Obamacare could cost some Canadians a lot of money
My comment:
I recommend that people visit our website, the Isaac Brock Society where we the issue of US citizenship-based taxation from a much more sober and realistic point of view. Golombek, who works for CIBC, is not a good source of information on the issues of FATCA and US citizenship-based taxation. The practice of the United States of taxing “citizens” who are living in Canada is discriminatory and violation of the charter rights of all Canadian residents–and the banks, including the CIBC, plan to throw American “citizens” under the bus by instituting FATCA which they know already violates the charter and privacy rights of those they will expose to the IRS.
Golombek is clearly incorrect on the following point in his article: “This means that high-income Canadians may have to start writing a cheque to Uncle Sam for the first time in 2013.” According to the Canadian government, Canadian citizens never have to pay taxes to the United States on Canadian source income no matter how much they make, because the CRA will never collect for the IRS on a Canadian citizen, provided that they are a citizen at the time the tax liability was allegedly incurred. Golombek seems to me to be carrying water for the IRS, and he should really work much harder to get a Canadian perspective on this issue.
Also I should mention that Golombek’s sources are KPMG and Moody’s, folks that make a lot of money off your misery by charging you thousands of dollars to get your US tax affairs in order. They are very “interested” in your business.
At some point the Financial Post has to get some credibility on this issue. Using sources such as banks (Golombek), accounting firms (KPMG) and cross-border law firms (Moody’s), all of whom have millions of dollars at stake, is not the best way to gain credibility on what is essentially a human rights issue.
The more I read about FATCA and FBAR…the more I want to just “disappear” and do the full “ostrich”. Complete and utter BULLSHIT!
Evidently the bald eagles know “freedom” and “happiness” when they see it. That’s why 10,000 of “America’s National Icon” flock to Harrison Mills making it the largest gathering of bald eagles in North America. So if the bald eagles know that they’re free and clear up here in Canada, why is it that people are still drinking Obama’s Kool-Aid?
This bald eagle was photographed by me yesterday at Boundary Bay Airport and used in an image meld.
This is all the more reason to relinquish/renounce your US citizesnship….I am so glad I made that step last month!
It is hard enough to serve one master (CRA) let alone try to keep up and understand the legislation that keeps rolling down hill.
I added the following comments:
Mr. Golombek, next time you do one of these puff pieces, why don’t you ask KPMG how much they charge to do simple return for one those Canadians who don’t owe anything. We have sources that tell us that HR Block charges $2-300 to do a cross border tax return. KPMG might be a tad higher.
This is a human rights issue. People have the right to emigrate from their country and not be hounded for taxes or kidnapped and taken back to their country of origin. When Eritrea tries to take only 2% from its people, Canada denounces them. When will Canada, and when, Mr. Golombek, will the National Post, condemn the United States?
As it is, this article serves the purposes of stirring up fear and bringing in business for KPMG and Moody’s. Good job, Golombek. But are you aware that you are being credited for increasing the awareness of Canadians about alleged tax compliance issues with the United States in at least one legal journal article? I’ll see if I can find it for you.
Raising the awareness of Canadians of their US tax filing “obligations” is unpaid advertising for the IRS.
What needs to happen is that Canadian papers need to get a pair, and they need to start writing hit pieces against the United States aggression against the tax base in Canada and how the banks and the Canadian government are not doing a good job of protecting the Charter rights and privacy rights of Canadian residents.
Later I wrote:
I found the law article by Andrew Bonham, Canadian Tax Journal 60 (2012) 305-54 (available online) where the first footnote cites Jamie Golombek’s July 30, 2011, article, “The Americans among us”, as among the many Canadian media articles inciting panic among the Canadian public about US taxation, FBAR, and FATCA. This is not a good legacy for Mr. Golombek and the other Canadian journalists who have been carrying water for the IRS, giving them free advertizing in our papers and scaring Canadians into the Voluntary Disclosure Program. Another article 30 July 2011 (is likely the same with a different title) is Golombek’s US Citizens among us: time to come clean, which he starts with the following scaremongering line: “An estimated one million U.S. citizens living in Canada have barely four weeks to come clean to the Internal Revenue Service before facing potentially crippling fines and penalties.” This article scared many Canadian residents into the Overseas Voluntary Disclosure Program with disastrous results for their financial, physical and mental health. To get an idea of the consequences, one should hear my talk on December 15, on the human consequences of FATCA. Peter W. Dunn
It has all come down to Flaherty’s words of long, long ago for me and my absolute conviction that I am a Canadian, been so since the day I was born in Canada, and they can stuff their US “personhood” where the sun don’t shine. I also have great hope in the efforts being made to knock some sense into the FATCAnatics. However, if Flaherty rescinds his words with a sell-out IGA then I will progress from semi-non-compliance (with valid extenuating circumstances) to outright defiance. And if all else fails, I have a bolt-hole and a bunker staked out. (I’m only being half facetious here.) This madness must end!
