In Canada Capitulates on FATCA Agreement, http://bit.ly/1gcUqC9, Don Whitely writes
In signing an agreement spelling out the details of how Canada will comply with a U.S. tax law targeting Americans living in Canada, our country surrendered its sovereignty
He also says:
For the U.S., it’s arguably the most successful assault on Canada since the War of 1812. A close rival for
There’s lots more including the U.S. threats, the capitulation of Ottawa, how the banks dodged a bullet, the possibility of lawsuits, our sense of betrayal and more.
He concludes:
My guess is the Americans can’t believe they are getting away with this.
My guess is they are still celebrating at the success of their financial terrorism.
Thanks for posting, Blaze.
As I responded to Don Whiteley at Isaac Brock: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/02/10/bcbusiness-gets-the-canadian-fatca-capitulation-story-right-by-don-whiteley/comment-page-1/#comment-1086181
Thanks for your latest piece, Don Whiteley. You’ve taken your intimate knowledge with all of the puzzle pieces of and your ability to condense into this piece the absurdity of FATCA and US citizenship based taxation that has led to the sad loss of sovereignty for our country!
From a conversation that I had yesterday with another Calgary retiree, I want to pose a question as most here know the series of mistakes I made in having to choose renunciation over of my claim to relinquishment of US citizenship when I became a Canadian citizen in 1975. As you know, my telling my story and all the mistakes I made is so that others learn from my mistakes and don’t follow in my unfortunate footsteps.
If a person, as myself, who came to Canada decades ago, becoming a Canadian citizen and being told / warned that by doing so his/her US citizenship would be lost…
**********
in haste and advice from US tax professionals, enters into one of the so-called “amnesty” programs, thus back-filing requisite years of back US tax returns and FBARs…
**********
BUT has not made the other fatal *mistakes* (applying for and obtaining a US passport or voting in a US election), i.e. just wanting *to do the right thing*…
**********
Has that person now lost his/her right to CLAIM RELINQUISHMENT for that long-ago act of expatriation when he/she became a Canadian citizen — and lived his/her life as “only a Canadian”?
**********
We see persons able to claim their long-ago relinquishments even though they were “bullied” and intimidated at the border (as was I) into applying for and obtaining a US passport (as it is the US law that a US citizen must enter the US only on that passport, leaving aside the fact that this “law” was for the most part ignored by all but the most aggressive US border officials)…
**********
Is this unfortunate hasty decision, *in trying to do the right thing*, another act of ‘entering oneself back into the US’ with advice of a professional (as that is what we are told we must do by our Canadian government representatives to make our decisions: only with such such professional advice) that could be *excused* in claiming that long-ago relinquishment?
**********
i.e., persons like us who made a choice to come from the US to this country (or any other) and have lived our lives as Canadians, and without “professional US tax advice” would NEVER have otherwise made this *fatal* choice.