Patrick Henry might be most responsible for today’s America. The American colonist lawyer and Politian was one of the more radically opposed to the Stamp and Townsend Acts, insistent on a Bill of Rights protecting personal freedoms, and a leader in making a clean break from England (War!). To the modern day USA, USA, USA American, he is an icon. Goulet Pens and Noodler’s Inks devised Liberty’s Elysium ink in honor of Henry. Goulet operates from Ashland PA where Henry was from.
I just purchased a bottle to honor my own newfound freedom, freedom from America. Americans revolted from Britain largely over these taxes (Stamp and Townsend); CBT (citizen-based taxation), FBAR, and FATCA are my oppressive tax acts.
If you’ve not read my blog before and immediately see me as a hillbilly defending his still, please research the American expat plight. Please open your eyes to the loss of freedoms and liberties nearly nine million of us living outside the borders experience. Just as Americans left the British fold in 1776, I am a new breed of America leaving the American fold in the 2010’s. I have relinquished my citizenship and filed all my taxes. I am freer as a non-citizen than I was as a citizen, and by Patrick Henry’s calculation, I couldn’t be more American.
The ink is American Flag blue, more or less, and is used in Goulet’s logo. I love blue inks and have about a dozen bottles, but I don’t have any patriotic blues. I don’t have any blues that sing freedom to me when I write. I do have blues that make me smile when I write: I love my Bad Blue Heron, Eclat de Saphir, and Majestic Blue. But I wanted that perfect blue, a blue I could write a story or memo with, that would inspire me in whatever I wrote and would be agreeable to any person reading it, especially to me. I honestly don’t know if this is the blue, but I do love it.
I am not opposed to paying taxes. I want community services and protection. I believe in paying a government to serve me. But I do not believe in paying a government that does not serve me in any way, shape, or form. I live in Canada and I get zero services for my American tax dollars. The right to move there is not a service, it’s a right. Military protection is not a community service but an international one (my Canadian tax dollars go to Canada’s military which in turn help protect Americans). I get nothing from America and I ask nothing, and like every other country in the world, I should not have to pay or file taxes with a country I don’t live or work in. The USA taxing us is clearly taxation without representation (a vote is not representation; service is representation) and by giving up my rights to return, I am free of the IRS tax burdens. My pending retirement and future business ventures are safe. My foreign family is safe. At least they might be in another ten years after this Draconian statute of limitations runs out. I have nothing to hide from the IRS, but their 76,000 pages of tax law make that a moot point. One is never sure if they are completely compliant.
So I celebrate my freedom from taxation without representation with an ink representing personal Freedom. Every stroke reminds me what it means to be American (which I still am). Every stroke reminds me of my disappointment in and anger with my native land. Every stroke sing’s Patrick Henry’s words:
The situation of Canadian Citizens and Residents the US considers US persons; and the Canadian Government considers American Citizens living in Canada, even though they may have only lived in the US at birth in a hospital, or have been living in Canada for Decades:
Double Taxation (Canadian Tax + US Tax via Tax Treaty Gaps)
Without Representation (would never have agreed to it all – either in Canada or the US)
Without US Government Services (that US resident US persons may receive)
Without a Care By The Canadian or US Government For One’s Well Being (only about stick and compliance – and for Canada disregarding Canadian Sovereignty in face of US Extraterritorial tax and compliance law, and pretending Canadian law subservient to US law on Canadian soil!)
With Unfathomable Compliance (obligation to overlay the 76,000+ page US Tax Code on top of the Canadian Tax Code – with inevitable Tax Treaty Gaps through which Double Taxation flows through – such as on RESP accounts).
With Excessive Compliance Cost (see above – it all requires highly specialized assistance and can’t be done with TurboTax, and you don’t use that because of the potentially bankrupting penalties (that US residents do not face for their everyday accounts in the US if not done right).
Canadian Compliance + US Compliance costs. Plus no Canadian Tax Credits for extra US tax paid on Canadian income, investments, and tax breaks including Canadian tax deferred accounts.
With Excessive Compliance Penalties (The U.S. tax rules punish accounts and investments that are foreign to the USA. The Compliance Penalties for not reporting accounts right could be bankrupting even if no US taxes are owed. Plus the benefit of many Canadian investments become negated such as investment in Canadian mutual funds! Nothing less than US intervention into the internal affairs of Canada!)
This is not what Canada stands for in such treatment of its citizens and residents. Plus it is all UnAmerican, unfair, nothing to do with ‘liberty and justice for all,’ and it is wrong!
Any Canadians who the US considers US persons caught up in this must visit the message boards of The Isaac Brock Society and Facebook Citizenship Based Taxation and American Expatriates Groups; and consider donating to the Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit and contribute to citizenshiptaxation dot ca .
US citizenship should be about the greatest liberty in the world. Yet the truth is US persons living in Canada are tremendously disadvantaged by the US AND Canadian governments compared to nationals from all other OECD countries.
The US should join Canada and the OECD and adopt Residence Based Taxation.
The Canadian Government should end its discrimination by national origin against US persons and abide by the Canadian Charter of Rights – and not treat it as a scrap of paper! The Canadian Government should insist on tax treaty change that respects Canadian sovereignty and that provides comprehensive and future proof prevention of unjust US double taxation and double compliance of Canadian residents.
Congratulations John FREE Hanson! Thank you for all the words you’ve “penned” here and elsewhere over the past 3 years which have led anyone reading with an open mind to a better understanding of the insanity and profound injustice of US citizenship-based taxation. I hope you will continue to write about this because you do it very well and we haven’t reached the tipping point in awareness yet.
I have given up my citizenship, but I m still an American.
Yes. I only meant you are free from the tax burden. You can’t lose your American heritage and identity.