRS
Hey hey hey...., I don't know about YOU, but I'm living off the government and I need the loot the IRS collects from the dumbasses.
All of us living off of Big-Ag, Big-MIC, Big-Road, Big-Water, Big-Airport, Big-Energy, Big-Ed, Big-House, Big-Fin, Big-OldFart, Big-OldFartHealthcare, Big-AntiDrug, & Big-PoliceState need the IRS.
Do YOU know anybody living off of Big-Gov that might be just a bit pissed off if you took away their scam?
Yes we do. Just about every federal worker is unionized atop being unfireable. The govt unions contribute 10:1 or higher to Dems. The state government in California is entirely captured by the votes of unionized employees of bloated government, and of course those of the teaming masses of dependents they feed the bad habits of.
Head for the hillz, fishez! JonNadler's making sense!
LOL! Good to see you around.
Thank you Sr. Dochen, always a pleasure to read your posts, and with gold apparently making a come back Jonny will defintely be running for the hills
Yes, yes, Jonny the Brave. Oh, wait...
I'll be with Dennis Gartman hiding behind me, sharing a can of dog food, warming ourself on a fire fueled by treasuries, what can go wrong, you know?
What the MAyflower bringeth the Mayflower also taketh.
Some citizens are more respectable than others.
If you own multimillions you be true american if you own nothing but free will you be in true trouble.
Well here in lies the problem doesn't it. This is where the major class warfare is coming from. You see up here in Canada and most of the British or French empires I might add there exists a nanny state. You see a few decades ago it was thought that it might be a good idea to have all these social problems implemented when you had 5 people working for every one that was retired. Now with demographics changing all over the world as the boomers retire in mass you have a huge and burdensome issue. When the ratio reverses (as it has) it burdens all these other classes with having to maintain all the programs that the boomers started. Except as we know by now the numbers simply do not add up. Except it isn't that easy to tell a bunch of people that have paid into this huge ponzi all this time that well.......we can't meet our obligations. The fallacy was starting such programs to begin with and thinking that somehow they would be sustainable while at the same time ignoring looming demographical imbalances. As we know politicians are great at telling people what they wish to hear and not what they NEED to hear. ENormous wastes while times were good and credit was expanding did not help. You know saving for a rainy day.....or two.
The only way to sustain these empty promises is taxes. Lots and lots of taxes which inevitably turns a country from a capitalist society to a facist or communist society. The very thing that so called conflict wars have been faught over so to speak.
Round...round we go....where she stops.....
Re: This is where the major class warfare is coming from.
The top 20% owns 90% of the US, the bottom 80% owns the rest.
As long as the bottom 80% are fat dumb and happy, the top 20% has nothing to worry about. The welfare state keeps the dumbasses at the bottom fat dumb and happy, the system is working very well.
A big fight within the US borders will sort it out. Leavin' - its too late to leave ..
Not for the top 10%. It's very easy to leave when you have money.
It's also easy to track and return them with 21st century technology and weaponry.
If they try to leave, the people that are left will find a way to take out the 0 from that 10%.
Re: the people that are left will find a way to take out the 0 from that 10%.
The people that are left? The money of the top 10% is what matters. And, the top 10% is 30 MILLION people. The US society is designed to provide 30 million people with the highest standard of living on the planet. The top 10 - 20% manages the government and corporations for the top 10% and gets a nice fee for their efforts.
The bottom 70% or so, don't matter. They are the trash-class; 210 million worthless people that the nation doesn't care about: feature, not a bug.
The problem is that if that slice(at a given moment) were to leave in a relative hurry(say, ~5-10 years) and the 70% were left to govern, that forsaken part of the population would find a way to export the pain that was given to them.
They might be able to exit, but someone would be waiting for them at their destination. With the proper motivation and desire, the US would end up with a much larger-scale(think global) and much bloodier version of the French Revolution. That said, you might want to be really worried when the renunciation process requires collection of identifying material (full-body & face photos, fingerprints, blood, DNA swab). That's when they know people are leaving but want to collect them later and when that process is about to start.
When you vote a cocksucking communist into the White House, this comes as no surprise.
You mean the guy who said: "deficits don't matter" That guy?
Ahh, the goal is to kill the dollar and the Republic. Full speed ahead.
No, but it's how the freest one in the world, the United States of America, does treat its citizens - Mercatus ratings be damned. Gated communities are a rarity amongst rarities in the US, but they're required in the destination countries of more than a few expats.
Well, then you should have found a country that doesn't have such a provision - since we're not going to help you cheat on taxes.
They can be "handled" or replaced by smart, talented, energetic, persistent, and loyal/patriotic US citizens - whether the desired outcome for the renuniciant is room temperature or not.
False choice. You have effectively given up any say in fixing the US, opting for a less free, more corrupt country that views you as "fresh meat" if you venture outside the gated community. If you want to fix it, stay in the US as a US citizen.
-1
I was wondering why so few downvotes, but then I noticed the italics in the first sentence that apparently prevent voting.
A few years ago, I worked in Switzerland.
Not only did I pay full Swiss tax on my income (38%), and into their mandatory universal health care system; but recently they've turned over all my banking records to the IRS. Not the balance, mind you, the full history on the account. Uncle Sam now wants his pound of flesh from all the income I earned over there, plus penalties and interest of course.
None of my former colleagues from Britain, Germany or Australia have had a remotely similar sheering.
I would renounce my US citizenship if I had another passport.
