Canada’s Investment Executive makes a blitheringly stupid set of assumptions in “New rules make renouncing citizenship too expensive for U.S. expats“:

New U.S. expatriation rules, introduced one year ago, governing U.S. citizens or long-time green card holders who wish to renounce their American citizenship are serving as a disincentive for many to make the decision to give up their citizenship.

[...]

Under the rules introduced June 17, 2008, there is a deemed disposition of worldwide assets based on their fair market value on the day before expatriation. A 45% tax is levied on any capital gains above a 2009 capital gains exemption of US$626,000.

[...]

U.S. citizens and green card holders often choose to renounce U.S. citizenship in order to remove themselves from the U.S. tax regime, which, for one thing, obligates them to file a U.S. tax return every year even if they don’t live or earn income in the U.S. They may also make the decision to renounce in order to avoid U.S. estate tax.

Only “covered” expatriates fall under the expatriation rules. Covered expatriates either have a net worth equal to or greater than US$2 million, or have an average tax liability of greater than US$145,000 for the previous five years. Those who have failed to certify compliance with U.S. tax obligations for the last five years — including filing a U.S. tax return — would also be considered a covered expatriate.

Well, I’m a covered expatriate, since the last time I filed a US tax return was 2005. I also happen to be rather broke.

What is so glaringly wrong here are the assumptions made about prospective renunciants of US citizenship which seem to underlie the article:

• That someone with US$2m in net worth couldn’t be bothered to move their assets into structured offshore vehicles in advance of expatriation, and
• That renunciants wouldn’t just say “screw the IRS anyway!” and ignore the law — which is their right under any moral framework which does not permit theft, which is what taxation is.

Of course, the ruling class tools at the OECD and its hated Financial Action Task Force have made the first option increasingly difficult by putting the screws to those few remaining countries which continue to legally permit banking, corporate stock ownership, trust and other asset-holding relationships that allow for privacy, anonymity and tax avoidance. That said, there remain plenty of holes in the global taxation control grid which can be exploited — some legally, and some illegally.

PT combinatorics interlude:

• There are 203 states today. n=203
• For safety and security, you might like to hold an asset in situated in country A with its nominal (corporate, trust) ownership domiciled in country B, all while legally residing in country C. r=3
• Take P(n,r) = n!/(n-r)!, where n=203, r=3
• P(203,3) ~= 8,200,000
• That’s a whole bunch of chances to slide ’round the control grid!

Mind you, n doesn’t really equal 203, since there are some states where you’d definitely not want to hold assets or an ownership vehicle or reside, or combinations thereof. We’re still talking about big numbers here, though.

One last thing, from the article:

Every quarter, the U.S. government publishes the names of those who’ve renounced U.S. citizenship in a federal register.

Well, that’s the Federal Register, actually, but whatever. I’m still looking forward to seeing my name turn up, but it wasn’t there as of a month ago when I did a bit of searching online. Oh well. I don’t really care about the American state’s paper tiger actions with respect to me anyway.

I have two tasks:

• Exchange a quantity of Slovak koruna banknotes for euro notes
• Purchase a number of commemorative coins for a friend who is a collector

I hand over the banknotes, my card with my account number and my canceled US passport, asking to exchange the money for euros. The teller lady flips through the passport a few times, checking the data page and my visa page. She types in the passport number and confirms it against my account records on her computer screen, satisfied that they match. She then returns to look, curiously, at the four holes punched through the passport booklet, then picks up a telephone, signaling me to wait a bit.

Nope, that's not the guy.

A supervisor lady comes over. I tell her that the passport is canceled. She steps away to speak to someone out of sight for a few seconds, and comes back to tell me that they can’t accept the passport since it’s no longer valid. “I’m sorry,” I say, “but I probably don’t have any document, then, that will be sufficient.” I present my still-valid Florida driver’s license and the notarized copy of passport and visa I had made before the passport was canceled. No love. The supervisor steps away again, this time for about ten minutes. She’s on the telephone with someone.

While she’s away, I briefly address the teller, saying, “This is a matter of identity; I lost my citizenship, not my identity.” She just smiles emptily, and asks my patience for waiting.

The supervisor comes back and apologizes, saying that she’s spoken to the bank’s legal department. The passport can’t be accepted since it’s no longer a valid document.

