Monthly Archives: June 2014

What Is The FATCA Question and CRA Guidelines

FATCA

Stephen Kish has a thread over at Brock on What Are The Questions Banks and other financial institutions will be asking.
Question
 
The information being posted is alarming. The questions being reported include:

 
 
 
SCOTIA BANK: “Are you a U.S. person for tax purposes?”
TD BANK CANADA TRUST: “Are you a U.S. citizen” AND “Where were you born?”
HSBC CANADA: “Do you hold multiple citizenship” AND “What is your place of birth”
CIBC: Local branch will receive info July 2.
BMO: “Do you have any other citizenships” (tentative per @Anne Boleyn) Continue reading What Is The FATCA Question and CRA Guidelines →

My Letter to the Editor at Beach Metro News

FATCA

I asked Beach Metro News to publish our ADCS press release, but they said it was against policy. However, the editor told me that if I was to write a Letter to the Editor, it would go into the next edition of the paper. Sure enough, he featured it prominently on page 6 with a headline he added that couldn’t be better. Perhaps our gang could go make some comments 🙂
Click here to make comments on the online version:
GwEvil’s Letter to the Editor

Beach Metro News, Tues, June 24th, 2014
Beach Metro News, Tues, June 24th, 2014

"Uncle Sam is Shaking Me Down" – Margaret Wente, Globe & Mail

FATCA

As we expected, more articles ( here and here ) are appearing as FATCA nears, a mere week from today. By passing the IGA in time for FATCA’s debut, the Canadian government not only managed to cow-tow just in time, it managed to screw it’s duals/Accidentals a little tighter as the span to comply shortened. The IRS did its part beautifully, announcing relaxed opportunities to comply June 18, just two weeks before the deadline. The condor compliance industry must be licking its chops as feeding time begins and now will last and last and last.
Margaret Wente lived in the US until she was 14 so guess what? Tainted with US citizenship and by God, now it’s time to pay!
download (2)
Welcome to the nightmare of U.S. citizens abroad. There are hundreds of thousands of us in Canada, and millions more worldwide. Most of us are law-abiding people. But the U.S. government is treating us like tax cheats. It also says that any “U.S. person” (meaning anyone born in the United States, or even anyone with American parents) must keep filing U.S. tax returns, forever – or else.
Continue reading "Uncle Sam is Shaking Me Down" – Margaret Wente, Globe & Mail →

Patrick Cain Article "Appalled, incredulous and angry"

FATCA, IRS, ,

On the Global Calgary website, I ran across a new article by Patrick Cain, called  ‘Appalled, incredulous and angry’: Canadians slam law giving IRS personal info
“More than 100 people wrote to the federal Finance Department in February and March slamming a new Canadian law that would require banks to give the IRS  financial information of clients with apparent U.S. citizenship.
They got no response from Ottawa.”
‘Appalled, incredulous and angry’: Canadians slam law giving IRS personal info
He mentions several letters, as well as the detailed analysis by Allison Christians and Arthur Cockfield.
Let’s hope this is just the first of many such articles laying out the truth of what the Conservatives have done.
(Do I detect an undertone of outrage and sympathy?  Or is it just wishful thinking on my part?)

It's Done. FATCA Has Royal Assent in Canada. We Are Second Class Canadian Citizens

FATCA

It’s Done. FATCA has Royal Assent in Canada, is officially the law of Canada and we are now officially second class citizens in our own country.
Here is a cross-post from Brock: Implementation of the US FATCA IGA has been given Royal Assent by Canada’s Governor General, June 19, 2014.
FATCA was not even mentioned in Finance Canada’s statement. That is how insignificant the Cons and Finance think we are.
The media remains silent. As Calgary411 asks:

How is this possible in a country that calls itself a democracy?

Next Stop: The Courts.  We need your donations to make that happen!
 
 
 

Reminder – Solving US Citizenship Problems – Halifax & Fredericton – June 23 & 26

FATCA

Update
These seminars will include discussion and analysis of the IRS “relaxed opportunities” for people to come into compliance.
 
All Brockers and Sandboxers in the area(s) are encouraged to attend and bring their families and friends!
 

  • Monday,June 23,Halifax NS, 6-8pm,6135 University Ave,Rm 1102, Marian McCain Arts & Social Sciences Building,Main Campus across from Arts Centre MAP

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  • Thursday,June 26,Fredericton NB, 6-8pm, 10 MacKay Drive,UNB, Marshall d’Avary Hall, Rm 322, MAP

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Here is What Canadians Said on FATCA IGA. The Cons Didn't Listen.

