Many Canadians want to cruz out of American citizenship with the same ease Senator Ted Cruz can ditch Canadian citizenship.

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(Article changed on January 8, 2014 at 19:49)

The Honorable Ted Cruz
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
USA

January 8, 2014

Dear Senator Cruz:

You are confusing your fellow Canadians.  First you denied you were a Canadian citizen. Soon you begrudgingly conceded you were one. "Technically."  Oops.

We understand why this pesky citizenship could be an embarrassment for a

Canadian-Cuban-Texan-American Republican.  Canada has everything you and your Tea Party comrades detest--gun control, same sex marriage, multiculturalism, abortion rights, constitutional equality for women, French and snow.

Worst of all, Canada has your nemesis--"socialized" medicine--which provides health care to all Canadians. How  much more radical could a country possibly be?  

So this annoying citizenship from being born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father might dash your U.S. political ambitions.

The question is: What's taking you so long to ditch Canadian citizenship? 

Last week, one Canadian immigration lawyer said if there are no security or mental health issues, your renunciation should go "lickety-split." Another one said if you could show you would not be stateless by renouncing Canadian citizenship, "then you're rock "n' roll, and good to go."

You yourself said months ago that renouncing Canadian citizenship was "no big deal."

Many patriotic Canadians are taken aback by that cavalier attitude towards our cherished citizenship. But, we and our government respect your right to make that decision with no further obligation to Canada.

Cruzing in Reverse:

While you can easily cruz out of Canada, Canadians  wanting to do the reverse--shake free of American citizenship--are crashing into a collision course of financial obstacles.

Some Canadians were born in the United States when parents were there temporarily. "Border babies" were born there simply because it was the closest hospital for their Canadian mothers to give birth decades ago.

These Canadians are "accidental Americans" because of a quirk of their birth. Or, to use your term, "technically" Americans. Like you, they have lived their entire lives as citizens of just one country--Canada. Some are now in their 80s and 90s.

They, like you, were shocked and dismayed to learn another country considered them citizens. Much worse was learning that country demanded they should have been filing income tax returns to United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on their entirely earned Canadian income.

Instead of making it easy for these Canadians to renounce US citizenship, IRS demands five years of U.S. income tax returns from them. There is usually no tax owing, but accounting and legal fees are exorbitant.

Even worse are demands "US persons" file Foreign Bank Account Reports (FBAR), detailing all assets over $10,000 held in Canadian financial institutions. Failure to do so can result in massive financial penalties of the greater of 50% of the value of the account or $100,000.  This includes accounts held with Canadian-born spouses or business partners..

Finally, IRS is trying to force its way into Canada with outrageous demands that Canadian banks and other financial institutions give IRS information on total assets, account balances, transactions, account numbers and other personal identifying information on all "US persons" in Canada under U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). 

I can imagine your screams if Canada tried to demand you and your banks provide anything similar on the accounts you and your American-born wife hold.

U.S. Congress and IRS show utter contempt for Canada and other countries around the globe as they launch their FATCA attack on laws, constitutions, financial institutions and people worldwide.

In addition to "technical" Americans, IRS is also after: 

Naturalized Canadian citizens who were told by US Consulates three, four or five decades ago that they were "permanently and irrevocably" relinquishing US citizenship by becoming Canadian citizens. They have lived as Canadian citizens only since then. 

Canadian citizens born and raised in Canada by a parent who was born in U.S. (similar to how you were raised in United States by a parent born in Cuba)

Naturalized Canadian or American citizens with dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship, but only Canadian income;
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Canadian citizens who temporarily worked in U.S. on a Green Card

Some Canadian "snowbirds" who support U.S. economy spending winters in southern states, but with no U.S. income and paying taxes to their homeland--Canada.  

President Obama and Senator Carl Levin insist we are all a bunch of tax-evading traitors and criminals because we have legal checking, savings, retirement, education, and disability accounts in the communities where we live, work, retire, save, invest--and pay taxes.

Why Not Renounce?

So, why don't we simply renounce our US connection like you plan to do with your Canadian citizenship?

 Not so fast, says Congress, IRS, and US Treasury.

Give us five years of IRS returns. Show us your FBARs. Tell us your total net worth. Pay us penalties for not doing it before. Sometimes worst of all: Give us a huge exit tax.

Will You Help Your Fellow Canadians?    

Senator Cruz, you should be able to "rock and roll" out of Canada "lickety-split" with no further obligations to your country of "technical" citizenship.

Even though you don't want to be one of us, will you do one thing for us before you leave us?

Will you use your position as a US Senator to give Canadians with some bizarre US connection a "lickety-split" option to relinquish or renounce U.S. citizenship so they can maintain their honest, productive Canadian lives without intrusion of a foreign government?

Please help us to be able to "rock and roll and be good to go" away from American citizenship--just as you are able to do with Canadian citizenship.

If you don't want to do it for us, here's another good reason to do it. It will tick off your adversaries President Obama and Senator Levin.  Finally, if you really want to send Obama and Levin into a tizzy, you could work with Senator Rand Paul to Repeal FATCA.

Best wishes as you cruz out of Canada. Please help us cruz out of United States.

Lynne Swanson
Canadian Citizen and Former American Citizen (whom US is trying to reclaim)

Authors Website: http://maplesandbox.ca

Authors Bio:
Lynne Swanson is a retired human resources manager, writer and blogger. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, she has been a Canadian citizen for 40 years.