All I wanted to do was exchange one pile of fiat currency for a different pile, and maybe buy some shiny metal tokens with the remainder. I didn’t even need any access to my accounts.

I wonder if, when the US State Department person was operating the hole punch on my passport, little wisps of smoke might have been observed coming out — magic smoke which wafted away, carrying my identity as well as my citizenship along with it.

There was a time when presenting ID at a bank was done for only one purpose: to verify that the person attempting to withdraw money from a given account is actually an owner of that account. Just ten years ago in the US I could walk into a bank and deposit cash or endorsed checks into any account, even one I didn’t own, without needing to present any ID at all. I haven’t tracked exactly what’s gone on in the US banking system lately, but with the introduction of POS fingerprinting and all manner of other “Know Your Customer” measures and such mandated under the guise of combating money laundering — which isn’t even a real crime — I imagine the situation there has only gotten worse.

You are not the bank’s customer any more. The bank’s primary customer is the state. You are just an epiphenomenon, fluttering about that core, corrupt relationship.

If the bank people wanted to serve me, they would have responded to my letter asking about alternative forms of identification differently than they did. Instead of saying, “you must bring us one of these official documents,” they could have said, “come to our office, satisfy us of your identity; we will then take your photo and put it in the computer, and establish a password by which you can access your account at the branch.”

Remarkably, I can log on to the bank’s internet banking website using nothing more than a password and GRID Card code. I can move money between accounts, issue payment orders, even invest in securities. Nobody even needs to see my face. Yet that same method of authentication is unavailable or unacceptable if I appear in person at the branch.

So, whatever. My collector friend won’t get his coins unless he can find someone else in Slovakia to deal with it for him. And I’ll phone up the guy I know who operates as a black-market money changer and see what kind of rate he’s giving on Slovak koruna notes. I’ll bet it’s still better than the official exchange rate.

Roderick, do I get Agorist Demerit Points for this, or issue them?

How can you sleep at night?

Merry Christmas, you fucking tool.

[My translation from original Slovak at the Priama ackia ("Direct Action") website. All errors mine.]

Priama Akcia’s call: “We don’t intend to pay for the crisis!”

Activism opportunity in Slovakia and the Czech Republic

12 November 2008

A world summit will take place on 15 November 2008 in Washington at which 20 of the most economically powerful countries in the world (including the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) will debate regarding reform of the global financial system. It is the day on which the elite will decide upon the salvation of capitalism. This meeting merits our attention because its outcome affects even us. Come what may, we are not going to just sit back and watch the whole crisis. There are many possibilities for beginning activism related to the crisis.

OUR POSSIBILITIES IN SLOVAKIA AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The politicians, bosses and bankers settle things and take care of their own. And we should do the same. The only way we can succeed in not being forced to pay for this crisis is to know ourselves, to have contact among ourselves and to help each other. The objective of this call is to take the first step toward presenting an approach to the crisis from the perspective of ordinary people rather than liberal economists and politicians.

We say this openly: ordinary people – workers, students, retirees and unemployed alike – should in our view take advantage of this global financial crisis to build contact among ourselves. Regardless of how or even whether the capitalists manage to salvage their system, the problems will not go away. They will always arouse discontent and the striving to resolve it by our very own energies. The current situation is an opportunity for establishing contact and thinking about setting up a contact network amongst ourselves. In the process the crisis can be built upon in terms of aid and solidarity regarding the various problems what await us in the near future.

CONCRETE ACTIONS IN OUR TOWNS AND WORKPLACES

During Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and subsequent days we will publish a flyer, a poster and a questionnaire at our website, www.priamaakcia.sk.

• We suggest distributing flyers basically everywhere. Places where people gather (cafes, clubs, etc.) are good, but distributing them in trains is also very good. All you have to do is get on before the train leaves, throw a few flyers into the cabin and get off before departure. Quick and effective.
• Posters for transport stops, schools, workplaces and elsewhere can also draw attention to this activism.
• The questionnaire will be able to be filled out right on a web page and is part of an international project by militant workers. More information coming soon.

Only two things are needed for anyone to get involved in this activity immediately: the urge to do something and the ability to print out materials. These will be prepared in PDF form for open download in Slovak and Czech. Even now you can talk about activism options with someone near you with whom you might be able to do something today, tomorrow or the day after.

