Now that we’ve arrived at 10,000,000 hits, it is time to move to a more robust platform. My personal thanks to our software developer who has worked hard as a volunteer to make this happen.
Now that we’ve arrived at 10,000,000 hits, it is time to move to a more robust platform. My personal thanks to our software developer who has worked hard as a volunteer to make this happen.
@noone
exit tax too?
Yes, exit tax too.
Sorry , I don’t know where to post this. So, I apologize in advance.
If the Conservatives say that we can’t tell another country what laws to come out with and they seem to think
Canada should just agree to the 30% withholding beacause that’s what the US law says then that means we could come out with a law in Canada that states any foreign Financial institution that withholds 30% taxes
is against our laws and the fine is a minimum 5 million dollars per account. Then using the conservatives logic,
the US would have to stop the 30% withholding or face 5 million dollar penalties on every account. They couldn’t have it both ways. You obey other Country’s laws or you don’t. If they obey and agree to pay the 5 million per account we’re good and if they say we can’t pay the 5 million because it is Canada’s law then we will know by their answer whether Country’s have to listen to other Country’s laws. This is extortion to the highest degree what the US is doing. How brain Dead does the Conservatives voting for this have to be. It’s like your 40 year old neighbour coming over and saying I’m going to beat up your 2 children with a baseball bat and possibly kill them or instead I am going to hit them in the teeth with a golf club and break all their teeth , which one would you prefer. If you are a conservative politician , you would answer please
hit my 2 children in the mouth and knock all their teeth out because that would be much nicer. A true Canadian would say how about neither one. They are both immoral . The solution to these problems should not be this difficult . They are US laws and this aint the U.S. It’s Canada.
@ FATCA dump – – I doubt the Cons have the guts to pull this off but very apt and interesting idea and analogy. 🙂
@Neill
Thanks for the Ghana article. Even before FATCA was in the news, developing countries were looking at citizenship-based taxation as a way of getting revenue from their emigrants, so I am not surprised that Ghana is mulling this over. It is ironic that the U.S., of all countries, uses citizenship-based taxation since it benefits so much from the brain drain. I haven’t seen any moves in the U.K. to tax citizens abroad.
@noone,
The problem with staying on the green card is death. The death tax has a ceiling that applies to US citizens not green card holders. So if I die my wife has a lower limit before she has to pay tax on her own stuff.
I can also be kicked out of the country on a wim and I am a juicy plum when the exit tax kicks in.
On the green card if you are long term then you have pretty much all the obligations of a citizen. You have some stuff that applies to you that doesn’t apply to citizens (bad stuff like the death tax).
Some once you become a long term green card holder if you have assets then I feel your pretty much forced to become a citizen if you want to remain in the US. If you leave your in the same crappy position as citizens.
@Neill, thanks for your analysis. I agree with it. I did not know about the death tax. Is your wife a green card holder as well or is she a US citizen? My wife and kids are both American. My kids are dual as I declared them at my consulate.
@ Publius
Ah, just wait; the number of other countries going towards CBT will increase because FATCA has raised awareness of this “opportunity” and then more and more banks will close to more and more people residing in their country, including (and probably especially) in the USA. Then where the global economy be??? And how easily will there be international movement for work, charities, travel, retirement. The whole “global living” thing will crumble and we’ll be back to the 1800s!
@Neill
Thanks for the insight… need to learn more about the death tax.. I know when my aunt passed… my uncle was joint so there was no tax due in the US & they were both GC but we are in the process of clearing up the mess she left behind in their home country… I want to make sure when I go… my family will be ok… but at the rate this going… I should just spend it all… be poor… cause the US may tie my hands… Everyone says… ohh… I would never hit the 2 million dollar mark… wrong… if u sit there… really look at everything u own… u may actually pass that mark very easy… Surprised the heck out of me…
@LM,
I can’t wait till I see the US denounce other countries doing CBT.
@noone
My wife is also a green card holder. My kids are American.
@neill
No kidding.
I kind of like the idea of retaliatory or recipricol basis CBT.
@Neill
Re: “I can’t wait till I see the US denounce other countries doing CBT.”
You can get a fore-taste of US reaction starting at 46:30 in this video:
http://www.aaro.org/aaro-in-action/446-overseas-americans-week-recap
American-in-Paris John Fredenberger takes umbrage with France now collecting information on world-wide income of its citizens.
I am one of the ten million and I will be voting NDP if anyone is reading this. Not only will I vote for them, I’ll work on campaigns and do everything in my power to vote Anybody but, Cons. FATCA capitulation is the reason and my extended family have also taken this decision. We’re at least ten voters the Cons won’t get.
I have some information from a local bank manager I spoke with today.
He told me that CRA has told all banks and credit unions that they may advertise to attract any clients from any nationality but that advertising to Americans mentioning anything about FATCA in their advertisements is not acceptable. The bank manager was even a little afraid to tell me this.
Of course the person and institution will remain unnamed but I trust the person implicitly . So, as many have already guesses CRA has imposed a ban on overt FATCA advertisement or mentioning FATCA to the public in advertising… In my opinion this may be why bank personal play dumb when asked about it.
We are truly living in a fascist Nazi country here where no one has the balls to stand up publicly for what’s right save a few Canadian patriots.
Chears, The CRA does not have the authority to tell banks what they can mention in advertising. Send me the name of this bank manager: I’d like to talk to him. Let’s see if we can verify this story. If it is as you say, there is no doubt at all that this is facist totalitarianism.
Brock was down all day yesterday here in Alberta but I see comments from the 28th so it must have been up in other locations. Today I have gotten the “Resource Limit Reached” message a couple of times. Otherwise, steady as she goes. Obviously there are some growing pains involved when “propagating” becomes necessary. I know Petros and his helper(s) worked hard behind the scenes to expand Brock and I was happy to see the handsome visage of Sir Isaac appear again this morning. 🙂
Since Brock is blinking on and off a bit today I hope people will head over to the Maple Sandbox to follow this important thread about what is happening in the HofC Finance Committee meeting today:
http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/urgent-amendments-being-voted-on-today-or-tonight/#comments
LM: God help this world if other countries start thinking CBT is a good idea. That is change I *can’t* live with.
@LM, but even if, say, Britain moved to a CBT regime, their system would still be understandable enough for me to continue to self-file instead of having to pay thousands annually in accounting fees. This is what essentially killed any hopes for me to retain dual nationality, as had been my original hope;
I could have lived with paying a few hundred pounds per year in double taxation but I simply wasn’t prepared to suffer the ongoing burdens of compliance, year after year. My UK return is about ten pages long even my simplest US tax return was over 60 pages and even close to 300 pages one year!!!
I can sort of understand the American notion that citizenship comes with certain membership dues, but it’s a question of what seems reasonable and the current system is certainly not reasonable in it’s present form.
The US has lost it’s way, sadly, and renouncing seemed an act of self-preservation in an increasingly litigious system whereby I would have been forced to rely on expensive tax prepare and even attorneys…. I still don’t know if former citizens will continue to be harassed by the IRS if FATCA goes through full-throttle…I’d expect there might be a surge in audits perhaps by 2016-2017 after they’ve received and been able to digest all their FATCA data coming in….