Just so we don’t get too smug among ourselves here in Canada I wanted to post this late breaking story.
Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard put $600,000 he earned in the 1990s in an offshore bank account in the Channel Islands, reveals a report by Radio-Canada’s investigative team Enquête.
Couillard worked in Saudi Arabia between 1992 and 1996, setting up a neurosurgery clinic.
He stated publicly this week that he had money in an offshore account between 1992 and 2000.
Couillard did not pay Canadian taxes on the money, which is perfectly legal as he had severed all ties with Canada at the time.
“In Saudi, like all people who are there, I was a non-resident. So I put my assets at the time in a foreign bank and when I returned, I transferred the money back home,” Couillard said Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Liberal leader told Enquête today that Couillard declared the revenue from the interest on the money and paid taxes as required by law, and also added that Couillard chose Jersey because that particular bank had links to a Canadian bank.
BREAKING NEWS…….INFOWARS COVERAGE
LISTEN
http://pro.stansberryresearch.com/1310PSIEANEW/LPSIQ390/?h=true
Write Down This Date:
July 1st, 2014
On this date, U.S. House of Representatives Bill “H.R. 2847” goes into effect. It will usher in the true collapse of the U.S. dollar, and will make millions of Americans poorer, overnight. You now have just several months to prepare…
“Dear Reader,
We’ve been critical of several Obama Administration policies over the past few years…
But a new law set to go into effect on July 1st, 2014 (less than five months from now), might be the Administration’s worst decision yet.
On this date, Title V of House of Representative Bill #2847, known as “FATCA,” goes into effect.
We believe this could precipitate a huge collapse in the U.S. dollar… and a rapid decrease in our standard of living.
Of course, we’re not the only ones who believe this new U.S. law is going to be a disaster for our country and American citizens.
Andrew Quinlan of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity says: “FATCA is pound-for-pound the single worst tax law on the books.”
Even the normally liberal Atlantic Monthly magazine said: “FATCA seems to be turning into a nightmare and disaster.”
What does this law do… and why is it so bad for America? “:
It’s pretty simple the FFIs will do their own negative advertising for FATCA. How on Earth are they going to do the ‘witch hunt’ without discriminatory practices? Aren’t the Police troubled by ‘profiling’ issues? FATCA is ‘Profiling’ nothing else.
Perhaps someone ought to go into an FFI with a hidden camera with an ‘American’ accent, but with documents that say otherwise and see how they react? This is a witch hunt pure and simple and it shouldn’t be allowed.
In a related story, Pierre D posted this elsewhere:
Canadians living abroad may be surprised to learn they owe Ottawa taxes.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/taxes/canadians-living-abroad-may-be-surprised-to-learn-they-owe-ottawa-taxes/article17592602/
Its become a witch hunt. I dont see what the “scandal” is. He didnt want to place his hard earned money in an arabian bank. As far as I have heard, Muslims dont believe in stocks and bonds.
But if he declared it then he can put his money wherever he wants.
Poor guy. The 1990s were such a different era and now he is getting flak even though it isn’t clear that he broke any law.
There has been a big shift in a lot of countries. In the U.K., reputable banks in the late 1990s used to publicize their offshore services very widely in the press and in their windows, but public opinion has shifted dramatically. Tax dodges that once would have been considered clever are now the source of derision and the U.K. tax authority has announced a big crackdown on overseas accounts:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hmrc-campaign-targets-offshore-account-holders-in-fresh-clamp-down-on-tax-evasion
According to the Wikipedia article on international taxation, which has been accurate on everything I have checked, there are quite a few countries that tax former residents or citizens unless ties are properly broken. Some countries tax citizens who move to a tax haven. The weird thing about the U.S. is that it taxes people whose only connection to the U.S. is a non-resident U.S. parent and that it taxes citizens indefinitely even if they move to high-tax countries.
This seems to be a non-story to me.
BTW That you ChearsBigEars for the reference to
http://pro.stansberryresearch.com/1310PSIEANEW/LPSIQ390/?h=true
This seems so true to me. Yet I dont see ownership of gold as an answer – Government might well do what they have done before and make the ownership of gold (read any other commodity) illegal and require all such holdings to be turned in. Can we spell Tyranny?
At least Couillard didn’t ape “pur laine” Separatist Lucien Bouchard (US-born wife, wonder how she is with FATCA these days …) who sent his Canadian-and-Quebec-born kids to private school in the US (not even in Quebec, never mind the rest of Canada). While living in Canada and being a Canadian then Quebec politician. I find that a lot more bothersome than someone legally putting money in a Jersey bank while working and residing overseas (in an RBC branch in Jersey, too!) and then moving it to Canada, declaring it and paying taxes on it once it’s back in Canada, as per Canadian taxation laws. Big fat hairy deal.
Sounds like Marois and the PQ are both desperate and scraping the bottom of the barrel to find mud to sling. Am looking forward to the results on April 7, what with latest polls saying the Liberals have a solid majority-territory lead over PQ in latest polls and 2/3 of polled voters (obviously including a fair few PQ supporters) saying they don’t want anything to do with another referendum on separation. Elections can be volatile, and the PQ sound like they’re pulling all stops (as usual) to disenfranchise and/or demonize Anglos, Allos and out-of-province students who legally qualify for a ballot (given that 76% of non-francophones say they’ll vote Liberal and only 40% of francophones say they’ll vote PQ, they need every dirty undemocratic trick in their books). Fascist exceptionalism at its very best; the US could take lessons from the PQ on that score. So could the robo-call Tory contractors …
Total non-story. The Quebec media are hunting for scandal. The guy played by the rules, so far as I can see.
I probably should have put scandal in quotes. As of this morning it looks like this story is already dying out.
Note to the PQ: This is the type of story you put out the night before the election not weeks before.
This election though seems to have gotten exceptionally dirty on the part of the PQ although right from the beginning their seemed to be a lot of dirty play. I personally was curious as of two weeks ago how and why the PQ and Pauline had all these election posters right on the provincial right of way for Autoroute A10 from Montreal to Sherbrooke.
@Schubert
I believe Lucien Bouchard’s wife Audrey Best died in 2011. I remember when she died several people said Best was Quebec’s Evita Peron. Others though said Charest’s wife Michele Dionne was Quebec’s Evita Peron. I don’t know much of the history of Evita Peron so I don’t know why and how they are making this comparison.
I remember though several commentators complaining during the Quebec student strikes about why Jean Charest had such an attractive wife until it was pointed out that Charest had been married since 1980.
For Canadian political history buffs Charest was actually Brian Mulroney’s preferred successor however, the old PC Party membership choose Kim Campbell instead and the rest shall they say is history.