Canadian Information and Resources, FATCA, , ,

Canadians told the government what they thought of FATCA. They told our government the emotional, financial, physical, mental, emotional, family, personal and human cost.
They told them the legal and political ramifications. They pleaded and they raged.  They sent short submissions and long ones.
They stood up for themselves and for Canada.
The Cons didn’t listen. In fact, they didn’t even receive the over 430 pages of submissions sent to Finance Canada.
In March, I made a request for those submissions to Finance Canada under Access to Information.
I asked if copies would be provided to MPs. The answer was no.
I asked what the purpose was of Finance asking for the submissions if our elected representatives would not see them before they voted. I did not receive a reply.
I asked for copies before my testimony at Finance Committee on May 13. That was denied.
I asked for copies before the MPs voted so I could forward it to them. That request was delayed.
I finally received over 400 pages of submissions almost three months after my request and on the very day (June 12) the House of Commons voted. I will let you decide for yourself if you think that delay was intentional or not. I know what I believe.
For privacy purposes, all names and identifying information were removed before sending it to me. The only names included were Allison Christians, Arthur Cockfield, John Richardson, Stephen Kish, Kim Moody, Roy Berg, Vincent Gogolek (Executive Director of B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association) and Lynne Swanson.
The submissions all tell individual stories. Almost all are from long-time Canadian citizens–including some who have been Canadian citizens their entire lives. There are some duplicates in the submissions.
Most of the submissions are restrained considering what this has done to out honest, law-abiding lives as Canadians. One submission consisted of two sentences and may sum up what many of us feel:

“I am totally against this U.S. invasion of Canadians’ privacy. I can’t see it surviving a Charter challenge, so why not just tell the U.S. to shove it.”

Here are the submissions. Because the file was so large, Outraged had to break it into eight sections to post.
Access to Info – Section 1      Access to Info – Section 2     Access to Info – Section 3
Access to Info – Section 4      Access to Info – Section 5     Access to Info – Section 6
Access to Info – Section 7      Access to Info – Section 
 

 
 

 

Eritrea Collecting Money For the Dictator From Expats in Canada

FATCA

The CBC is reporting Eritrea Collecting Money For The Dictator From Expats in Canada.
It is despicable what is happening to this woman and other Eritreans in Canada.
But, I have difficulty understanding why the media can see how wrong this is and yet call long-time Canadian citizens “tax cheats” who need to “come clean” to another foreign country.
That same Canadian media sees nothing wrong with a foreign country seizing our banks records with the full cooperation of Canadian government and banks.
What am I missing?  More importantly what is the media missing?

IRS "Amnesty" Barrie McKenna Globe and Mail Urges Canadians to "Come Clean"

FATCA

The IRS today announced an “amnesty” for special streamlined filing procedures that it says will give “thousands of people a new avenue to come into compliance.”

Barrie McKenna of the Globe and Mail (IRS eases rules for U.S. expats living abroad to come clean) says:

The United States is making it easier for U.S. expatriates – including many Canadians – to come clean on their back taxes just days before a planned crackdown on foreign financial institutions takes effect.
 

Umm Barrie. We have nothing to come clean about. We are Canadians.We are NOT “U.S. expatriates.”
Why is that simple concept so difficult for Canadian and American governments and media to understand?
Barbara Shecter of The Financial Post (U.S. Tax Officials Remove Risk Assessment and Unpaid Tax Limits To Encourage Canadians Compliance) says the IRS “is relaxing the rules to “induce” Canadians to comply.
She also lets us know the IRS Commissioner wants us to “sleep at night.“

Michael Danilack, a deputy commissioner at the IRS, said the changes should mean those affected  “can sleep at night,” knowing that they comply with U.S. rules and no longer face the prospect of financial penalties even if they owe no taxes.
“I’m assuming many of them are worried,” he said during a conference call Wednesday to discuss the revisions. “These are exactly the types of folks we would elect to be coming in [through the new] streamlined procedures.”
 

Mr. Danilak, the only thing that will help us sleep at night is for you and your International Robbery Service to get completely out of our honest, law-abiding lives as Canadians.
Of course, these Canadian newspapers neglected to advise that Canada Revenue Agency does not and will not collect for IRS on any Canadian citizen.  That could detract from their more important role of being the mouthpiece of the IRS in Canada.
 

Expatriate Americans Break Up With Uncle Sam to Escape Tax Rules

FATCA

Our own Noble Dreamer in the news. Wall Street Journal reports:
Expatriate Americans Break Up With Uncle Sam to Escape Tax Rules
By LIAM PLEVEN and LAURA SAUNDERS

“Ms. Moon is among record numbers of Americans cutting ties. U.S. offices abroad reported that 1,001 U.S. citizens and green-card holders had renounced their allegiance in the first three months of the year, according to Andrew Mitchel, a lawyer in Centerbrook, Conn., who analyzes Treasury Department data. That figure puts 2014 on track to top last year’s total of 2,999 renunciations, he said, which was the most since the government began disclosing the data.”