We would be remiss, if we didn’t give special attention to this article by Don Whiteley.
Canada Capitulates on FATCA Agreement
In signing an agreement spelling out the details of how Canada will comply with a U.S. tax law targeting Americans living in Canada, our country surrendered its sovereignty
It deserves recognition, as there is no article out in the Canadian Media landscape that describes more accurately what has just happened with the IGA signing. However, we should not be surprised, as the author, Don Whiteley has often contributed his insights and comments on IBS. His continued contribution to the education of Canadians via good media articles is outstanding and deserving of praise.
If you are a newbie, Don has also written other excellent articles too. I highly recommend them to you. Here are two.
This one from the Globe and Mail..
Will Canada’s hard line on Eritrea’s ‘diaspora’ tax apply to the U.S.?
and this one from the Vancouver Sun
The Accidental Kenyan: What would happen if the African nation copied U.S. tax policy?
Thank you Don for your continued media efforts. I would have only one small comment about your final line where you say,
My guess is the Americans can’t believe they are getting away with this.
My guess is, that the FATCAnatics in Treasury, like Robert Stack, are so full of H&C (Hubris and Certainty) that ALL countries will bend to their will, the only thing that surprised them is that this one took a little longer than planned!
PS, …if you want a good example of a country that does NOT just capitulate to American will, read the Cotton Wars here Go Brazil!
I posted this in the Allison Christians IGA post, but figured it fits better here with the capitulation theme.
The Bully to the South does not have a good record of complying with World Trade organization rulings. Check out the Antigua vs US dispute in which the WTO has ruled in Antigua’s favour:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/77219.html
http://antiguawto.com/
Thanks for highlighting Don’s contributions @Just Me. His is one of the only voices to consistently get it in the Canadian media. The article that asks what the President of the US would do if suddenly the country of their ancestors started claiming them extraterritorially as ancestors (ex. Kenya, Indonesia, ) is a classic.
Much appreciated Don – your articles help to give our perspective and concerns a voice. I wouldn’t be surprised if they become classics.
Love the poster @Animal. Looking forward to the t-shirt and postcards!
@ Animal I like the posters. They should be delivered all around from coast to coast.
Thanks for your latest piece, Don Whiteley. You’ve taken your intimate knowledge with all of the puzzle pieces of and your ability to condense into this piece the absurdity of FATCA and US citizenship based taxation that has led to the sad loss of sovereignty for our country!
From a conversation that I had yesterday with another Calgary retiree, I want to pose a question as most here know the series of mistakes I made in having to choose renunciation over of my claim to relinquishment of US citizenship when I became a Canadian citizen in 1975. As you know, my telling my story and all the mistakes I made is so that others learn from my mistakes and don’t follow in my unfortunate footsteps.
If a person, as myself, who came to Canada decades ago, becoming a Canadian citizen and being told / warned that by doing so his/her US citizenship would be lost…
**********
in haste and advice from US tax professionals, enters into one of the so-called “amnesty” programs, thus back-filing requisite years of back US tax returns and FBARs…
**********
BUT has not made the other fatal *mistakes* (applying for and obtaining a US passport or voting in a US election), i.e. just wanting *to do the right thing*…
**********
Has that person now lost his/her right to CLAIM RELINQUISHMENT for that long-ago act of expatriation when he/she became a Canadian citizen — and lived his/her life as “only a Canadian”?
**********
We see persons able to claim their long-ago relinquishments even though they were “bullied” and intimidated at the border (as was I) into applying for and obtaining a US passport (as it is the US law that a US citizen must enter the US only on that passport, leaving aside the fact that this “law” was for the most part ignored by all but the most aggressive US border officials)…
**********
Is this unfortunate hasty decision, *in trying to do the right thing*, another act of ‘entering oneself back into the US’ with advice of a professional (as that is what we are told we must do by our Canadian government representatives to make our decisions: only with such such professional advice) that could be *excused* in claiming that long-ago relinquishment?
**********
i.e., persons like us who made a choice to come from the US to this country (or any other) and have lived our lives as Canadians, and without “professional US tax advice” would NEVER have otherwise made this *fatal* choice.
@Calgary, you still have a case, yes because you were bullied.
What matters is your state of mind when you committed the potentially relinquishing act. Everything that has happened since has been egregious violations of your right to expatriate under US, Canadian and International Law.
@ Calgary.
They should still be able to get the correctly backdated CLN.
Kingston and Mrs. Kingston, who thought they were not USCs but entered OVDI on bad advice, got their CLNs correctly backdated 40-some years (and their penalty refunded), and have written here: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2011/12/14/about-the-isaac-brock-society/comment-page-4/#comment-519000
A few other long-ago relinquisihers (I think there’s 3) reported here that they’d filed US tax returns based on bad advice and/or confusion in 2011 and also got their correctly backdated CLNs. Burden of proof — balance of probabilities, no one factor necessarily fatal. Intent — taxes were filed due to confusion/misinformation, not filed to re-establish citizenship.
Thanks, Petros and Pacifica.
My question is on behalf of someone not completely like me (as I made a series of mistakes which I do accept as *fatal*).