BTW, excellent tag teaming in the comments by Petros and Pacifica and other great jabs delivered by obvious Brockers. Don’t miss it! I think that Golombec the Gollum will have to slink back into the shadows to reassess his precious biasnessses.
*Is there possible lawfare action in those countries where charges can be brought by petition before a judge.
Many countries (including Canada) claim universal jurisdiction for certain offshore offenses, such as child pornography war crimes.
The UK is such a jurisdiction where warrants were obtained against Israeli officials
The US is the all-time champion for claiming universal jurisdiction, for taxes, commerial activities by US persons.
It is not unreasonable for a country to claim univerals jurisdiction of attemps to undermine the banking system and privacy laws.
The secretary of the treasury and IRS officials policy of offering cash incentives to provide data of banking activities is such an activity.
Sample petition could be as follows:
“Timothy Geither(as secretary of the treasury) and Schulman (as director of the IRS) have pursued a policy of threats, bribery and other inducements to officers and employes of the the banking industry to unlawfully transmit account information and personnal data in violation of the Bank Act and Laws providing for the security of personal information. The above individuals, upon presenting themselves for entry shall immediately be arrested and charged for the above listed criminal activities”
Actually, the article isn’t soo bad, even though he is part of the FATCA Compliance Complex and does carry IRS water. He is pointing out something that actually helps our case, riles people up, and not hinders it. So sometimes negative news works better, even though we know the underlying vested interest perspective that he comes from.
So, if you were to make comments or write him, focus on what he got right, Thank him for point out how stupid US taxation policy is, before you tear into him for what he got wrong or his bias. You will catch his attention better. IMHO 🙂
BTW: Here is his email address. I have emailed him before, with NO acknowledgement, so he may not be interested in contra opinion.
Jamie.Golombek@cibc.com <Jamie.Golombek@cibc.com>;
jamie@jamiegolombek.com <jamie@jamiegolombek.com>;
Also remember this from ACA Not sure if that means just the provisions to have the coverage, or also applies to the tax, so need to research more…and will post the reply I get.
Affordable Healthcare Act does not apply abroad
@The Animal,
I appreciate your bald eagle photo and caption — that is awesome. It says so much to me. Perfect. Thanks so much.
“So, if you were to make comments or write him, focus on what he got
right, Thank him for point out how stupid US taxation policy is, before
you tear into him for what he got wrong or his bias.”
@ Just Me
No, sorry I have to disagree. It is past time for us to speak nicey-nice to the “water carriers”. It’s time for them to put the government memes and compliance industry memos aside, get out of their cubicles and get some real information from real people like Petros who so eloquently spoke at the Toronto forum about the effect of the FATCA fiasco on minnow-sized victims. Evil is as evil does and “water carriers” perpetuate the problem. The article was fear mongering and we have to try to subdue the fear … even though I am the worst possible example to follow in that respect.
@Just Me, If you create a panic in a theatre, by crying fire, when there is no fire, the law holds you accountable. If, however, you write a journal article that causes thousands of Canadians to panic about their US tax obligations, you must be a cross-border tax specialist. I don’t think you understand the degree to which the whole system has been corrupted. The banks are in bed with the newspapers, and they even write their columns for them. Golombek is a cross border specialist, a tax planner for the CIBC. Scare enough people and you might actually drum up some business in your office. This is bordering on unethical. It is certainly unpatriotic.
In other words, you’re giving Golombek a pass. He won’t get on your side no matter how hard you try. He’s not that kind of guy. So we can pussyfoot around his telling us to “get clean” but he, probably more than anyone else in Canada, is responsible for the creation of the Isaac Brock Society, with this article, Golombek’s US Citizens among us: time to come clean, which he proudly displays at his own website. The man makes me sick. He continues to tell Canadians what they “MUST” do when the government of Canada has said to us the contrary: that we don’t have to pay US taxes–if we are Canadian citizens, we can safely ignore the threats coming from the OBAMA adminstration. Golombek failed to mention that point, AGAIN, in this little article that’s real point is to drum up business for KPMG, Moodys, and CIBC.
