Presenter: John Richardson, B.A., L.L.B., J.D., is a Toronto lawyer and a member of the Ontario Bar. Citizenshipsolutions.ca
Where: Atwater Library, 1200 Atwater Ave, (just below St. Catherine – Metro less than a block away), Montréal, Québec, H3Z 1X4 MAP
When: Tuesday, September 23, 2014, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Admission: $20 individual or $40 for a family of up to four people. Payable in cash at the door, please (to cover costs). Hope to see you and your families on September 23. Spread the word!
It is estimated there are 7 million U.S. citizens living outside the United States. Some of these people don’t know that the U.S. may consider them to be citizens. The vast majority of these Americans abroad (according to U.S. law), are required to pay taxes and complete information reporting forms to the United States. Although “citizenship-based” taxation has existed for years, what is new, is the enforcement.
On February 5, Canada signed an Intergovernmental Agreement with the United States concerning the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. This enables the US to receive enhanced financial information of Canadians (account numbers, balances, deposits, withdrawals); information the Canadian banks were never permitted to send to the CRA due to our privacy laws. This reporting applies to those deemed “US Persons” which includes citizens, green card holders,”Accidental Americans,” “border babies,” and will affect the families of anyone considered as such by the US. On Canada Day, July 1, 2014, Canadian financial institutions began to determine what accounts are “reportable accounts.” Information regarding those accounts will be passed on to the CRA who will, in turn, pass this information on to the IRS. The late Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty emphasized that the CRA will not collect taxes for any person who was a Canadian citizen at the time the tax was incurred, nor will any penalties be collected concerning FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report). This situation is causing confusion and concern for anyone who may have a US connection, whether it be actual citizenship, a member of the family, etc. These seminars will include discussion and analysis of the IRS “relaxed opportunities” for people to come into compliance and will focus on:
Citizenship Issues:
Are you a US citizen?
Are you still a US citizen?
Are your children US citizens?
What is an Accidental American?
Tax Issues:
Filing US tax returns
What is involved?
Filing information returns (FBAR, 8938, 3520A & 3520, 5471, 8621 etc)
Reasonable cause (avoiding penalties)
Financial Planning Issues:
Treatment of tax-deferred savings plans
Treatment of Mutual Funds (PFICs)
Privacy Issues:
What might FATCA mean for me?
Border Issues:
Will FATCA make it harder for me to cross the border?
Does it make sense to give up US citizenship?
Relinquishment
Renouncing
Information presented is NOT intended or offered as legal or accounting advice specific to your situation.
Sorry off topic but interesting comments about FATCA from Serbia.
http://www.tax-news.com/news/Serbia_To_Protect_Taxpayers_Rights_Under_FATCA____65575.html
It makes you wonder how serious the charter of rights and the privacy laws are in Canada when you see much smaller countries protecting their citizen from the souther bully.
It may be that the Serbian banks do little if any business in the US, so the Serbian politicians were not put under so much pressure to comply as other countries?
It does however make you feel good to know that someone has the balls to stand firm and protect their citizens and the sovereignty of their country , especially when there is not much too feel good about these days.
All of us would love to see someone else challenge the establishment. The reason we want someone else to do it is because it involves risk. If someone else does it we will reap the reward without taking the risk. What I would like someone to do is, refuse to abide by FATCA by the millions, someone else to sit down and refuse to leave the capitol until the FairTax Bill HR25 is law, someone who will chain themselves to the White House Gate until Obama resigns, someone who will challenge every old senator and every old represenative, who has served way too long and be someone who could win an election definitively, but there are dozens of these things I’d love someone else to do. People of this caliber only come along infrequently and there are none in this generation or on the Horizon, so would someone please find some people like I want, so I don’t have to do it! lol
Has anyone started a petition to the White House?
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/
@Kathy,
I cannot give you an exact date but yes, one was started and failed miserably-nowhere near the 100,000 signatures needed by the deadline.