U.S. tax crackdown driving more expats living in Canada to renounce citizenship http://t.co/OIf1h9bfpg via @financialpost – Must read!
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) July 4, 2014
You will find the article referenced in the above tweet here.
Did you see the earlier article that was just public spin for the gullible…?
Barbara Shecter @BatPost · Jun 25
Canadian industry claims win in long fight over U.S. crackdown on tax evasion http://natpo.st/1mfvl99 via @financialpost
Great piece — by the same author as the June 25th article that Just Me highlights. Canadian industry and the collateral damage of Canadian industry’s WIN. Amazing — thanks for pointing out, Just Me!
@Just Me
Thanks for sharing Barbara Shecter’s June 25th “public spin article” . . . so infuriating!
Here’s an excellent article on EconMatters: “YOU DON’T KNOW THE CONSEQUENCE OF FATCA”. It’s a well written description detailing negative consequences of FATCA. Hope the article gets some positive comments.
http://www.econmatters.com/2014/06/you-dont-know-consequence-of-fatca.html
A great article about a real tragedy. Thank you ladies for having the courage to tell the world what is happening to the American Diaspora — outright persecution and condemnation to living in shackles and chains just for being born in the USA.
We will have their freedom one day. But we can never, never, never give up!
The US has always been odd treating ex-pats as traitors. Most countries wish their ex-pats good luck and welcome back if you change your mind. The US – let’s set up an unpaid IRS overseas network and hound its citizens around the world.
Most countries would be embarrassed about having ex-pats having to renounce over taxes they don’t even owe. All for what because ex-pats resent filling in IRS forms that are more complex than Homelanders have to fill in.
Even many countries who have had military conscription have let their ex-pats off the hook by placing for example age restrictions. You return between certain ages you must serve. At least there was a predictable and fairer solution to this problem.
Also let’s not forget Canada defied the US by allowing US draft dodgers to stay in Canada. Did Canada fall over its decision? Or the US retaliated against Canada by trade sanctions? I don’t recall so.
FATCA is unfair, and unpredictable. What’s stopping the IRS demanding all accounts from $1 in 2020 from account years 2015 to 2019. Nothing. The IRS knows the data is there it’s a matter of datamining it.
That’s why rules of the road need to be put into place.
Actually both the Canadian financial industry and the US win when Canadians are encouraged to keep buying financial products that the US will tax them on later. Call me cynical.
I was looking at some old FATCA conference videos and my interpretation of it has changed.
Rather than focus on the tax, discrimination, and sovereignty issues, I see FATCA more as this:
“FATCA is a mass data collection effort disguised as a tax information sharing agreement.”
Now with the USG able to change the definitions of US Person, US Indicia, Reportable Account, FFI, and lastly what the data needs to be gathered for each Reportable Account at anytime and without the Canadian Government’s permission, the real evil of FATCA becomes even more apparent.
To drag the folks in Canada into the debate (and get donations) who think they’re not affected, they need to be convinced as the US changes the above definitions to produce more and more accounts classified as a ‘US Account,’ then the fact whether you’re US Person or solely a Canadian citizen becomes irrelevant.
And they need to understand that’s the risk of being a US Account and the bank could send off their data by covert means.
For example, you go to the US login to your RBC internet banking in Florida, suddenly a pop up says you need to agree to new terms and conditions, click through, it’s done. You’ve agreed with the bank’s analysis you’re now a US account because they detected a US IP Address.
Now you go to Florida years later, get pulled over by the local cop for speeding, the cop runs your license and is able to see all your private financial information because the USG has given permission for all law enforcement agencies in the US to have access to FATCA data.
Do you want to sit on some dark road in the middle of nowhere late at night with the policeman knowing you’ve got $1,000,000 in your Canadian bank?
I’m sure other examples could be made, but FATCA won’t affect all Canadians until they start feeling real life examples important to them.
You can become a US Account without your knowledge or worse your acceptance of the bank’s analysis by silence as well.
How about if the US changed the definition of US Indicia to simply going online in Canada, by something off a US website and have the goods shipped to Canada. So the US now says if you use your Canadian Card online on a US website, presto, you’re now a US Account in the bank’s eyes once you’ve accepted the bank’s analysis by covert means.
That’s the road we’re going down.
Now you’re open to FATCA abuse.
Thank you oh IBS people being interviewed and shedding light on these corners that the US would prefer be kept in shadow.
@Don…
But of course. THAT is the point of FATCA many of us have been making. It is all part of Dragnet Nation. It is all data collection for the surveillance state. If you like NSA spying then you will love FATCA.
Now, as a full fledged member of the 5 Eyes of global surveillance, it was a given that Canada would be forced to go along. Just NZ, UK and AU. They are all sleeping in the same bed with the same whore. BIG DATAcation is what it is all about!
