I just noticed the government responded to a written question request from NDP MP Hoang Mai on FBAR yesterday. However, I cannot find the actual text of what the government’s response was anywhere on Hansard. Anyone have any advice where I should look. This is the link below to yesterday’s journal.
Tim – Good work. I think the reference to pursue is at the end:
Sessional Paper No. 8555-411-412.
I don’t have time to go after that now. You or someone else in our fantastic crew will probably have that tracked down by the time I make it back on line in half-a-day or so?
I’ve also sent this as a follow-up to my February 7th email to Mr. Mai:
From: “calgary411”
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 10:12 AM
To: Hoang.Mai@parl.gc.ca
Cc: Michelle.Rempel@parl.gc.ca ; Mike.Sullivan@parl.gc.ca ; Minister James Flaherty ; US Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson ; Gary Doer, Canadian Ambassador to the USA
Subject: Q-4132 — January 26, 2012 — Mr. Mai (Brossard—La Prairie)
Good morning, Mr. Mai.
Further to my February 7, 2012 email below, could you kindly update me with the answers you’ve gotten to the questions below – or refer me to a place where I can find the answers.
I await the answers to the questions you have asked, Mr. Mai. Thank you so much for doing so.
Q-4132 — January 26, 2012 — Mr. Mai (Brossard—La Prairie)
— With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) response to the provisions of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regarding the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA):
(a) according to the government’s analysis, do the FATCA provisions comply with the provisions of the Convention Between Canada and the United States of America With Respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital and its amending Protocol (2007);
(b) how many citizens from the United States of America will be affected by FATCA,
(ii) are there specific Canadian exemptions to FATCA;
(c) has Canada negotiated with United States Treasury officials or the IRS following the announcement of FATCA provisions,
(i) at what time was the government made aware of these provisions,
(ii) how long did it take Canada to respond to the initial creation of FATCA and its implementation,
(iii) are there ongoing negotiations in this regard;
(d) will Canada inform dual citizens about FATCA and, if so,
(i) how,
(ii) at what time,
(iii) what department or agencies will be responsible;
(e) has the government conducted any studies or mandated a task force to look into how much FATCA will cost Canadians and, if so, what are the cost implications resulting from the additional regulations and demands,
(i) for the government,
(ii) for the CRA,
(iii) for Canadian banks,
(iv) who will absorb these costs,
(v) are there other types of non-financial costs such as efficiency or fairness reductions;
(f) which Canadian civil liberties associations or other types of association has the government met with to discuss the privacy implications of FATCA and what actions will the government undertake to protect the fundamental civil liberties of all Canadians in this regard;
(g) according to the government’s analysis, do the FATCA provisions comply with the provisions of the Privacy Act or the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, and if so, which department undertook this assessment;
(h) in order to discuss the implications of FATCA, who within the government has met with
(i) Canadian banks,
(ii) other financial institutions,
(iii) insurance companies;
(i) how many complaints has the CRA received regarding FATCA,
(i) what are the main complaints,
(ii) what has the CRA done concerning these complaints,
(iii) what department at the CRA is in charge of dealing with complaints of this nature,
(iv) will the CRA cut Full-Time Equivalents from that department or reduce its funding,
(v) has the office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman looked into the matter;
(j) has Canada ever studied the development or implementation of a process similar to FATCA to improve tax compliance involving foreign financial assets and offshore accounts;
(k) who will be most affected by FATCA and have concerns been raised by entities such as, but not limited to,
(i) interests groups,
(ii) stakeholder groups,
(iii) hedge funds; and
(l) will FATCA affect different saving vehicles such as, but not limited to,
(i) Registered Retirement Savings Plans,
(ii) Registered Education Savings Plans,
(iii) Registered Disability Savings Plans,
(iv) Tax-Free Savings Accounts?
I hope to get back to you on this shortly. I think I have an answer, but I am consulting my expert friend.
Just to note there were two question asked by the NDP. One was about FBAR which was responded to yesterday and one on FATCA which is still outstanding.
I have the sessional paper as PDF but I don’t know how to post it to this blog. Any suggestions?
