invisible

Title says everything. Article on Washington Post.

P.S. If you read WP from time to time, clear your cookies before opening the link. WP is payware and allows to read just two articles per month.

GUWonder

Extensively discussed here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/check...l#post25753654

And yet another thread on this:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-passport.html

There are good reasons to be opposed to this Congressional proposal that seems to be on the verge of becoming law. Read the above links to get a window into the issues involved.

daniellam

Say a US citizen who is living abroad (in a low tax jurisdiction where there won't be enough taxes to offset against the US tax as a foreign tax credit) falls behind on their US tax and gets their passport taken away, how would they be able to return to the US to serve their prison sentence for not paying their taxes?

Or would they be exempt from the passport requirement so they can enter the US to go to prison?

GUWonder

It's discussed in the other thread which was linked above. This proposal is about punishing people with alleged civil debts to the IRS.

Civil debts to the US/IRS don't come with US prison time any more than unpaid library fines or unpaid medical bills come with US prison time.

The Congressional proposal to revoke/deny passports would apply to otherwise free people who have not been found guilty in a court of law where people are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. US nationals/citizens abroad are eligible for restricted passports to return to the US even if this proposal becomes law.

Those who are wanted or convicted for criminal non-compliance with US tax laws are already subject to being prohibited from leaving the US and subject to arrest on arrival to the US. But this Congressional proposal in the bills is being pushed to punish people who haven't even committed a crime and may even eventually be found to owe no money to the IRS/UST.

There are serious concerns over the lack of due process involved if this Congressional proposal becomes law effective January 1, 2016. This proposal was buried at near the tail end of a huge, expensive transport bill and included as a gimmick related to how we finance our roads. Congress couldn't even get this passport proposal into law as a stand alone item so they buried it into a bigger bill that has nothing to do with passports except as a financial gimmick and negotiating point between different parts of Congress.

US dual-citizens will still be able to travel in and out of the US even if this becomes law. This proposal will hit hard those US-only citizens most down on their financial luck. The rich and well-connected Americans have been supplied with advice on how to get around the world even if/when this becomes law.

Tchiowa

Yup. The rich can be delinquent on taxes and still get tax supported jobs or subsidies. Based on recent articles it appears that half of MSNBC talking heads are delinquent in their taxes. If you have money, influence or power (none of which I possess) you play by different rules than the rest of us.

GUWonder

http://gawker.com/too-broke-to-pay-y...owe-1744121390

The sarcasm hits the spot. In the meanwhile, famous lawyer/power broker Lanny Davis (former special counsel to a former President/White House) is helping to sell his connections on the idea of picking up another citizenship and associated (non-US) passports. Go figure.

GUWonder

An article about the history of this:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwo...hostage-legal/

So the government is more interested in denying passport acquisition to possible debtors than to deny gun acquisition to possible debtors or even to those on terror watchlists.

Most of the Americans on terror watchlists would still be entitled to have a US passport, even as those Americans who lack the means to pay off a debt or challenge an IRS debt claim in a timely manner would be denied a US passport. The irony of that, even as (lack of) due process concerns are applicable to both.

GUWonder

The passport denial/revocation has become the law of the land effective January 1, 2016.

erik123

What would happen if you are a dual/triple/quadruple citizen?

GUWonder

Same as done by those who faced denial for child support arrears above a certain amount but aren't ordered into custody: use the foreign passports to travel around, preferably starting and ending flights in Canada or Mexico.

Yoshi212

Let's see how fast this gets changed if Warren Buffett's tax bill gets called in.

In my opinion it's too punitive for the average man. If someone has $10k in debt (for example purposes only) and his/her passport gets suspended I think it's an abuse of authority. But if someone had a rather excessive and repeated history of tax debt I can see this as a coercive way of getting the tab settled. The problem is that the law may be written with the intent of getting large unpaid tax debts settled but will be used more on the average person while people with smooth talking lawyers will continue the behavior.

GUWonder

I am not counting on it getting changed. Few in Congress will be willing to fight this for a change back to the current status quo which had worked for the USG for several decades and then some.

Most people with tax debts in large amounts that go unpaid and would be subject to being hit by this new law's passport revocation/denial are those who are amongst those least able to pay the debt and/or retain lawyers/tax specialists. The rich and well-lawyered have easy ways around such laws and avoid taxes in far bigger amounts than the vast majority of those who will be getting passport denial/revocation notices and have little to no ability to pay and/or settle/dispute the IRS notice of liens/levies (if they even get those notices).

Boraxo

Not only can you lose your passport, you can lose your right to board an airplane if you live in New York, Minnesota, New Hampshire or Louisiana

http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/14/tech...estic-flights/

Welcome to the no fly zone, courtesy of the US Congress

GUWonder

I doubt that the US Congress is going to allow DHS to stop all such persons from flying within the US with a state ID. DHS has been threatening to do this kind of thing and it has not yet succeeded.

Then again, some in Congress had been threatening to deny/revoke US passports to civil debtors, and they finally got their way -- despite the party change in majority control of Congress. That said, there are people who have an easier time acquiring a US passport than acquiring a state ID -- since identified US citizens with proof of US citizenship don't need to prove residency in order to acquire passports. This is going to be an issue with some Americans who end up with a restricted passport to the US yet have crippled ability to stay abroad legally but have nowhere else to go. Lots of Americans abroad, for example, have little to no ability to currently provide evidence of state residency; and so the allowance to get a state-issued ID drops off. This could even compromise voting rights.

The Administration could take issue with this Congressionally-passed item, because foreign policy (and passports are a foreign policy item if there ever was) is the domain of the Executive, and claim that it need not enforce this provision. Not that they will -- they won't, and they plan to enforce it.

Given the statue of limitations for IRS debt collections on civil debts is generally ten years (unless taxpayer fraud is involved or the statute of limitations is tolled on other bases), the international travel restriction/domestic stranding applies for ten years from date of IRS assessment of the debt.

This passport denial situation will now remain in place just as the 1996 welfare reform package's child support passport denial program did. Unless the Court intervenes, my bet is that additional categories of supposedly free Americans will be added to passport application blacklists. What other categories of persons are easy targets for US passport denial? If someone can claim this will raise revenue and it targets an easy target, why not expand the approach to ground even more Americans into America who are free to travel the US but not as free to travel the world?

Take this as a signal that US citizens should consider acquiring citizenship/passports from more than just the US. And I say that as a prior opponent to dual-citizenship allowances.

Yoshi212

NYS residents have already been given a 1 year moratorium from this and othe states at least 6 months. Just another reason I use my GE/Nexus IDs instead of a state ID for TSA.