Dear Mr. xxx,
Thank you for contacting me about the ongoing situation regarding the potential for Canadian citizens born in the United States to be pursued for US income tax by the IRS.
As you know, the situation is complicated and the legal status of Canadians born in the US, the threat of IRS action, and the possibility of real punitive action is still unclear. As a Canadian citizen born in the US, I can assure you that I share your concerns and am dedicated to defending the equality rights of all affected citizens.
I am dedicated to taking action on your behalf. I have sent correspondence to the Prime Minister on the issue. The government has taken the position I urged and is forcefully advocating that the US stop targeting law-abiding Canadians in pursuit of those US citizens hiding in the Cayman Islands.
In addition, I recently met with the US Ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson. He is also very much absorbed by the controversy. His main message to me was that I should share with my constituents his wish that we “stay calm.” He indicated to me that he understands the issues and is working closely with officials at all levels of government in the US and Canada to find a pragmatic solution to this problem.
You are not alone in this situation. Many are seeking a solution to the problem. I will keep you posted as I work to find a sensible approach. In the meantime, please keep me posted through my constituency office of any changes in your situation.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P.
Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands
Leader of the Green Party of Canada
I was just wondering aloud on a Kiwi blog, if there is a comparable politician in NZ as Elizabeth May. I have not heard of one.
Elizabeth May did not share with us exactly what position she urged.I am glad that she was born in the US.A. and has a personal stake in the matter.
It is easy for Jacobson to say “stay calm”. He does not have a sh@tstorm headed toward his life savings and pension.
Pragmatic solution, duh. How can they act like that can’t see the obvious? Are they looking for a way to look magnaminous while not admitting any wrong doing? Are they trying to limit their gracious act of accomadation to common sense? Feigning to look seriously, at any one but yourself, for a practical solution to a problem that you created is laughable. It is like a murderer who says that he can understand your argument against killing while saying that relenting on his action is just not practical. So instead he looks for you to give him a face saving, pragmatic, way out of committing the wrong of killing you.
If they have such a hard time with morality then they shouldn’t be in office.
@bubblebustin,
You wrote:
“I’m not keen on the part in ACA’s RBT proposal that would require certain countries to be designated ‘tax havens’. Like branding certain countries as the the ‘axis of evil’ therefore deserving of any hell that the champions of freedom can rain on them”
I agree, ACA should not have proposed such a thing. ACA’s efforts are noble, but IMO they went too far trying to accommodate the homelander bullies.
@Just Me
Yes, one point I am making with the list of very serious issues facing the US is that the number of individuals in government who are deeply invested in the FATCA issue is likely very small.
The general public is ignorant of this issue – and does not care to know – because they have far bigger worries. Outside of the compliance complex and certain treasury policy wonks, this is lowest of the low in governmental priorities.
I am surprised that corporations with an international focus, companies that need to have an overseas presence, and need to hire technical experts from around the world, are not alarmed by the potential damage FATCA will inflict to their interests. But they just don’t get it….yet. Does Silicon Valley know about FATCA and its impact on joint ventures with other countries?
The other point is that sometime soon the US may simply have to abandon the enforcement of FATCA because the combination of US capability and global co-operation required for successful execution is so disconnected from reality. Especially with the US government teetering on the fiscal cliff – and every other country playing passive/aggressive to the max.
Spain has +25% unemployment and is facing a massive bank crisis. How important really is FATCA to them? Mexico has a new nationalist government that is turfing the US out of its drug war. What’s their position on FATCA? How reliably compliant will Italian banks be… and Greek banks… and Russian banks?
As the largest holder of US debt, will China tolerate arbitrary withholding? What happens when Mayor of London Boris Johnson is harassed about his bank accounts due to his US birthplace? How will the large and influential population of US-connected Israelis respond when the FATCA chickens come home to roost there?
For those who were at the Fatca Fact-Finding Forum at the U of T in December: I clearly recall being told that the petition we signed, as long as there were at least 25 signatures, would be presented to the Parliament. Has that happened and I have missed it?
