UPDATE:
This article has also been published at The Hill’s Congress Blog. It’s a great opportunity to directly reach a Congressional audience so we encourage readers to get over there and comment!
This is the second article by Caldwell in Canada’s conservative-leaning Financial Post and is much stronger than the first. I have asked Mr. Caldwell to send his article as a submission to Canada Finance (deadline March 10).
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2014/02/11/canadas-u-s-tax-capitulation/
A few excerpts:
“FATCA, passed by the U.S. Congress in 2010, is an extension of America’s anomalous and larcenous practice of demanding taxes from people, regardless of where they reside in the world. The United States is one of only two countries that engage in this disgraceful conduct (Eritrea being the other.)
….Let us eliminate a deliberate misconception: This agreement is not about catching “tax cheats” as its proponents aver and journalists obediently repeat. It is about expanding America’s oversight of global commerce, while increasing its ability to confiscate funds to which it has no legitimate claim.
Notwithstanding that Canada’s leaders have subjected their citizens to the most rapacious and malevolent tax department in the world in the form of the IRS, they have committed a craven surrender of national sovereignty.
As a dual citizen I appreciate and have benefited from the unique trading relationship of these two countries. But in this case the United States is being a bully and, like many bullies, needs a smack in the nose. Canada, meanwhile, needs a leader with the sand to deliver it.
A simple no would suffice. Call America’s bluff, if indeed that’s what it is. If however the U.S. means what it says and really were to begin slapping a 30% withholding tax on Canadian investors, Canada should respond by granting an immediate tax credit in that amount to affected individuals and institutions. This may take a bite out of federal tax receipts, but right is right. If America’s largest trading partner were willing to stand up against such preposterous demands, other countries woudl have the courage and blueprint to do the same….”
Theo tells it like it is. I look forward to hearing more from him.
The latest number of US citizens renouncing has skyrocketed in the last quarter of 2013.
http://www.sovereignman.com/expat/americans-who-abandoned-citizenship-jumped-1402-last-quarter-13489/
The idea of the Canadian government issuing a tax credit to offset the 30% U.S. penalty is stupid. The Canadian treasury would still be taking a U.S. induced hit. The only reasonable response would be for the U.S. to fight this thing publicly in the International Court of the Hague and through trade agreements. A public battle is the only thing that would make the U.S. come to its senses and I believe that Canada would get other countries to jump on board. Bullies operate by isolating their victims and promising them mercy if they don’t squeal.
Canada could perhaps recoup the money by taking a 30% bite out of all dividends and capital being sent to the US from American owned Canadian companies.
How about rather than withholding a certain percentage, Canada withholds the actual equivalent amount. But that would take courage, something our government apparently doesn’t have.
sorry to be so obtuse, but is reporting FBARs 1st step in complying with FATCA? The $50K threshold in all accounts for reporting by the FFI to CRA, to IRS I understand. How does the $10K threshold aggregate of accounts per FFI apply?
I think it was published first at the Daily Caller here.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/10/canadas-fatca-capitulation/
I think he is understating it! LOL
Now is the time we need to ask our Conservative MP’s how they are going to vote for this agreement and why…..
Once we round up ANY MP’s that vote “yes” to this deal, we need to publicly post a huge WALL OF SHAME and explain to Canadians what they have done to this country as a whole…
YES
Major publicity. I’ve said it before, but last I checked Bill Gates (a good guy I’m sure) owns 20% of CN rail, and Carl Icahn owns 7ish % of Talisman Energy etc. etc. Annoying these people would exert HUGE pressure on our friend Obama.
We Repeal FATCA!
Canadians citizens living in Canada are from Canada and belong to Canada. Isn’t it that simple to understand?
The accomplices of such obvious crimes such FATCA should be penalized and put in jail <–responsibles of breaking our constitutional human rights laws, etc.(PM)
@NativeCanadian
I like your idea – Wall of Shame for MPs who vote for FATCA
My comment didn’t make the grade:
@calgary411..thank you for your mail to Stephen Harper…. i am humbled to be aware of your efforts…..
Sadly there just aren’t enough articles coming out as forthright as Theo Caldwell’s and Don Whiteley’s have been. It’s the idiots like Diane Francis who garner the most attention. I was just thinking how much my husband and I had been looking forward to celebrating on July 1, 2014, our first Canada Day as both Canadian citizens. However, with the Harper government capitulation to US FATCA law our Canadian citizenships have been greatly devalued. We will never feel certain of our future and never feel completely free of the stigma of being US targeted Canadian taxpayers. We might attend a Canada Day celebration somewhere this year but if we do we will silently turn our backs to it and wear black armbands to commemorate the death of Canada’s sovereignty. It took 200 years but the USA finally won the War of 1812. It seems that Sir Isaac Brock fought and died for nothing. Canadians who carry no US personhood taint don’t give us a second thought and Americans just see us all as tax cheats because their media has been quite successful in that branding campaign. However, the next thing to concentrate on is a lawsuit and, despite my misgivings about the honesty of the Canadian judiciary, I’m all for one last attempt to throw sand in the gears of the FATCA meat grinder.
@ Em… don’t lose heart. ….. “lucernas accendunt in ventus ignes”…… at least in Canada there is alarge, educated, growing and furiously angry minority carrying the torch….. I salute you and your husband for your courage.
238 years ago US became a nation that rejected taxation without representation and we are the spirit of that nation whether or not we still have the blue paper.
I am just wiating for someone to provide details of the lawsuit and I would become involved as much as I can.
I’m going to wear an armband and carry a sign on Canada Day here at our celebrations. My sign will say “My Charter Rights don’t matter. Ask me why.”
The armband will say “Second class Canadian”
@always something says
FBARS are reported by individuals, not by FFIs. Their existence (but not their enforcement) precedes FATCA by decades and the $10,000 limit has become more restrictive over time as inflation has eroded the value of that $10,000.
@crystal london
Definitely agree about the parallels to the 1770s. John Adam’s Novanglus is incredibly pertinent (including questions about why the tax situation is being shifted overseas!) as is Thomas Paine.
Also see today’s (Feb 11) outstanding Theo Caldwell’s National Post article ” Canada’s U.S. tax capitulation” http://epaper.nationalpost.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
I think it would be interesting to go to a T-shirt shop and go get MYSELF a “second Class Canadian” shirt to wear, as I, born in Ontario Canada am now a second class Canadian too. It seems reporting to the IRS will make even “born in Canada” Canadians second class.
Native Canadian — Add that “Ask Me How?” to your T-shirt.
I’ll do that Carol. What about a “please support your local IRS/CRA shirt too?
Native Canadian: Messages on front and back of your t-shirt!
Kerry-Lynne Findlay wants to hear your thoughts on FATCA. She needs 10,000 comments a day in order to fill her day. So, go ahead and make her day.
Kerry-Lynne.Findlay@parl.gc.ca