US Putting The Squeeze On All Other Nations To Report Income From Americans And Expats.

URL and to post comments: http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2014/5/23/is-this-the-end-of-the-st-kitts-nevis-citizenship-program.html Friday,May 23, 2014 [Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Berwick] The US Government has many goals for the future, and one of them is to simply never let their citizens out of their sight nor their tax web. That's why the many legal passport programs offered throughout the world must be dismissed as shady and dangerous, even though they are perfectly accepted and legitimate programs. Uncle Sam simply wants to know where your capital is and make sure you don't try to take it outside of its tax base under any circumstance.  ST. KITTS-NEVIS UNDER US RADAR To this end the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) released new guidance this week warning US banks against working with individuals holding passports from St. Kitts-Nevis.  This is merely the most recent in a long-line of US directives to hamper business worldwide in the fight against "money laundering." Of course, if you're one of the US government's cronies, or pay a big enough percentage of the money laundered to the authorities via "fines and penalties" (read: operating expense), then you've got a green light... St. Kitts is merely one nation of many offering "citizenship-by-investment" programs. Nonetheless, it has caught the attention of FinCEN. By simply making a financial investment in the country, an investor can receive citizenship for themselves and their family. The program, which enables investors to receive a passport from St. Kitts in as little as six months is attractive to those investors who are looking to get a second passport quickly for a variety of reasons including wanting to renounce their current citizenship and escape the worldwide taxation imposed on them by the US government. According to FinCEN, certain individuals are using the St. Kitts-Nevis passport program "for the purpose of engaging in illicit financial activity." FinCEN goes on: "Financial institutions can mitigate exposure to such risk through customer due diligence, including risk-based identity verification consistent with existing customer identification programme requirements." The US government in recent years, through legislation such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), has implemented legislation to efficiently collect taxes from those citizens whose money is held abroad. The advisory, dated May 20th, states, "FinCEN believes that illicit actors are abusing this programme to acquire St. Kitts-Nevis citizenship in order to mask their identity and geographic background for the purpose of evading US or international sanctions or engaging in other financial crime." Although FinCEN admits that Citizenship-by-Investment programs are common, it says the St. Kitts-Nevis program in particular is problematic. "While many countries offer programmes similar to the St Kitts-Nevis Citizenship-by-Investment programme, the St Kitts-Nevis programme is attractive to illicit actors because the programme, as administered, maintains lax controls as to who may be granted citizenship." Prime Minister Douglas said the Citizenship by Investment Program is "one of the oldest in the world and the most credible to date in the world; it is the leading programme globally and we could not have attracted these accolades if there wasn't something that we were doing that wasn't right...And so from time to time you do have these situations where a citizen of St. Kitts-Nevis is being investigated." FinCEN's scrutiny comes after The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Wednesday that the economic recovery in St. Kitts-Nevis has "gathered momentum." The IMF's Judith Gold said that the economic growth in St. Kitts-Nevis reflects a “pickup in tourism, a strong expansion in construction activity related to large Citizenship-by-Investment (CBI) inflows, a substantial increase in public sector investment, and impetus from the People Employment Programme (PEP)”. FinCEN TRIES TO MANAGE TIDE OF RENUNCIATIONS FinCEN shares a common interest with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Whenever a US citizen gets a second passport and renounces his or her citizenship, the US government loses track of money and potential tax revenue. This is a major problem for the biggest, most indebted empire in world history. FinCEN is reacting to a brain drain taking place, not from Ethiopia, Haiti, Cuba or any other "poor" nation, but from the good ole' USA. Renunciations from the US reached a new high in 2013 breaking all previous records and 2014 looks set to surpass it. This is not the first, nor likely the last, attack by the US government attempting to make it harder for their citizens to get foreign citizenship.  As we have detailed in the past, the US put great pressure on the Dominican Republic to make them change their citizenship rules from requiring a three year residency prior to applying for citizenship to now eight years. As well the US government has been putting pressure on non-tax or low-tax jurisdictions to increase their taxes so as to make it less attractive for US citizens to expatriate to that country.  This happened recently with a CIA-backed coup in Paraguay in which income taxes were raised from 0% to 10% just days afterward. THE DOORS ARE CLOSING Your average American has no idea of what is going on in this area.  Your average American has a middle-class job and doesn't even have a passport nor has ever even traveled outside of the US.  However, those with substantial assets and higher incomes who transact internationally are seeing doors closing at every level. The SEC has made it all but impossible for an American to open a brokerage account outside of the US for years.  Now, with FATCA, it is very difficult for an American to open a bank account outside of the US.  And, as we can see with St. Kitts and in the Dominican Republic the US government is trying to make it more difficult for Americans to get a foreign citizenship. The doors are closing. And, the US government is bankrupt and will soon be feasting upon American assets in a desperate attempt to stay alive a little while longer. Those Americans who have been trying to do business internationally are seeing the walls close around them... yet, because the average American is not aware of it - and worse, would be happy to hear that the walls are closing to keep those assets of "the rich" inside the US - the US government is receiving little to no opposition to all these actions. Now, more than ever it is important for those in the US with assets to look to get their assets out of the US before the walls close completely and to get a foreign passport while it is still possible.  All of these actions should have people running not walking for the exits.  If you are interested in getting out of dodge and ensuring the safety and prosperity of your family, then let TDV help you through the process today of obtaining a second passport.  Discuss St. Kitts & Nevis Further With Other Dollar Vigilantes

Anarcho-Capitalist.  Libertarian.  Freedom fighter against mankind’s two biggest enemies, the State and the Central Banks.  Jeff Berwick is the founder of The Dollar Vigilante, CEO of TDV Media & Services and host of the popular video podcast,Anarchast.  Jeff is a prominent speaker at many of the world’s freedom, investment and gold conferences as well as regularly in the media including CNBC, CNN and Fox Business.