According to TD Canada Trust’s Customer Service web page on FATCA:
“TD is committed to providing impacted customers with support and information to ensure they receive a comfortable experience once the law comes into effect.”
Let the full-page ads begin:
@Deckard1138
I’ll never look at a TD Bank TV ad the same way again…thank goodness.
@Don
I wouldn’t put it quite that way. Certainly it is partly the customer’s problem if the customer is affected by the 30%. My understanding is that if TD doesn’t comply, the 30% will apply on all transfers to TD from the US and will be withheld before the money even leaves the US and enters Canada. Neither TD nor the customer will ever see that 30% so certainly it is partly the customer’s problem.
I would put it slightly differently, therefore: I would say that it comes down to this–which takes precedence–the problems of TD’s wealthier customers or the basic human rights of TD’s poorer customers?
Out and out theft!
I am not ‘comfortable’ about having TD and the rest of the CBA push my federal government to sign on to a FATCA IGA and sign away my Charter Rights as a Canadian citizen and taxpayer. What is TD going to make the abrogation of my rights, and the rights of the NON-US joint account holders more comfy?
What is TD doing to make the US abusive taxation and penalization of our children’s RESPs and RDSPs – as deemed ‘foreign trusts’ more comfy?
What is TD doing to make me comfy-womfy about automatically sending all my personal information, account #s of my personal and family assets, locations, highest balances and eventually, all transactions, to the CRA to send on to the IRS, subjected to the Patriot Act, made vulnerable to hackers and identity theft, and shared with other US agencies without notice, restriction or recourse?
The green FATCA torture chair is so apt – as our information is to be extracted involuntarily and via threats.
Thanks Deckhard!
first line should have read:
“I am not ‘comfortable’ about having TD and the rest of the CBA push my federal government to sign on to a FATCA IGA and sign away my Charter Rights as a Canadian citizen and taxpayer. “
@Dash1729 – I didn’t make myself clear. The example I meant to use was if someone in Canada had all his assets in Canadian banks.
What I wonder how far is the US going with this 30% withholding? In future are they going to withhold 30% on ATM withdrawals for $500? This may seem crazy, but if someone is getting their crappy little Social Security pension, has it dumped into a US bank account, and proceeds to withdraw it, you mean their going to take 30% to try to force someone to file to get it back? It’s nuts.
Let’s see what happens in Canada and Switzerland. But the real sh*t won’t hit the fan until the IRS starts to take action or some sort. People will then wake up.
TD Bank is a hand-maiden of the IRS now. Stay away from them or you’ll live to regret it.
The 30% withholding is on US assets.
I sent the link to my sister and she said that every time she sees the green TD comfy chair, she’s reminded of a line from a Beatles song, “hold you in his armchair, you can feel his disease”.
I decided to follow @IRSCompliantForever’s advice and tried to set up, with two of my colleagues, a brief phone interview with a senior representative of TD Bank.
This is the response, received two hours following my request:
TD Bank recommends that, instead of an interview with the TD Bank, I contact the Canadian Bankers Association to discuss TD Bank’s approach to implementing FATCA— and provided a contact name and phone number.
IRSCompliantForever,
TD referred you to the CBA who no doubt will refer you to the CRA who will tell you connect the Ministry of Finance who – as yet – hasn’t anything to say about the IGA which isn’t even being shared with the Hon. Members in the House of Commons.
Gives passing the buck a new meaning.
I see that being made comfortable is off to a good start.
YogaGirl and IRSCompliantForever,
Passing the buck defined, for sure!
Yoga Girl et al.,
I am not finished yet with TD Bank and am working on an appropriate response.
I want explicit confirmation that an interview with a rep of the bank will be denied.
It appears the banks know something we don’t. Simply that someone in the government has given them the green light to advertise that this is law…. seems odd, nothing signed by Harper…. or is there????
We better get used to because globalization is not going backwards. Outsourcing, integrated financial markets, international law, global trade treaties, temporary foreign workers, international tax evation, electronic spying, you name it, All are here to stay.
Dual citizens had always faced challenges as each country tends to claim citizenship priority. Needles to say, citizenship carries responsibilities and rights. The best advice I found on how to handle dual citizenship can be seen here, by the Government of Canada
http://travel.gc.ca/travelling/publications/dual-citizenship
What is wrong with them? First they are putting people in a position to be forced to renounce then they want to give you the third degree over your Canadian passport?
Dual citizenship is unworkable for most average people these days. If you are mega rich you can probably afford the expensive tax attorney’s or take your name off everything your spouse has. Otherwise, many people will just have to renounce.
I don’t want to hear about the “responsibilities” of citizenship. I spent 33 years trying to defend the U.S. many times because I felt it was a duty of my citizenship. I also volunteered in the U.S. after certain disasters. I did that because of my duty of citizenship. Furthermore, I tried to have my Canadian spouse invest in the U.S. as a duty of my citizenship. Now because of FATCA my repayment for such as the above is that I was forced to renounce. Where’s their duty to those who were formerly supportive American citizens? All they’ve done is paint us as criminal tax cheats and drug lords.
@Dual Citizen
What’s also very interesting is what the State Department says about dual nationality:
“The U.S. Government recognizes that dual nationality exists but does not encourage it as a matter of policy because of the problems it may cause.”
So either the US wants its emigrants to relinquish US citizenship upon taking another, or they would like their emigrants to never obtain another citizenship even if that citizen never intends to return to the US. If this is their recommendation, why do they allow registrations of citizens born abroad? Do they expect someone who’s registered as a US citizen but lived their entire lives abroad to renounce their birth country’s citizenship. Just what do they expect?
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1753.html
No offence, but I personally don’t like the term “dual citizen”. It implies a ‘hybrid’ type of citizenship, which does not exist, as far as I know.
Thanks, bubblebustin for your observations and questions.
I’ll (of course) add the question ‘why will the US not release my son from his ‘supposed’ (and never registered or ‘claimed’) US citizenship because of his developmental disability which prevents him understanding what it’s all about — and the fact that DOS rules say a parent, a guardian or a trustee of a family member cannot renounce US citizenship on their ‘mentally incapacitated’ family members’ behalf, even with a court order?’.
I’m sorry Calgary411, the US will never offer you a document that releases your son from the possibility of one day claiming him as a USC. The best you can ever hope for is what we believe to be the status quo; that by not registering him it’s enough for them not to claim him. It’s terrible, but that’s how they roll.
@Mike
FWIW, I spoke to a banker on the day of our protest in Toronto. He was not part of the conference but stopped to explain why the banks were powerless. He also wondered where I got the idea that the IGA was imminent. He said no one (banksters) had any clear indication yet, that Canada was signing. And he did seem to know his stuff, regarding FATCAT, etc.
@Tricia,
Can you imagine what a happy day it would be here at Brock, if Canada just said ‘NO’?
@WhiteKat
Nearly two years ago and a couple of months after sitting down with my MP and telling him my story, I wrote him this very short email. I wrote: It’s time the world hears Canada’s ROAR! The silence is deafening, isn’t it?
Tricia, at least he did explain why the banks were powerless… that is a sign they are being forced into this… but by whom? Perhaps our government? I wonder why all the advertising for fatca… Scotiabank and TD have it looking pretty darn formal and coming….
Mike. it is the ability to access the US capital market is why they are forced. You do know there is a great fear of a housing bubble in Canada. A 1 or 2% increase in Canadian interest rates will trigger that. People here should concentrate on beating the system and hope Supreme Courts rule parts of FACTA invalid.