Here is an excerpt of the misleading advice he gave in his July 30, 2011 article:
My question is whether he should have to pay some of the millions that Canadians have paid thus far in compliance costs. Or perhaps it is time to bring back the custom of tar and feathers.
Finally, it’s not as if we haven’t tried to reach the bloke. We have emailed him, and he has completely ignored us. Tell you what, why don’t you try emailing him, with one of your nice emails and see if you get any kind of response.
What I find depressing are the number of people who side with the US against their fellow Canadians. So many people aren’t aware of the difference in the way Canada and the US taxes its citizens, which is apparent in their comments.
@Just Me, Americans abroad are not exempt from the entire Affordable Care Act. They are exempt from the penalty for not having health insurance, as the law states that they are assumed to be covered. However, the “unearned income Medicare contribution” (the surtax) is under a different section of the law. The threshold for this surtax applies to income disconsidering the FEIE, it is not indexed for inflation, and from what I understand the foreign tax credit cannot be used to offset the surtax. Although it is called a “Medicare contribution”, it has nothing to do with Medicare and simply raises general revenue.
@Shadow Raider…
I will defer to your better knowledge. I am just unsure, so asked ACA to inquire of the Tax practitioner advisory council for their read on the subject before I acted like I knew what I was talking about. 🙂
@Em…
I understand what you are saying and the emotion that drives the desire to ream out the ‘water carrier’. I have just found honey gets their attention better than vinegar. The mission of an email, at least for me, is to be sure he doesn’t close his ears to my message before he reads it. I may not change his mind, probably not, but at least I want him to give it consideration. But, I accept that we each have our own approach, and yours maybe better than mine. I have certainly not gotten Jamie to respond to my last emails, so maybe I should adopt your tactic.
@Petros… I certianly understand the level to which it has been corrupted. I have been engaged with a KPMG FATCA apologist on Linkedin who won’t allow my comments on his group because of his vested interest in the message he is marketing. I have pointed it out, and try to be the “shunk at the party” without being totally offensive. Not sure that it is working, but then again, I do have some private comments from that effort that tells me it resonants with more than you think. Have helped one Managing Director of a financial firm in small country to advise his trade group as to why they SHOULD NOT run to embrace the IGA. Small victories.
As for Jamie, I am not giving him a pass, I am just commenting on the best way to get him to listen to what I have to say. I don’t think I will start my email by calling him a Pig, as good as it might feel! 🙂 I know if I got an email like that, I would not be very responsive.
bubblebustin says –
What I find depressing are the number of people who side with the US against their fellow Canadians.
I just skimmed through the comments to the Golombek piece. Taken all together, that wad of twaddle is – within the specific context of interest to Brockers, namely US personhood and its extraterritorial miseries – that wad of twaddle is the most radioactivating monument so far to what I say over and over: Canada and Canadians will not care, at least not enough (both in degree and numbers) to make a difference to the victims. (Meanwhile the victims huddle and whinge about Charter rights. I don’t recall that Deshman was overflowing with optimism on that front, was she?) And many Canadians will kneejerk say that all US persons belong on the fatcattlecar of the US oppressor train to financial and emotional ruin. Who stood up for Jews in Germany? More relevant: Who stands up for Indigenous in Canada? Do you?
There is no deterrent for the Indigenous in Canada to stand up for themselves as there is for US persons in Canada to do the same. I don’t see US persons blocking major intersections as Idle No More protest marches have. The issue will never gain momentum when so many are hiding or wishing the problem would resolve itself. When the only form of protest for so many is to never cross the US border again, who’s going to care?
A high number of renunciations and relinquishments will get their attention. IMO nothing short of that will have much of an affect.
I have an idea that could get attention both sides of the border. Do you think Brockers could make the case for banning US persons from residing in Canada? There is no doubt that US persons are causing damage to Canada because of the US’s extraterritorial taxation of its citizens and green card holders. We should use this reality to our advantage. Of course it could never happen but it may make a lot of people curious as to why US persons would spearhead such an effort.
Of course any proposal would have the status of those of us already residing here grandfathered.
“Of course any proposal would have the status of those of us already residing here grandfathered.”
