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.
Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad
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.
Pingback: Congratulations to France/Canada dual citizen Thomas Mulcair – What if he had been a Canada/U.S. dual citizen? « Renounce U.S. Citizenship – Be Free
Pingback: Congratulations to France/Canada dual citizen Thomas Mulcair – What if he had been a Canada/U.S. dual citizen? | The Isaac Brock Society