Thank the people that have tried to pull fast ones on the IRS.
Their governments would rather protect their tax cheats.
Income tax is armed robbery, dickhead.
631 people renounced their US citizenship in the 4th quarter of 2013.
This is a several orders of magnitude lower than the 315 million+ who did not.
That's 631 united stateans way too many according to The Obamator.
You will be assimilated.
Get off the grid and hide in plain sight. That's my plan and I'll tell you how it all went at FEMA camp.
From the manuals of spies about hiding in plain sight.
--------------------
Assume nothing.
Technology will always let you down.
Murphy is right.
Never go against your gut.
Always listen to your gut; it is your operational antennae.
Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
Don’t look back; you are never completely alone. Use your gut.
Go with the flow; use the terrain.
Take the natural break of traffic.
Maintain a natural pace.
Establish a distinctive and dynamic profile and pattern.
Stay consistent over time.
Vary your pattern and stay within your profile.
Be non threatening: keep them relaxed; mesmerize!
Lull them into a sense of complacency.
Know the opposition and their terrain intimately.
Build in opportunity but use it sparingly.
Don’t harass the opposition.
Make sure they can anticipate your destination.
Pick the time and place for action.
Any operation can be aborted; if it feels wrong, then it is wrong.
Keep your options open.
If your gut says to act, overwhelm their senses.
Use misdirection, illusion, and deception.
Hide small operative motions in larger non threatening motions.
Float like a butterfly; sting like bee.
When free, In Obscura, immediately change direction and leave the area.
Break your trail and blend into the local scene.
Execute a surveillance detection run designed to draw them out over time.
Once is an accident; twice is a coincidence; three times is an enemy action.
Avoid static lookouts; stay away from chokepoints where they can reacquire you.
Select a meeting site so you can overlook the scene.
Keep any asset separated from you by time and distance until it is time.
If the asset has surveillance, then the operation has gone bad.
Only approach the site when you are sure it is clean.
After the meeting or act is done, “close the loop” at a logical cover destination.
Be aware of surveillance’s time tolerance so they aren’t forced to raise an alert.
If an alert is issued, they must pay a price and so must you.
Let them believe they lost you; act innocent.
There is no limit to a human being’s ability to rationalize the truth.
Good Lord, that list looks my everday operation while interacting with the wife!
Not my fault some people only operate, think and speak, like in Twitter tweets.
I don't have a wife.
I never tweeted or use that idiotic service except one time at #askJPM, and...
... sorry, I'm busy trying to think, speak, and operate.
You're either a noob or a verteran that was punted and is now disguised in noob clothing - 3 weeks, 2 days.
Meat: Didn't we discuss this a few months ago? Let me refresh your memory...
Own nothing in your name so it cannot be stolen from you.
Cheers
Yes we did and it was great advice.
Working on it, Angus. Working on it.
Question: To get my house out of my name do I need to start a shell company and have it "buy" my house from me?
Meat: I can't tell you what to do, only what I've done.
Talk to your lawyer about creating corps/trusts/etc. Let him/her know that your goal is to protect your property the same way banksters do it. Make it impossible for even your most ultimate fuck up to come back on YOU.
Corporations are people after all. They have feelings... until they don't.
Depends on your situation, Meat. I'm married and the wife is decidedly not on board. I love her though, so in my case, the homestead is not protected. I consider it hers anyway. To me, it's a fukin' money pit.
The commercial assets though, are the property of a corporation I control. It's fukin' stupid to have to do all this in the first place, but I didn't make the rules.
Many thanks, gents.
All the government has to do to initiate something obnoxious and repugnant is to give some people jobs to do something obnoxious and repugnant....This trend is universal by the way...
It seems to me that, unless you already have strong ties in another country, it is past time to be leaving. If you are going to leave, you're going to want to be in the other country long enough to be known and accepted by its people BEFORE SHTF. Otherwise, you'll just be another mark. I just doubt there is enough time to start fitting in with the locals.
All you need to do is speak the language fluently and be sensible about flouting/throwing money all over the place.
You can be invisible if you know how to do it.
On the other hand, there are those who are well to do and have been committing crimes here for quite awhile. They need and have an exit plan and that would consist of nice properties elsewhere and various advantageous legal views etc..
There is an old saying "The bed you make is the one you lie in".
There is a striking similarity to post-Apartheid South Africa in the above statement.
Love it or leave it?
Anywho, there's no where to run.
Besides, the headline should read, "Is this how society treats it's Free Citizens?" But if you're free, you can leave, right? So, um...
All I reckon is that citizenship is a FRAUD and legal presumption on behalf of the State. The State is a corporate fiction. Therefore...
Maybe, just maybe, running away from a corporate fiction validates it's existence.
It's a lot like this: now that you've got your freedom, (and bought the album) what the fuck are you going to do with it, biaatch!
Go drive around somewhere else, dick holes. Besides, I'll bet they all went to Scandanavia for a better Socialist experience. The only thing Simple Simon Black Jack is telling me is that a bunch of spoiled Yanks' pussies hurt. When Simon says how many Freedom Rockers ship out to Nepal or other countries without extradition treaties with the US, then, um, who fucking cares?
All I'm wondering is if there aren't 631 new enemy combatants asking to get a drone missile shoved up their running man asses.
Welcome to the terrordome, soverign citizens!
You are the dead. Remain exactly where you are. Make no move until you are ordered. Calling all citizens: Watch for the men running through the streets...
.
This leaves me speechless.