Congress writes extreme civil and criminal penalties into laws
requiring US persons -- citizens, residents, corporations -- to
disclose income and assets. The excuse is always the same. We
can shut down criminal conspiracies by tracing monies. The
Internal Revenue Code has always included criminal provisions
because that's how they got Al Capone. The so-called Bank
Secrecy Act -- that's moviePig language for account holders
making required disclosures -- has civil and criminal penalties.

There is a tiny Treasury agency called FinCEN, Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network, that tracks assets. Don't kid yourself. These guys
are spooks, for Treasury has an espionage/counterespionage function
withing the US intelligence community.

On your tax return, there is a series of yes/no questions that, if you give
the wrong or false answer, you have admitted to a crime of failing to make timely disclosures on a different form. Assets in foreign accounts must be disclosed. There is an IRS form called FBAR, report of foreign accounts,
that goes to FinCEN. You are being treated like a criminal here.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar

Why would the federal government collect this information? You could b a
human trafficker. You could be an international drug trafficker.

You could be an immigrant who came from poverty and then thrived in the
United States through work and not committing any crimes whatsoever. You
might have monies in an account in the country you were born in. The
source of the monies was not from illegal activities. You aren't
suspected of any criminal activity.

A drug trafficker might shoot, but an elderly man won't.

I wonder whose assets they'll try to seize.

Institute for Justice case

https://ij.org/case/united-states-v-saydam/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahKSFTA3anA

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.16
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Congress writes extreme civil and criminal penalties into
laws requiring US persons -- citizens, residents,
corporations -- to disclose income and assets. The excuse
is always the same. We can shut down criminal conspiracies
by tracing monies. The Internal Revenue Code has always
included criminal provisions because that's how they got
Al Capone. The so-called Bank Secrecy Act -- that's
moviePig language for account holders making required
disclosures -- has civil and criminal penalties.

There is a tiny Treasury agency called FinCEN, Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network, that tracks assets. Don't kid
yourself. These guys are spooks, for Treasury has an espionage/counterespionage function withing the US
intelligence community.

On your tax return, there is a series of yes/no questions
that, if you give the wrong or false answer, you have
admitted to a crime of failing to make timely disclosures
on a different form. Assets in foreign accounts must be
disclosed. There is an IRS form called FBAR, report of
foreign accounts, that goes to FinCEN. You are being
treated like a criminal here.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar

Why would the federal government collect this information?
You could b a human trafficker. You could be an
international drug trafficker.

You could be an immigrant who came from poverty and then
thrived in the United States through work and not
committing any crimes whatsoever. You might have monies in
an account in the country you were born in. The source of
the monies was not from illegal activities. You aren't
suspected of any criminal activity.

A drug trafficker might shoot, but an elderly man won't.

I wonder whose assets they'll try to seize.

Institute for Justice case

https://ij.org/case/united-states-v-saydam/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahKSFTA3anA

Ah, another walk down memory lane.

Back last century, my pop and I both had accounts in
Canada since we usually visited Ottawa a couple or
three times a year. I'd send a few bucks up to my
account whenever I had a few extra $, ditto for him.
Sort of a lay-away plan for vacations. I don't think
the balance in any of the accounts ever made it near
$500.

We both had to file a form each year with the US
Treasury Department and check that box on the 1040
as Adam noted. Not too onerous, but kind of silly
for accounts with balances so small and hardly
nefarious purposes.

Then the Canadian feds put on a 15% non-resident
tax on the interest in those accounts. No extra
paperwork; they took it out automatically. Those
nice Canadians!

The final straw came when the Canadian dollar started
to tank. As the value of the Canadian dollar circled
the drain, we closed the accounts. I ended up spending
most of the declining dollars at Canadian Tire. I still
have the nice tool boxes I bought there for both of us.
I think the rest was spread between WH Smith (bookstore)
and a Dominion store bakery.

I imagine that a lot of people on both sides of the
border kept accounts in the opposite country for similar
reasons, especially those who lived/worked close to the
border. Innocent folks with innocent money used for
innocent purposes because it was convenient.

Leave it to governments to take all the fun out of things. :/

Nyssa, who still has some Canadian currency on hand, but
has no idea when she'll get up there again to spend it




--- PyGate Linux v1.5.16
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Jun 12, 2026 at 6:45:28 AM PDT, "Nyssa" <Nyssa@logicalinsight.net> wrote:

Adam H. Kerman wrote:

Congress writes extreme civil and criminal penalties into
laws requiring US persons -- citizens, residents,
corporations -- to disclose income and assets. The excuse
is always the same. We can shut down criminal conspiracies
by tracing monies. The Internal Revenue Code has always
included criminal provisions because that's how they got
Al Capone. The so-called Bank Secrecy Act -- that's
moviePig language for account holders making required
disclosures -- has civil and criminal penalties.

There is a tiny Treasury agency called FinCEN, Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network, that tracks assets. Don't kid
yourself. These guys are spooks, for Treasury has an
espionage/counterespionage function withing the US
intelligence community.

On your tax return, there is a series of yes/no questions
that, if you give the wrong or false answer, you have
admitted to a crime of failing to make timely disclosures
on a different form. Assets in foreign accounts must be
disclosed. There is an IRS form called FBAR, report of
foreign accounts, that goes to FinCEN. You are being
treated like a criminal here.


https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar

Why would the federal government collect this information?
You could b a human trafficker. You could be an
international drug trafficker.

You could be an immigrant who came from poverty and then
thrived in the United States through work and not
committing any crimes whatsoever. You might have monies in
an account in the country you were born in. The source of
the monies was not from illegal activities. You aren't
suspected of any criminal activity.

A drug trafficker might shoot, but an elderly man won't.

I wonder whose assets they'll try to seize.

Institute for Justice case

https://ij.org/case/united-states-v-saydam/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahKSFTA3anA

Ah, another walk down memory lane.

Back last century, my pop and I both had accounts in
Canada since we usually visited Ottawa a couple or
three times a year. I'd send a few bucks up to my
account whenever I had a few extra $, ditto for him.
Sort of a lay-away plan for vacations. I don't think
the balance in any of the accounts ever made it near
$500.

We both had to file a form each year with the US
Treasury Department and check that box on the 1040
as Adam noted. Not too onerous, but kind of silly
for accounts with balances so small and hardly
nefarious purposes.

Then the Canadian feds put on a 15% non-resident
tax on the interest in those accounts. No extra
paperwork; they took it out automatically.

But I'm sure they did it politely.

Leave it to governments to take all the fun out of things. :/

Government: always making things better.



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.16
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)