Has this repeal FATCA petition been posted yet? I think it’s current as the last signors were April 23. They only need 58 more to reach their goal of 2000!!!
http://signon.org/sign/repeal-fatca
@ bubblebustin
Yes, that petition was mentioned a couple of months back. Thanks for the reminder though. I signed it (#1899) and I noted at the time that Pam Anderson and Amy Grant were among the signers. Just Me and Victoria also appeared on the list. The comments are quite interesting, much along the same line as the Ways & Means submissions.
@ nobledreamer
The forum petition has not been presented yet.
http://elizabethmaymp.ca/petitions
I wrote Eric regarding it and this was his reply:
“We did create a petition, but since we didn’t have access to a printer, we hand-wrote it (in block letters). It had more than enough signatures, but was initially rejected by the clerk. We’ve asked him to reconsider, so hopefully it will be accepted and presented. (There is nothing in the rules that state a petition must be typed).
I, too, am watching the daily updates to see it presented. However, Elizabeth only presents 2 petitions per sitting day, so once it goes in the hopper, it may still be a while before it comes to the floor.
Erich.
p.s. I’ve included a typed copy of the petition, which I also attached to the front of the signed copy we submitted. Feel free to gather more signatures and mail it to me or Elizabeth, we may have to try again.”
@Em, thanks. I couldn’t find it’s own post, and if it didn’t get one, shouldn’t it? They only need a few more to reach their goal.
re; “…US Ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson. He is also very much absorbed by the controversy. His main message to me was that I should share with my constituents his wish that we “stay calm.”…”
Jacobson and his best buddies Obama and the Democrats have a vested interest in us being ‘calm’ and quiet and rolling over. His ‘wishes’ are of no interest to me. The US IRS, Treasury, and Congress has a vested interest in keeping those ‘abroad’ quiet and fearful – particularly in Canada. And his interests and ours are completely at odds. His interests and commitment is to further US interests in Canada and get FATCA implemented – no matter what the costs to us or to Canada. And as for his “working closely with officials at all levels of government in the US and Canada to find a pragmatic solution to this problem.” I’m sure he is. And what exactly would a ‘pragmatic’ solution look like? Would it be a question of just how many Canadians of US descent get sacrificed in the process? What is ‘pragmatic’ is most often at serious odds with justice or ethics.
Funny, Jacobson has expressed no commitment to any rights we might have as US citizens. No commitment to addressing our concerns. No commitment to expedite our right to expatriate without obstacle. Doesn’t he find it hypocritical that the Ottawa embassy site still says (for more than two years now?) that no IRS help is available to us there, due to budget cuts, yet posting information about how to be an IRS snitch?
I refuse to be ‘calm’ in the way that the US and he would prefer. Be ‘calm’ after being subjected to the fear and anxiety and depression that US threats and policies created, and the impositions and enforcement of unjust costs and restrictions to our legal post-tax all-Canadian savings, with significant costs to our health and the wellbeing of our Canadian families hanging in the balance – all incurred only because the US and Jacobson’s best buddy and his party colleagues refuse to see any reason or act with any conscience regarding their fellows ‘abroad’? Has he spoken out to support funding for striking the proposed Presidential commission to examine our grievances? No, and he never will, because they do not want any light shone on the clear injustices we have endured. He knows what the true numbers lining up to renounce in Canada are. He knows we are right, and have much to be aggrieved about.
We should ‘stay calm’ in order to think and act as thoughtfully as we can, in the ways that work best for us. But we have every reason not to accede to any request made by Jacobson.
Ambassador Jacobson obviously wants to downplay how serious this actually is – and not to publicize or derail any FATCA IGA that might be signed by Canada. He’s playing for time in which to get an IGA signed, so that MPs don’t raise these issues and spread awareness of them any wider to the Canadian public.
