Here is the proposed legislation to enable FATCA IGA in Canada, which is called Legislative Proposals Related to the Canada-United States Enhanced Tax Information Exchange Agreement Implementation Act.
I don’t pretend to understand all the legalese, but this jumped out at me:
Inconsistent laws — general rule
4. (1) Subject to subsection (2), in the event of any inconsistency between the provisions of this Act or the Agreement and the provisions of any other law (other than Part XVIII of the Income Tax Act), the provisions of this Act and the Agreement prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.Inconsistent laws — exception
(2) In the event of any inconsistency between the provisions of the Agreement and the provisions of the Income Tax Conventions Interpretation Act, the provisions of that Act prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.
Four lawyers have confirmed this means where this new law is in conflict with existing Canadian laws, the law to enable the FATCA IGA will prevail over all other federal laws except the Charter.
That means that this law will supercede Canadian banking, privacy and human rights laws.
This means our only recourse may be a Charter challenge. Scary thought. That could be long, messy and expensive if we have grounds for a challenge. Some of us are exploring our options in that regard. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, be sure to get your submission into Finance Canada before the deadline of March 10 to let them know what you think. Also lobby your MPs hard to prevent this law from ever being passed.
I truly did not think we would ever see the day when this would happen.
Long time cosevative voter. From here on out , the best candidate that is not consevative.
@disala: I’ve heard a similar comment from many others. It’s important you get that message to your MP (especially if he or she is Conservative) and that you get that message to the Conservative Party itself.
I e-mailed my Con MP asking how he will vote on FATCA. He didn’t even acknowledged the e-mail. Of course, in his one and only reply to me over the past 30 months was a Fact Sheet reminding me of my obligation to file FBARs. So, I don’t expect anything from him.
Another local MP has boasted to one of his constituents what a great deal the IGA is for Canada. They really do think we are dumb.
They can’t use federal laws to override laws that are in the provincial jurisdiction. For example, a provincial privacy law applying to a provincially based credit union can’t be run over by the Federal Government. As such, the law as it is worded is running over matters that are strictly in a provincial jurisdiction. Provinces like Quebec should be up in arms about this. I think writing to provincial governments such as Quebec telling this is an assault on their own provincial privacy laws might be a help,