Thank you to those who were interviewed. You were so very courageous.
I hope this article wakes up some people in our Canada.
Don
You present some very good points. We must be very aware of what we consent to.
@Just Me Says – It was an attempt to create language the man on the street can understand easily. One of the problems with this whole debate is taking a complex issue and trying to simplify the message so it can be easily understood, remembered, and relevant.
Perhaps a picture of a US Policeman glaring into a laptop holding a Canadian Driver’s license in his hand with all your private banking data shown would bring this point to life.
At the end it’s all about marketing.
The photo really sums it up — Living in the Shadows.
@Don, FATCA woke me up to the facts. Even congress in the U.S. thinks ALL expats “must be up to something” The U.S. is exceptional in that they despise their expats even though they know so little about them. In fact they know nothing about their expats precisely because their attitude is “you ran off” “you left to escape paying your fair share” In no way do they realize or wish to realize that people leave for a variety of reasons the biggest one being family reasons or for something called a J.O.B.
Who needs it? I don’t wish to be looked upon in that manner just because I married a Canadian. No amount of talking to them does any good. Deep down they all are united in their hatred or jealousy or whatever it is that causes them to fear the expat and loathe them.
It’s so odd and out of kilter with the way other nations view their diaspora. FATCA was just the written large expression of the national attitude and ignorance that has always been there under the surface towards expats who were born in the U.S.A.
We need some crowdfunding. I like Don’s ideas… we have to get the Canadian citizens realizing they will be affected…like snow birds. We need some big people with big money who will stand up as Canadians to fight the bully.
Lawrence Lessig’s Mayday.us just raised a lot of money…to help get the money out of politics by campaigning to elect five politicians who will enact campaign finance reform. This morning the Super PAC hit its $5 million grassroots fundraising goal thanks to 47,000 supporters, which will be matched by $5 million in donations from wealthy tech luminaries.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/05/mayday-campaign-finance-reform/
@atticusincanada
As I see it, the big problem is the image of the expat. I don’t even think that U.S. persons abroad should use the word expat, since that word has had very negative connotations in the U.S. These connotations go way back, but if you look at the ages of the people making these laws, perhaps that is relevant. Emigrant is a bit down market, but expat is definitely associated with the super-rich in the U.S.
@Publius, you are correct on expat.
But I think we need to use the term Emigrant as in US Emigrant.
Conservatives will tend to think we left because of Obama.
Liberals will tend to think we left because of Bush.
Maybe right, maybe wrong…..but if thats what they want to think….
Speaking of funding…..
Has anyone written personal hand written letters to maybe Tina Turner or even the facebook person.
I am sure they would or should be sympathetic.
Germany plans on making ‘foreigners’ pay for using the Autobahn.
Here’s an interesting quote from an EU official:
In Brussels, a spokeswoman for EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas cautioned about the planned foreigners-only fee that “non-discrimination is a fundamental principle of EU law”, while declining to comment specifically on Dobrindt’s plans.
Has this commissioner heard about FATCA? If FATCA isn’t discrimination I can’t tell you what is.
The world expat implies you’ve left somewhere.
The word emigrant implies you’re going somewhere.
“Expatriate” anchors us to the homeland forever, whereas “emigrant” suggests we’ve cut our ties and intend to live somewhere else forever. Which describes our situation best when the reader infers from one that we may return, and the other that we’ve left forever? In the minds of homelanders, which of the two types should be allowed to free themselves of their obligations to the homeland forever? Unfortunately with CBT, emigrants from the US must renounce their citizenship to make it a reality.
Also, another very good reason to cease using the word expat is that many homelanders confuse “expatriate” with “ex-patriot”.
That’s the ‘word’ expat not ‘world’, doh!
I like your explication @Bubblebustin;
“….The world expat implies you’ve left somewhere.
The word emigrant implies you’re going somewhere…”
And then there is the case of others who were born outside the US. They neither emigrated, nor are they expats. There is no word for them. They just happen to have inherited US DNA via a parent. The US Treasury, US media, and US homelanders apparently don’t get that people who live abroad have families – who may never have set foot in the US and who possibly never will. In the case of those born ‘abroad’ who the US adamantly considers UStaxablepersons, US taxation and penalties are a kind of pre-emptive taxation. A US tax on DNA.
@Bubblebustin.
You are correct but I have to say I know quite a few Americans who emigrated to Canada and have lived here as permanent residents, not interested in being a Canadian citizen. I find that disheartening especially when they are aware of FATCA and they have no intention of moving back to the homelland .
@George
I think writing to Tina Turner is a good idea, but she may not want to get openly involved in the fight if she has any compliance skeletons in her closet, which she might.
However, she may be interested in making an anonymous donation to the ADSC so it certainly wouldn’t hurt to try.