The Isaac Brock Society

While this has been metioned prior US Senator Rand Paul has become quite vocal in his opposition to the US Senate ratifying several new tax treaties on what he calls Fourth Amendment grounds. Link below:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-29/rand-paul-seeks-to-block-tax-treaty-change-on-swiss-accounts#p2

Comment gallore

Hi.  I have been meaning to do a post on so called Competent Authority Services office of the CRA in Ottawa. I do suspect there are some limitations in what the CRA can do under the treaty; however, I suspect for those that have renounced (such as Petros) or have lapsed Green Cards I suspect this office can be of some assistance. The CAS office is technically a free service of the CRA; however, it has a reputation for only providing services to the very wealthy and large corporations (something I think is due to the fact they are the only ones that know of its existence). I have linked to several information sheets the CRA has published regarding these services below. The key document to read is CRA information circular IC71-17R5.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/cmp/wh-eng.html

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/ic71-17r5/ic71-17r5-e.html#P124_23977

I also linked below to the annual report of CRA CAS below that shows a staff directory of the people who work in this department in Ottawa.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/cmp/mp_rprt_2010-2011-eng.pdf

The other key thing to note since 2007 is the US and Canada have a binding arbitration mechanism in their tax treaty. (Historically the US hasn’t liked binding arbitration and Canada is the only country the US has such a mechanism with).

I am making what you could call a “noisy” non-disclosure. I have stated that I do not plan to file FBAR. I am no criminal, but because I’ve not done FBARs in the past, and I plan never to file one, actually filing an FBAR creates a substantial hazard because of its criminal penalties.  This is the fatal flaw in the FBAR requirement.  If there were only draconian civil penalties, no one could invoke the Fifth Amendment in refusing to file it.

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