Where is Jacobson’s ‘absorption’ in the problem of the Obamacare tax that those in Canada are now subject to? What about the tax on the sale of our principle residence – which is not taxable in Canada? What about our ability to hold a TFSA, RESP, RDSP, and now PRPP? What about all the other normal legal financial and economic events that we are prohibited from participating in because of US extraterritorial citizenshipbased taxation? What about the sons and daughters who are caught up in this only because of US parentage? What about those who are prevented from renouncing – because of the cost of compliance obliteration, or because an intellectual disability prevents them from being freed by the US? What about the privacy breaches we are forced into wherever we may sign or co-sign on even non-personal accounts?
Someone should tell Jacobson to address us and our concerns directly – in public. And demonstrate that his words are spoken in good faith. Which he will never do.
Actions speak louder than the empty words of political appointees like Jacobson, who was chosen as an ambassador as a reward for being a top Obama fundraiser. His loyalties are to Obama and the Democrats, and the US. He doesn’t give a fig for the wellbeing of other US citizens like us.
@Wondering, don’t forget to mention the Mafia bank. The Mafia bank loves FATCA!
The Mafia Is Now The Biggest Bank In Italy
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/mafia-bank-italy-2012-1#ixzz2S6aelje6
@badger
What I have to say in response to Jacobson’s words is “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”. If this was Canada doing this to the US they’d be telling us to go take a ‘flying fig’ and hitting us with every kind of sanction they could. Ridiculous gets more ridiculous by the day.
Ambassador Jacobson should answer for posts like this one;
“………in the many dark hours before I became compliant (sacrificing 40% of lifesavings for fees to become so ) I considered divorce and/or suicide to protect my british family.”
And I just laugh when Jacobson follows up his ‘sit tight’ advice of 2011, with his 2023 advice to ‘be calm’. Can the non-compliant put that in their submissions for defence when the IRS forces them to explain the actions they took to become ‘compliant’, and the timelines involved? Can we just tell the IRS; yeah, I thought you meant to obliterate me and confiscate all my assets if I delayed coming into compliance, but Ambassador Jacobson told me to ‘just sit tight’.
That quote: “in the many dark hours before I became compliant (sacrificing 40% of lifesavings for fees to become so ) I considered divorce and/or suicide to protect my british family.” came from @FalseAlarm on this thread: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/05/01/fatca-response-from-elizabeth-may/comment-page-2/#comment-314697
more regulations needed for the regulations industry
http://www.acfcs.org/fatcas-crucial-sidekick-the-hunt-for-beneficial-owner-pushed-as-g20-nations-senior-us-senators-urge-action/?goback=%2Egde_4118437_member_237094568
@bubblebustin, yeah, why would we give his words any credence at all?
We should get t-shirt made when we protest the Embassy “Keep Calm-Carrion”
To be clear all, when I said “why would we give his words any credence…?”
I meant Ambassador Jacobson. Why would we think that he had anything other than his own interests and that of the US in mind?
@badger, if Americans abroad don’t “keep calm” and “sit tight”, then the drone might miss its target. America wouldn’t want that because then they’d have to explain how the “terrorist” managed to escape.
@ badger
I think I know two sisters in Saskatchewan who would echo that rant re: Jacobson. Good one!
http://business.financialpost.com/2011/09/24/u-s-campaign-to-catch-tax-cheats-snaring-canadians/
Very clever, I love that saying @bubblebustin. Can we make the t-shirt and on it attribute the quote to the Ambassador?
that would be most appropriate, badger.
@swisspinoy, they just want us to stop wriggling and biting.
@Em, those are two of the people I was thinking of. Wonder how it turned out for them?
@Em,
Thanks, glad to hear what has happened. There was an awful lot of excitement in the room when Erich mentioned the idea that she could present the petition and the Parliament would have to consider it. I was thinking it would happen as soon after the holidays as possible. I’m surprised it is still sitting there.
@bubblebustin,
That petition is how I ended up at Expat Forum and then, here. I think I was like, signer 25. An awful lot of Brockers have already done that but hopefully those who haven’t, can help us get to 2000!