OTHER ACTIVITIES GOING FORWARD

Other activities are planned as well. If you want to get involved, let us know at priamaakcia(at)priamaakcia(dot)sk. We will provide information on the website about further activism opportunities and we would be especially pleased if more people – including readers of this text – took part in our ideas. Should you get involved in any way (such as by distributing flyers), please let us know.

We can’t count on chit-chat saying that the crisis will impact us to a weaker extent than it will other countries. The fact is, it’s already impacting us through layoffs at US Steel, in the auto industry (the firms Riba Nitra, Dura Stupava and Johnson Controls), in machining (PPS, Embraco), etc. This will by no means be where it ends…

For spreading this call farther – among your acquaintances, friends or colleagues, via discussion forums, blogs, web pages, myspace, hi5, facebook or other information channels – we thank you in advance.

This is the impulse. What else, and how, is up to you.

WE DON’T INTEND TO PAY FOR THE CRISIS!
Watch www.priamaakcia.sk

PRIAMA AKCIA
Priama akcia (“Direct Action”) is the Slovak branch of the International Workers Association (IWA), a confederation which unites trade unions and initiatives from 16 countries of the world as a membership base.

Besides having a rather lousy September in terms of billings, this comes today from the editor of a magazine I do translation and proofreading for, published by the company that is my biggest source of income:

Many clients have cancelled their advertising. Basically, the magazine lives [off revenues] from Slovak companies, with a few from abroad, as you have surely noticed. And there was a high percentage of banks and insurance companies….

Oh boy…

There was also a news story today about J&T Group — a major investment bank in the Czech Republic and Slovakia — cutting sale prices for new luxury apartments in a huge new project it is building on the Danube riverfront by something like 40%.

Rough waters ahead.

The author (YouTube page) writes at his blog:

You are being used. You are being exploited. You are a slave, and you are kept only comfortable enough so that you will not notice. You are regularly misled, propagandized, and all out lied to.

You, as a human being, are nothing but a faceless resource to the moneyed power structure that controls modern banking and politics. You are a drone, a pack-horse, a conspicuous consumer.

When you no longer can labour, when there is nothing left to strip mine, like Boxer in Animal Farm you are left to simply die in the fields.

I think you deserve better. I think we all deserve better. And I’m here to make sure that we get it.

This analysis resonates with me. I don’t agree with everything in the video, but it has plenty of merit nonetheless.

Hat tip to Talley.

The Slovak post sent back a form letter listing the documents they accept. Worthless, as none of the options I presented were addressed. No big deal, I went yesterday and executed a power of attorney entrusting my friend with picking up any certified or “hand deliver” mail pieces I might receive in the next year.

My ISP basically told me that there shouldn’t be much call for me to identify myself to them, but that if I needed to then my driver’s license should be acceptable. Of course their letter didn’t address whether or not my Florida driver’s license would be, so there will be another power of attorney to handle that relationship.

Very likely I’ll use the same power of attorney to delegate authority to deal with my relationships with several other companies as well. The bank is the tricky one, as I’d like to make the power of attorney specify that my agent shall only be able to act in my name if I am present and assenting, perhaps with reference to an incorporated photo. I don’t think I’ll be hand-rolling that one, but will get some counsel.

Meanwhile, from the agency responsible for my visa, a somewhat incomplete but relatively soothing reply:

So, assuming that they believe I am the person in the photos of me they have on file and accept the other various documents I have related to who I am as valid, now I know where to apply for the 1954 Convention Travel Document.

Could be worse.

Lack of bank note paper threatens Zimbabwe economy

The country, already suffering hyperinflation, is on the brink of financial collapse, analysts say.

HARARE, ZIMBABWE — It has come to this: Zimbabwe is about to run out of the paper to print money on.

Fidelity Printers & Refiners, the state-owned company that tirelessly churns out bank notes for the Robert Mugabe regime, was thrown into a crisis early this month after a German company stopped supplying bank note paper because of concerns over Zimbabwe’s recent violent presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent by international observers.

The printing operation drastically slowed. Two-thirds of the 1,000-strong workforce was ordered to go on leave, and two of the three money-printing shifts were canceled.

