http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22708711

Ok, I get that this was probably a little more thuggish than the IRS standard operating procedure, but it got me thinking. Do US citizens in Canada have to pay US taxes (e.g. is there any income level above the FEIE at which Canadian taxes are lower than US taxes)? Because if so, I don't see a lot of difference between paying taxes to fund the US military and paying taxes to fund the Eritrean military.

Anyone know which law they're referencing in the article when they say "It's against Canadian law"? Does it have to do with sanctions, in which case the above paragraph misses the point, or does it have something to do with dual taxation?

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Main difference is that it is easier to bully Eritrea than US?

Yes, of course US citizens living in Canada have to pay taxes if they owe the US government. It's US law, you know that.

The article & press release don't say what Canadian law, but extortion comes to mind. This wasn't a tax by the Eritrean goverment though, it was a simple demand for citizens to pay up.

Of course, when I saw the article yesterday I immediately made the connection between the new $450 renunciation fee and what it's really funding.

Further comment from IBS
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/05/...mail/#comments

That emphasized bit being the thrust of my query. Generally speaking, if income tax rates are higher in Canada than in the US, there is no tax liability and so it becomes a non-issue.

Except for the cost of filing in the first place. I doubt an Eritrean tax form ever runs over a hunded pages.

Indeed, one reason I dumped the US citizenship was that I was tired of filling out forms to show that I didn't owe them any money (and this was before FATCA).

Tom

It was a racket. The Eritrean goverment was soliciting these "taxes" after being ordered to stop by the Canadian government. The money was being collected (in part at least) to fund the Eritrean military. As quoted in The National, "The scheme was considered illegal "because the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on the Eritrean military four years ago over its ties to armed groups in the Horn of Africa, notably Al-Shabab, a regional affiliate of al-Qaeda."

In addition, I read a few days back in a CBC news article that the Eritrian consular officials were using threats of a personal nature (ie. your family could come to harm) in collecting this money. One Eritrean expat actually went on the record (using his name, etc.) and recounted how they came back, time and time again, to solicit more money. I thought that was pretty brave of this fellow.

According to today's NZZ, there are more than 20,000 Eritreans registered in Switzerland, with 5,721 having applied for asylum so far in 2014:

http://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/mehr-eritr...-je-1.18407050

Eritrean citizens abroad must pay taxes on income earned outside of their homeland. The Swiss government should monitor whether the Eritrean consulates in Switzerland are coercing Eritreans here to pay these taxes and, if so, take appropriate actions to stop these unlawful practices, as did Canada.

What about the mighty US, should they stop these unlawful practices?

At least Eritrea is taxing its citizen at 2%, the US is however a lot a lot a lot more greedy!

In 2011, Susan Rice, the UN representative of the only other country that collects a diaspora tax from its citizens abroad, led the charge to condemn Eritrea for taxing its diaspora and using the proceeds to destabilize the Horn of Africa. UN Resolution 2023:

"10. Condemns the use of the ‘Diaspora tax’ on Eritrean diaspora by the Eritrean Government to destabilize the Horn of Africa region ....

11. Decides that Eritrea shall cease using extortion, threats of violence, fraud and other illicit means to collect taxes outside of Eritrea from its nationals or other individuals of Eritrean descent ...."

That just might be a case of the kettle calling the pot black.

They've toned down the rhetoric as well over the last couple of years.

http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/04/...rights-report/

The Aargauer Zeitung is reporting on the Eritrean Embassy's illegal collection of the diaspora tax. For Eritreans in Switzerland to obtain services from the embassy in Geneva, they must prove that they have paid the 2% diaspora tax, which is due on all forms of income, including social welfare. The Swiss federal authorities are aware of this illegal collection practice on Swiss territory but claim to lack sufficient proof to proceed against the embassy:

http://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/schwei...chen-129413779

There are 23,000 Eritreans in Switzerland of which 91% are on welfare. This means that the Swiss taxpayer is ultimately paying most of the Eritrean diaspora tax illegally collected in Switzerland.

Fedpol has issued a complaint ("Strafanzeige") against Eritrean tax collectors for collecting taxes from Eritrean citizens on Swiss sovereign territory, according to today's Tages-Anzeiger:

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/schweiz/...story/22297099

As an US and Eritrea parallel, Americans have to sign papers with the banks that they are OK with their accounts info being sent (by the banks) to the IRS or they will be denied financial services. In the Eritrean case, the Eritrean Embassy is the reinforcer of the worldwide income tax compliance. Do Eritreans have an income threshold like the Americans (all of the $1200? source of level CIA page) before the tax is triggered?

It's discrimination against Americans. The Bundesrat should have known better than to sign FATCA. Weicheier.

Eritreans residing abroad pay a 2% tax on all income earned, including welfare. The tax form used by the Eritrean Embassy in Washington DC is at this link:

http://www.embassyeritrea.org/consul...gibri_2012.pdf

Although the US Administration's Susan Rice led the charge to condemn Eritrea for its diaspora tax, it apparently continues to allow it to collect from its citizens in the US. It would be rather hypocritical if it claimed that the Eritrean tax was illegal while it collects from its own citizens abroad.

Or a brilliant strategy to initiate change and rectify the policy of financial discrimination against US citizens in Switzerland.

A refugee costs Swiss taxpayers CHF 1'500 per month, or CHF 18'000 per year, according to 20 Minuten. Since Eritrea taxes its citizens abroad on all income, it would claim about CHF 360 per year in taxes from its refugees in Switzerland, with its taxes ultimately paid by the Swiss taxpayer.

http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/news/story/24467345

Eritrea has progressive income tax rates ranging from 2% to 30% but I have not been able to locate a tax table. If we took a mid-rate of 16% and applied it to the average income of $1,200, this would yield the Eritrean government $192 from an Eritrean living in Eritrea.

If these refugees were unemployed in Eritrea and paying no income taxes there, it would obviously increase the Eritrean government's tax yield to encourage unemployed (and also average earning) citizens to emigrate to Europe/ Switzerland and obtain social welfare. Moreover, citizens abroad cost the home country nearly nothing since services are not provided abroad.

I am sorry if I am quite direct: Do you have any idea why people flee from Eritrea? The government claims for decades to be in a state of emergency (because it feels threatened by the bigger and stronger neighbour Ethiopia). As a result did they introduce a military service. The difference to the Swiss one is that it is unlimited - so you can serve your country for your entire life... and it is not limited to actual army or security work. If you are a farmer is there a good chance that you do your farming as a "soldier" serving your local general who takes all the profits. It's essentially a completely defunct fascist state and normal salaries and tax tables don't exist anymore - people are slave-like forced labour.

Those men collecting the tax in Switzerland and elsewhere? They do not do so from Eritrean citizens who are happy to support the motherland - they extort it from refugees with threats of things that might happen to their family members back home.

The country is one of the worst places on the planet for a very long time now. Too bad that they don't have oil fields otherwise we would bring them democracy (TM).

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