Our FATCA briefs are finally showing at the Parliament of Canada website about Bill C31.
These are comprehensive and well-thought out and presented. They tell the real human story behind FATCA, provide excellent analysis and offer solutions.
There may be more to come after they are translated, but this is a great start.
Most importantly, these convey one overriding message:
We are Canadian!
Well done everyone! Together we can make a difference.
Not all of the briefs are about FATCA. The ones that are 58kb are all on trademark. A few of the others are on trademark or other issues.
Thanks to Em over at Brock for realizing these were posted on Victoria Day.
Thank you everyone and thanks Lynne, for the links to the submissions.
Our #FATCA briefs r showing on Parliament of Canads website http://t.co/AePbNFyxzq Overriding message “We r Canadian.”
To make it easier for people to identify which briefs relate to FATCA, here is a list:
Atherton, Brock, Frantz, Herman, Hudson, Mencke, Moody’s Gartner Tax Law (2), Office of Privacy Commissioner, Portfolio Management Association, Power, Rem, Richardson, Sampson, Swanson (3), Tapanila (2), Weisel
If more are posted, I will add those names in another comment.
Moody’s is Roy Berg’s firm, along with Kim Moody.
I really enjoyed reading John Richardson’s brief – very well put together and raises all of the right issues.
Hi All. I have read many of the briefs and they all make logical sense. I strongly agree with the FATCA issues raised. I strongly agree that any resident of Canada regardless of citizenship should be exempt. Is anyone in the Canadian government (Harper and his Cons) taking this seriously? Do they have their minds made up and are humoring us? Do the Canadian government have any logic??? Has there been a decision to fully review FATCA and the effects of FATCA on Canada and its residents in detail? Is there a date for this? I feel anxious and discouraged.
@ Lynne
I like your reference to Queen Victoria. Obama needs to have his nose rubbed in that. He hates all things British (which is one of the many reasons I hold him in such disdain).
I suggest you look up an American investment analyst named Porter Stansberry. I don’t have a paid subscription from him, but in his and many other emails I receive, FATCA is referred to as “Obama’s law”. This is how it should be, and it has been my view all along. He campaigned on it and was one of its original proponents. In any case, even if it were not his idea (which I doubt), he signed it into law, and therefore takes executive responsibility for it as president.
Unless he admits to the errors of his ways, and retracts on FATCA, I will despise him until my last breath.
Just as an aside, I have been in contact with some current ongoing issues in the Falkland Islands. I have a January 2015 trip planned for that overseas British territory. What I have learned is that the Falklanders, for their own particular reasons, hate Obama’s guts too. The Islanders there want to remain subjects of the crown (as effectively we do, by wanting to be Canadian), but Obama has proclaimed himself as “neutral”, which from their point of view, might as well be pro-Argentine.
Obama had the statue of Winston Churchill removed from Washington (another reason why I can’t stand the sight of him). Like I said, he hates all things British. I would guess, for that reason, he would hate the participants in maplesandbox.
Hi SC, I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling anxious and discouraged, but you probably know you’re not alone in that. Try not to let it keep you down. Sometimes this situation get the best of me, but I try to not to stay that way for too long.
IMHO, our government’s logic for signing the IGA was that it was the easy way out- 1) it would be too much work to actually delve into the ramifications and do a proper cost/benefit analysis, and then negotiate with the US, and 2) making the big bank’s/FI’s happy by protecting their profits.
Yes, I think they’re humouring us – however I still feel it’s very very important that they know we are watching, listening and judging. If we don’t write letters, if we don’t respond to the ridiculous propaganda articles, if we don’t call them on their behaviour and their decisions, then they don’t know we’re out there.
If they were taking this seriously, they wouldn’t have buried this in the midst of a huge bill, hoping to slide it in.
We must stay vigilant. We must stay strong. I, for one, will be donating to the Charter Challenge Fund, because I do belief we will have to go that route.
Thanks Outraged.
We are all hearing about the opposition to FATCA due to going against human rights. Has anyone asked Obama and has he responded as to whether he believes that non-US resident living an honest life are criminals and should be treated as such? Has he clarified any of this? Has he hinted that he is not looking for these people and will leave them alone?
A very interesting read. This is a U.S. prospective on FATCA.
Tuesday, 18 March 2014 10:47
http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/item/17868-obama-tax-scheme-could-destabilize-banks-spark-economic-crisis
Has the Obama administration considered this? Does he want to single-handedly take down the U.S?
@SC, I remember way back reading an article that someone, a professor from BC, I think, who wrote Obama (and others) with what it was doing to his family’s life. Last I heard, he’d received no response.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think Obama has commented specifically on FATCA since he signed it into being in 2010.
The IRS mouthpieces certainly have, though, trying in vain to justify it.
@ OutragedCanadian,
That would be Maury Williams. Here’s some links:
CBC: The Current. 8 September 2011 audio
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2011/09/08/irs-us-tax-law/index.html
CTV: 17 September 2011 print article
http://www.ctvnews.ca/u-s-tax-evasion-crackdown-unfair-to-canadians-flaherty-1.698944
Don Whitely followed up with Maury in October 2012 in a really good in-depth print article in BC Business .
http://www.bcbusiness.ca/finance/us-tax-laws-the-long-arm-of-uncle-sam
Em over at Brock picked up that more briefs are showing on the website today. Bell, Davies, Hall, Smithson, Stuart, Swetlow.
These join the earlier ones: Atherton, Brock, Frantz, Herman, Hudson, Mencke, Moody’s Gartner Tax Law (2), Office of Privacy Commissioner, Portfolio Management Association, Power, Rem, Richardson, Sampson, Swanson (3), Tapanila (2), Weisel
I don’t know how any elected official can read these and vote for the Implementation Act as it is currently written.
More very eloquent and moving briefs. If Mr. Stuart’s letter doesn’t resonate with the politicians it will prove they have no heart.
@Pacifica777, thank you. It’s good to re-read his story. It really brings home how long this fight has been going on!
Outraged: I have seen no indication this government has any heart.
That wa’s evident from the smarmy attitudes of the Cons and Finance Canada. “Congress has spoken…It’s a done deal.”
Maurice Williams. He realizes he got some very bad advice early in the process. He never had a reply from Obama.