The result on the streets was an immediate cash crunch.

“If you think this currency shortage is bad, wait two weeks. By then it will be a disaster,” said a senior Fidelity staffer, who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity because he would face dismissal and possible violence for talking to a Western journalist. The paper will run out in two weeks, he said.

The Zimbabwe dollar (Z$) has the dubious honor of being the world’s current Least Valued Currency Unit, currently over Z$200 billion per weakened, flailing US$, and with an exchange rate rising at billions per day.

Folks must be looking back fondly to just a few months ago when a beer went for a very reasonable Z$95.6 million…

As usual in the tame media, the timid approach to the cause of the phenomenon is buried at the end:

Everyone at Fidelity Printers knows the money printing is propping up Mugabe, the staffer said.

People read this, and think that inflation is some sort of natural disaster, like a tornado or earthquake, something that just “happens” to an economy. It is not. The money isn’t “propping up” Mugabe, it’s a symptom of Mugabe and his cronies stealing as much of the economy as they can get their hands on.

I could go on, but I don’t really expect anything more from the LA Times.

Day of Reckoning? Super Rich Tax Cheats Outed by Bank Clerk

Technician in Liechtenstein Turns Over Names of Americans With Secret Bank Accounts

Heinrich Kieber, fuckface extraordinaire

Hundreds of super-rich American tax cheats have, in effect, turned themselves in to the IRS after a bank computer technician in the tiny European country of Liechtenstein came forward with the names of US citizens who had set up secret accounts there, according to Washington lawyers investigating the scheme.

The bank clerk, Heinrich Kieber, has been branded a thief by the government of Liechtenstein for violating the country’s bank secrecy laws.

[...]

Kieber reportedly sold three CD’s full of names and data to tax authorities to 12 countries including Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and the United States.

Nice going, fuckface.

Let’s be clear on one thing. There is no such thing as a “tax cheat”.

“Cheating” on your taxes is the moral equivalent of telling a mugger you have no more money than what’s in your wallet when you’ve got a wad of currency crammed between your ass cheeks.

Kieber’s Washington lawyer, Jack Blum, says Kieber should be considered a whistleblower and a hero, not a thief, for revealing how the super rich hid billions of dollars using the Liechtenstein bank.

So let’s see… steal from your employer, violate the privacy of your customers, turn the data over to the biggest and most ruthless gangs of muggers the world has ever known, and you can count on at least one jackass lawyer to call you a hero.

The persistent inversion of all human values continues unabated in the comments on the article:

every person and I mean every person, should be prosecuted and made to pay all back taxes on those sums in offshore banks. I am sick and tired of the rich getting richer by not paying their fair share of taxes

Fair share? A fair share would be a capitation.

The criminals are those who choose to live in this country and run their vast corporations here, yet violate this country’s tax codes in order to add millions on top of their billions. The hero is the guy who blew the whistle. Only the self-serving elite would attempt to blur the distinction

Consider me one of the self-serving elite, then, but just you go ahead and try to locate my billions, buster.

Too often the only way corrupt behavior can be exposed is by the brave actions of a whistle-blower.

Tax is corruption. “Brave”? Ha! The guy stole from his employer and sold the data. We have things to call that, but “brave” isn’t one of them.

Why don’t we make it illegal for US citizens to have accounts in Liechtenstein and with the Swiss for that matter until they make public the account information to the IRS. We should sanction these governments just as we want to do with any rogue nation such as The Sudan. there is no way these rich CRIMINALS should have a safe place to hide their money.

Why don’t we make being a dumbass illegal? And who said anything about CRIMINALS anyway, other than Mr. Fuckface who sold out his customers? Ah that’s right, if someone has more than you do, they’re a criminal. I done gone and forgot the whole “Robin Hood” ethic.

Where can I send a small check to this guy to help him out?

You can address it to me, and I’ll forward it to him. Promise.

Karma works!

That’s right. And I have a flying pony.

I hope that the IRS does something with the information. Tax cheats really irk me- these are the true non-productive members of our society.

Oh, someone, STOP THE INSANITY!!!

Similar letters (minus the final paragraph) are going to the post office, my bank, mobile phone operator and internet service provider. I’ll post the results as they come in.

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