I want others NOT to make the same mistakes. For someone who has not made the whole package deal of mistakes, I would encourage them to CLAIM THAT RELINQUISHMENT.
Yes, I agree, he should claim the relinquishment (unless he wants to stay under the radar). Based on the cases we know of, if the only “possibly-American act” he’s done in all these years was filing US taxes recently because of bad advice, he should not have a problem getting their CLN backdated to the day the became a Canadian citizen.
Thank you Don Whitely.
I’m sending it right over to the ostriches at Business in Vancouver, BC Business’s competitor.
@Calgary, Petros, Pacifica777
I placed your good questions and answers over on the relinquishment
“Ask your Question” thread so others looking for information will find it more easily
@all
Thanks for all your comments and support. It means a lot to me.
You mean a lot to us 🙂
Same here, as we have gained a lot from your journalist knowledge and abilities…
and here is another Capitulation story by Theo Caldwell on the Daily Caller. I will look to see if it is on the Media link too..
Canada capitulates to FATCA and the IRS
I just wrote a long letter to my local MP. You know, the one thing I’d like to see more than Harper and Flaherty dead is this….. I wish, so much, they could sit there and watch the horror, fear and terror in the eyes of my wife. I wish those dirty bastards could watch their family members sit there in disbelief as their future begins to turn in a very bad direction. ALL because they were loyal Canadians, paid their taxes and were very good people to have in their society. We all earned an honest living and tried to keep Canada strong all to let these god dam idiots give it away on us. I think now, we have to fight our own government and the CRA is now an enemy of the people as they represent a “foreign” government. The CRA is no longer Canadian. Dirty scoundrels have turned them into IRS offices and now we need to treat them as such. I wish I could turn back time to when they were as honest as we were. This has got to stop and soon!
I love Theo’s style. He doesn’t pull any punches.
@nervousinvestor
wink wink, Antigua will never sign an IGA with the USA on FATCA no matter how much they are threatened. The Chinese are FIRMLY entrenched in Antigua and the island is not dependent on the USA and even though the US maintains a military base on the north side near Jaberwocky Beach near the airport you won’t see many of those air force folks in public much according to my source in Dominica. The United States maintains no official diplomatic presence in Antigua. The Ambassador and Embassy officers are resident in Barbados and travel to Antigua frequently. A U.S. consular agent resident in Antigua assists U.S. citizens in Antigua and Barbuda. There are other countries in the area that won’t as well in my opinion but I’m pretty sure on Antigua. Not sure about this part but I think they believe that the finance minister of Caymans is a screwball US stooge and real asshole pansy. Also besides the battle on internet gambling the USA slighted Antigua again: http://www.antiguaobserver.com/us-moves-satellite-surveillance-out-of-antigua/
Antiguan citizenship is available for 250,000 USD cash or 400,000 real estate investment and then one can rub shoulders with Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend and Giorgio Armani.
Panama for even less.
@NativeCanadian
Yes bingo. The Canadian Government has now decided we are their enemy. Let’s show them what Americans are capable of and give the Canadian economy something to think about. I like my idea on everyone preemptively closing accounts and telling the banksters we have no faith in them as traitors and we are going to gold which we will hide inside Maple trees and hockey pucks. Just an opinion but we seriously need to see them for what they really are. If the Canadian Bankers Assoc labels us as criminals and don’t want us then we need to wage war against them and bring them to their knees by closing accounts across the country and more importantly wage a propaganda war against them to mute the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns and we can do this by word of mouth even if it means lying about them. They lie to and about us so let’s give them the same treatment. Let’s talk them down even of it means spreading lies about them, who cares? Let’s destroy them. Everyone go talk to your friends and relatives about how the banks are almost insolvent in this country, ripping off savers with crap interest rates, ATM fees, credit card rip offs and advertising deceptions etc. Banksters are the scum of the Earth in my opinion. I know that today probably 12,000 or more people are reading this site and more and more everyday. We need to unite and screw Harper and the banks badly in retaliation for their attacks on innocent citizens. We know there are hundreds of thousands out there who are fighting mad. Another idea I really like is to STOP CONSUMING all but what is necessary
https://ccit300-f06.wikispaces.com/file/view/BND.jpg/30252471/BND.jpg
The Theo Caldwell article is the best I have ever read on the topic. It cuts to the chase and debunks every myth about CBT. It is so clear and plain for the eye to see the veracity in it, that it is just mindboggling that people succumb anyway as if they had no choice. They believe the pack of lies even when the truth is spelled out for them, and obvious. WHY?
It is simple. We all know Obama knows that CBT is not good at all, and he knows how this is destroying the lives if it’s victims. He also knows that CBT was a well kept secret from even homelander Americans. Try to find any American who lives in the USA that knows anything about CBT. Every American I have talked with over the past 6 months cannot believe the USA does this to it’s own people. But what we are saying is heard by the US government and they still ignore it. this is because it is not about honor, it is about MONEY plain and simple. Did the bible not say money would destroy the earth? The USA needs the world to stand up to it. From what I’ve seen so far, the world is ALL cowering in fear. Until this changes, worldwide wealth will flow down the end of the USA’s gun and into their possession.
Pingback: The Isaac Brock Society