@ bubblebustin
Whew! Thank goodness you added that. 😉 I’m actually thinking your proposal has some serious merit. We would be saving US persons all manner of potential IRS/FATCA harm by barring them from the country AND we would be protecting Canadian residents from the economic harm associated with these US persons (i.e. the drain of Canadian-made wealth into USA coffers). Our motto, as with the Hippocratic Oath, should be FIRST DO NO HARM. We would simply be saying we don’t want US persons to suffer by coming here and we don’t want to suffer economically as a result of the IRS/FATCA baggage they would bring with them. Just a neighbourly thing to do I would say. 🙂
Sometimes I need to make a mental picture to get things straight in my head so for what it’s worth here’s what I came up with …
Brockers and all of those who are awakened and alarmed sit above the water line on an iceberg called FATCA. We are few in number at this point. We breathe the stench in the air and we see the foul weather the big berg is drifting into up ahead. I believe a very large number of US persons living outside the USA are below the water line, blithely watching the fishies swim by, completely unaware that they are attached like barnacles to the same FATCA iceberg as we are. When those below wake up and start crawling upwards to join us then maybe, just maybe, we can sink the FATCA iceberg or at least capsize it.
Don’t look to the FFIs for much help because, just like the new compliance industry, they are boarding tugboats and stealthily attaching towlines to the big berg to help it on its way. Don’t look to governments to help because frankly my dears they don’t give a damn about a mere 6-7 million US persons scattered around the globe. Don’t look to the media for much help (particularly in the USA) because it generally walks in lockstep with the government. Look to those below that line of awareness and reach out to them because it’s going to take numbers and resolute defiance to detach those towlines and ultimately scuttle the FATCA iceberg. Look also to those who may not be directly affected by FATCA but still retain some empathy because they can magnify the numbers of those who are directly affected. It’s up to us to help them understand the destructive nature of FATCA. There is still time to do this but FATCA is increasing its speed as each day passes. (It’s also apparently gaining in size — up to 500 pages now!) If it isn’t stopped it could well morph into the unstoppable GATCA that Just Me has warned us about and we want none of that.
@Em
We most certainly are the tip of the iceberg, or as some have said the canaries in a coal mine.
How will we as USP’s deal with the growing resentment our fellow Canadians will have for us for causing so much grief to the rest of Canada? The problems we cause for the rest of Canada won’t go away even if every USP in Canada was fully compliant, because as we already know, it’s citizenship based taxation that is the root of the problem. In fact, compliance may even serve to exacerbate the problems we will cause Canada. For instance, when a USP is unable to contribute to tax deferring savings plans, they could potentially be more on a drain on Canada’s social assistance programs in old age. Should FATCA be implemented and an IGA be in place, we certainly won’t see the end of the burden we will place on the banks and our government even with full tax compliance. Then there’s the harm we’ve caused our unsuspecting non-USP loved ones when we expose them to economic ruin through FBAR and other penalties?
The, as you say”economic harm” USP’s will cause Canada with or without each and every USP in tax compliance could make a case for banning Americans in Canada. The response to any Canadian who says “get compliant” should be “be careful of what you wish for”!
@ bubblebustin
What you say is so true. I guess if it comes down to being treated as badly as you imagine then all we can do is square our shoulders and say the problem isn’t US, the problem is the U.S. (tax system). Compliance for me is unthinkable at this point (I will not watch most of my inheritance from my Canadian parents disappear into an IRS rat hole) so I am prepared to remove every dollar I have from my Credit Union but even that hurts my community because it means less is available to back up the local mortgages the Credit Union issues. However, it is premature to think that Canadian banks will be giving us the old Swiss heave-ho. All we can do is keep fighting and hope the Brock & Co. Titanic sinks the FATCA iceberg.
YES, the problem isn’t US, it’s the US! That would make a great t-shirt or bumper sticker slogan.
@petros
Thank you for helping to point out how the media is working to help scare people in to compliance when it should have been supporting their own government’s stance which was to tell the US to stuff it because the Canadian government won’t collect taxes and penalties on its citizens for the benefit of the US. I would go so far to say that it’s treason to suggest we place another nations policy over our own, especially if that nation’s policy will hurt our country and its citizens!
As I wrote in my submission to Canada’s Finance Committee for the 2013 Budget (and thanks the many people here and elsewhere I borrowed from):
“the Government of Canada must give
consideration to the long-term effect its permanent residents and citizens with
US tax and reporting requirements will have on the economic stability and tax
base of Canada. Eventually, Canadian immigration authorities may need to recognize
that US persons seeking residence here have inherently divided loyalties forced
upon them by US tax policies, therefore becoming potential liabilities to
Canada. As a result, it may become necessary for the Canadian government to
restrict US persons from seeking permanent residency and citizenship in Canada.”