As an Author (which Petros can set up if that hasn’t been done yet), these are the steps I used to post a pdf to a new blog:
Dashboard, Posts, Add New, Upload/Insert
I believe the government has also responded to the NDP question on FATCA. I will try to get the number of that sessional paper also.
The FATCA response is in Sessional Paper No. 8555-411-413.
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For reference sake, here is the link to the PDF rec’d as the Harper government’s ‘answer’ to NDP MP Mai’s questions tabled in Parliament:
Here is the ‘response’ that NDP MP Mai received:
ORDER/ADDRESS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
Q-413 Mr. Mai (Brossard-La Prairie) January 26, 2012 1 26 janvier 2012
MAR 1 4 2012.
http://isaacbrocksociety.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/irs-fatca-q-413.pdf
which schubert posted here:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/03/19/cra-replies-regarding-fatca/
Revisiting this post, I realized that we also needed to publish the answers to MP Mai’s related question, Q-412 which dealt with FATCA, the FBAR and assistance in collection, etc..
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=1&DocId=5448576
Questions on the Order Paper
Questions inscrites au Feuilleton
Pursuant to Standing Order 39(7), Mr. Lukiwski (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons) presented the return to the following questions made into Orders for Return:
Conformément à l’article 39(7) du Règlement, M. Lukiwski (secrétaire parlementaire du leader du gouvernement à la Chambre des communes) présente les réponses aux questions suivantes, transformées en ordres de dépôt de documents :
Q-412 — Mr. Mai (Brossard—La Prairie) — With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) responses to the provisions of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regarding the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR): (a) according to the government’s analysis, do the IRS provisions comply with the provisions of the Convention Between Canada and the United States of America With Respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital and its amending Protocol (2007); (b) are there Canadian exemptions to FBAR; (c) has Canada negotiated the FBAR provisions with United States Treasury Officials or the IRS, (i) at what time was the government made aware of these provisions, (ii) how long did it take for Canada to respond to the changes made by the IRS and the United States Treasury; (d) how will the government ensure that the CRA does not act on behalf of the IRS to collect revenues and penalties; (e) has Canada informed dual citizens about their tax obligations resulting from FBAR; (f) what was the number of exchanges of information between Canada and the United States of America this year and during the past ten years regarding FBAR, (i) has the CRA set internal deadlines to be able to respond to exchange of information requests in a timely manner, (ii) will Canada work to improve bilateral cooperation on this issue, (iii) has there been an increase of exchange of information requests at the CRA due to FBAR; (g) will the government lose revenue as a result of the implementation of FBAR; (h) what are the cost implications emanating from FBAR (i) for the government, (ii) for the CRA, (iii) for Canadian banks, (iv) who will absorb these costs, (v) are there other types of non-financial costs such as efficiency or fairness reductions; (i) how many complaints has the CRA received regarding FBAR or related vexatious inquiries by the IRS, (i) what are the main complaints, (ii) what has the CRA done concerning these complaints, (iii) what department at the CRA is in charge of dealing with complaints of this nature, (iv) will the CRA cut Full-Time Equivalents from that department or reduce its funding, (v) has the office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman looked into the matter; (j) will FBAR prevent double taxation of pre-migration gain; (k) has there been an increase in arbitration cases due to active procedures by the IRS, (i) what departments are most affected, (ii) has the CRA cut Full-Time Equivalents from each of these affected departments or reduced their funding; (l) will FBAR affect different saving vehicles such as, but not limited to, (i) Registered Retirement Savings Plans, (ii) Registered Education Savings Plans, (iii) Registered Disability Savings Plans, (iv) Tax-Free Savings Accounts; and (m) how many Canadian-American dual citizens are affected by FBAR and does Canada have contact information for the dual citizens affected by FBAR? — Sessional Paper No. 8555-411-412.
