News Flash: The United States government is so desperate for cash that the IRS has put the RRSP back into the penalty base for the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative. You can read about here and at the Serbinski Forum (see comments by Tacova and tsanaha).
Imagine that. The United States is now raiding the retirement accounts of Canadians. Way to take the high ground Mr. Shulman. Way!
The United States keeps telling us that this is about punishing big tax cheats. Right. FATCA is about getting account information so that every single “United States person” resident in Canada can get FBAR fine for 50% of what is in their RRSP/TFSA/RDSP/RESP accounts. Are you watching this Minister Flaherty?
Yes, they can although I suppose it depends as to whether the country of entry will accept it. I do believe the US for example will accept a permanent residency card as valid ID for entry as well as many Carribean countries. Passport Canada does issue a passport like certificate of identity that can be used to re-enter Canada from non western hemisphere countries. The question is question is whether countries in Europe, Asia, etc would accept it. I suspect as a stateless Canadian permanent resident you could go to the country you trying to travel to Consulate in Toronto and apply for a plain old visitor visa and probably get if you have financial means. They call it a certificate of identity if you look at the bottom of the page I linked to.
http://www.ppt.gc.ca/pptc/documents.aspx?lang=eng
Tim, yes, all my friends who used to live in Canada have the very same RRSP problem as mine. But I am the only in in OVDI -:). Even my boss (who is a Quebec Canadian) also has RRSP and is waiting to hear my result -:).
I know most of them will have to stay underground in fears -:)
In the name of filing compliance, OVDI is totally the opposite.
@IJ
Good for them. Its ridiculous that people such as yourself have to put up with this. I would say the tech sector in Canada is slowly starting to expand to the point the major tech companies would probably want to keep a new Canadian citizen hire in Canada rather than go through H1B or TN. In terms of more high level position they might still want to transfer you to the US. Having said a lot of big tech companies are moving aware having everyone in one place anymore. I have heard of managers at places like Cisco in Kanata or Downtown Toronto who have most of the direct reports in the US working together through video conferencing.
Cisco does have a really cool R&D center in downtown Toronto.
@Tim, I suspect that the US might not accept the entry of a stateless person without some sort of a passport or “Salvoconducto” as it was called in Spanish when I lived in Peru. I remember that term. And not being a citizen of a visa waver country I suspect the person would have to obtain a US visa from US consulate in the US.
As I recall the US now requires passports for Canadian citizens, although since this requirement was implemented a year or two ago I believe there now is some other type of document that is required. I know you can no longer enter by a wave of the hand by responding “Canada” when the US immigration officer says “Where were you born?” like it used to be for so many years prior to 9/11.