Q-412 — M. Mai (Brossard—La Prairie) — En ce qui concerne les réponses de l’Agence du Revenu du Canada (ARC) aux dispositions de l’Internal Revenue Service (IRS) en ce qui a trait au Rapport sur les comptes bancaires étrangers (FBAR) : a) selon l’analyse du gouvernement, est-ce que les dispositions de l’IRS respectent celles de la Convention entre le Canada et les États-Unis d’Amérique en matière d’impôts sur le revenu et sur la fortune et du Protocole la modifiant (2007); b) des dérogations au FBAR sont-elles accordées au Canada; c) le Canada a-t-il négocié les dispositions du FBAR avec des représentants du département du Trésor des États-Unis ou avec l’IRS, (i) à quel moment le gouvernement a-t-il été mis au courant de ces dispositions, (ii) combien de temps le Canada a-t-il mis à réagir aux changements apportés par l’IRS et le département du Trésor des États-Unis; d) comment le gouvernement veillera-t-il à ce que l’ARC n’agisse pas au nom de l’IRS pour percevoir les recettes et les amendes; e) le Canada a-t-il informé les personnes détenant la double citoyenneté de leurs obligations fiscales par suite du FBAR; f) le FBAR a donné lieu à combien d’échanges d’information entre le Canada et les États-Unis d’Amérique cette année et au cours des dix dernières années, (i) l’ARC a-t-elle fixé des échéances à l’interne pour pouvoir répondre aux demandes d’échange d’information de façon rapide, (ii) le Canada travaillera-t-il à améliorer la collaboration bilatérale sur ce point, (iii) y a-t-il eu une augmentation des demandes d’échange d’information à l’ARC par suite du FBAR; g) le gouvernement perdra-t-il des revenus par suite de la mise en œuvre du FBAR; h) quelles sont les implications financières du FBAR (i) pour le gouvernement, (ii) pour l’ARC, (iii) pour les banques canadiennes, (iv) qui assumera ces coûts, (v) y a-t-il d’autres types de coûts non financiers, comme la réduction d’efficacité ou d’équité; i) combien de plaintes l’ARC a-t-elle reçu au sujet du FBAR ou de demandes vexatoires à ce sujet par l’IRS, (i) quelles sont les principales plaintes, (ii) qu’a fait l’ARC au sujet de ces plaintes, (iii) quel département de l’ARC est chargé de répondre aux plaintes de cette nature, (iv) l’ARC va-t-elle réduire le nombre d’équivalents temps complet ou réduire son financement, (v) le bureau de l’ombudsman des contribuables s’est-il penché sur la question; j) le FBAR empêchera-t-il la double imposition des gains pré-migration; k) y a-t-il eu augmentation du nombre de cas d’arbitrage par suite de procédures actives par l’IRS, (i) quels ministères sont les plus touchés, (ii) l’ARC a-t-elle réduit le nombre d’équivalents temps complet dans chacun des ministères touchés ou réduit leur financement; l) le FBAR aura-t-il des incidences sur divers instruments d’épargne, comme, entre autres, (i) le régime enregistré d’épargne-retraite, (ii) les régimes enregistrés d’épargne-études, (iii) le régime enregistré d’épargne-invalidité, (iv) les comptes d’épargne libres d’impôt; m) combien de personnes ayant la double citoyenneté canadienne-américaine sont touchées par le FBAR et le Canada a-t-il leurs coordonnées? — Document parlementaire no 8555-411-412.
I found it difficult to locate the actual ‘answers’ on the Parliament of Canada site.
This will have to do. Disregard the source of the link, this is NOT an endorsement;
http://moodysgartner.com/downloads/2012-08-22%20IRS%20says%20FBAR%20penalties%20not%20collectable%20under%20Canada2.pdf
This is also relevant to the question of Canada’s lack of assistance in collecting US FBAR penalties. These two FOI letters are published nowhere else that I can find, so I am posting them direct from the authors. This is NOT an endorsement of the source:
http://moodysgartner.com/downloads/2012-08-22%20IRS%20says%20FBAR%20penalties%20not%20collectable%20under%20Canada3.pdf
http://moodysgartner.com/downloads/2012-08-22%20IRS%20says%20FBAR%20penalties%20not%20collectable%20under%20Canada4.pdf