Dave Popowich, host of “More Than Money”, interviews John Richardson on CHQR News Talk 770, Calgary, Alberta, September 20, 2014.
Another great discussion about FATCA, the Canadian IGA and the Charter challenge by ADCS. John was also recently interviewed by CHQR’s Dave Taylor.
Thanks — my ears are off to listen!
It is now the Dave Taylor interview.
@calgary411
Ok, third time lucky, I hope. Mixed-up URLs.
The video won’t play on my computer. It says: “This video is private.”
EmBee,
It now works properly. Try again. Deckard knows how to do the magic that makes it possible. I looked for it on the CHQR site yesterday and no way could I find it.
Thanks so much, Deckard — and John Richardson, co-chair of ADCS-ADSC!
Listen, pay attention to the problems and donate to fight for Canadian sovereignty and what should be the rights of ALL Canadians under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and other laws @ http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/. Your donation, however big or small, is your important statement, over and over again.
@All
Sorry guys – gremlins in YouTube land today. I had to force a reset of the privacy settings on the video – all should be good now 🙂
Ah there it goes. Thanks Deckard.
Good interview and great plug for ADCS!
Hopefully, the discussion will continue in Calgary on CHQR 77, Talk Radio. Thanks to Dave Popowich and to Dave Taylor (the previous interview on CHQR: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/09/03/john-richardson-interviewed-by-dave-taylor-of-calgarys-chqr-news-talk-770/)
Well done John Richardson! Looking forward to the next interview.
If anyone has an e-mail address for Dave Popowich please post it. I’d like to send him an e-mail similar to what I sent Dave Taylor. I tried dave.popowich@corusent.com but got a pingback.
EmBee,
Try david.popowich1@cibc.com.
See: http://www.morethanmoneyradio.com/david-popowich
Thanks calgary411. I just tried that address but it was undeliverable too. Also gave david.popowich@corusent.com a try but no luck with that either. Oh well.
Well done, John!!
or, https://www.cibcwg.com/web/Popowich-Karmali-Advisory-Group and “Contact US” button?
How FATCA will impact those of modest means (low income families).
Homelanders like to trumpet the fact that we have an “foreign earned income exemption” of 97,000. Unfortunately, the trump card is the “earned income” classification. Earned income means pay checks from an employer. So what does that do to most sources of income for those expats of low-income or on social assistance?
a) Welfare payments are not considered “earned income” in IRS’s POV.
b) Disability payments are not considered “earned income” in IRS’s POV
c) Employment Insurance is not considered “earned income” in IRS’s POV
d) Worker’s Compensation is not considered “earned income” in IRS’s POV
e) Child Support Payments are not considered “earned income” in IRS’s POV
f) Canada Child Tax Benefit payments are not considered “earned income” in IRS’s point of view.
So all of these are taxed by the United States Internal Revenue Service in its overreaching grasp. Since most expats of modest means have a corresponding lack of education, they are furthermore hindered by not being able to understand the intricacies of the US tax system. Furthermore they do not have the monetary resources to get into compliance as their choice is between putting food on the table for their families or starving and coming into compliance.
Secondly all accounts that are not disclosed by means of an FBAR are subject to a financial penalty of $10,000 per account that is not considered wilful non-disclosure – the penalty for wilful is $100,000 or 50% of one’s account balance, whichever is greater. How is someone who makes $18,000 per annum supposed to come up with $10,000 for a non-wilful penalty let alone $100,000 (if the whim of the IRS is that the account-holder is a wilful non-disclosure)? For these families there is no financial safety net to dip into. For these people there is not a single way to come into compliance that would not wreak financial ruin on the family.
“There has to be a better way” is the constant refrain that I’ve been hearing from everyone. Unfortunately there is NO way for those of low-income to even think of coming into “compliance”.
Animal: This is one of the best and most succinctly worded statements I have read yet on the fundamental evil of FATCA and CBT. Thank you! The public needs to be made more aware that Canadian taxpayers’ money, meant for the support of fellow Canadians in our own communities is now going to be siphoned off to the United States. I don’t think this message is getting through to people. If it was I think we’d see anti-FATCA demonstrations in the streets.
Ultimately, the simple fact is that “as it stands” we cannot save for retirement as the tax rules as they stand will ultimately open up any retirement savings account to US scrutiny. They get you on the aggregate – so you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. That’s why as a Canadian citizen married to a USC spouse (who is seriously thinking of dropping her US citizenship and taking on CDN).
How is anyone supposed to retire on less than $10K? It’s not possible and we can’t save for our retirement or the US gets in on the act.
The only way is to exit the US tax system and that means renunciation. It’s a sad world that the United States which has 1 out of 3 people on welfare is trying to dictate to the rest of the world what they should do. Perhaps they should clean up their house first instead of paying welfare payments to the 1 in 3 that have decided not to work.
Sorry, cut off comment: That’s why as a Canadian citizen married to a USC spouse (who is seriously thinking of dropping her US citizenship and taking on CDN) I’m ENRAGED!
John Richardson says that the label “citizenship based taxation” is highly misleading, and says it is actually “taxation based on place of birth”. That sounds bad enough. But of course it is also “taxation based on parentage”. I have several Greek friends who are deemed Greek-US dual citizens but who have never personally touched US soil. The father was once a student in the US, worked there a few years, and thought it would be nice to have US citizenship for he and his wife. He now lives in Greece and his Greek-born children have inherited US citizenship. They have not been sufficiently clued-up to renounce before reaching age 18 1/2. Some of the family property assets are in the children’s’ names. Given the huge level of Greek taxes currently, the mis-match of Greek and US tax law, and deficient tax treaty, US tax compliance would be completely ruinous for the father. He is forced to lie on his US 1040, and his children will have to do the same, probably for the rest of their lives.
But getting back to “place of birth taxation”. Did you know that there are maternity clinics in the US that aggressively advertise services to couples who wish their child to have US citizenship? It is very expensive, but some parents imagine it might be useful to the child at some future day. The mother is flown to the US and stays in a hotel for the last couple months of her pregnancy. I know of one Turkish couple who did this, I know another Turkish couple who made a last minute cancellation once they learned about the lifetime tax implications.
@ricard
You might find this Brock post about birth tourism amusing…
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/03/02/chinese-birth-tourists-baby-pops-out-early-in-mexico-instead-of-la-saved-from-lifelong-irs-offshore-investigations/comment-page-1/
How about raise reward money to pay an individual who will procure and sell the bank’s FATCA data so it can be used as a mailing list to raise funds for the Charter Challenge?
FATCA data will be accessible and go through many hands before it get to the IRS, there must be one enterprising soul out there.
If the German government can pay money to a crooked Swiss banker that offered a list of Germans with secret Swiss bank accounts why can’t anti-FATCA organisations do the same thing?
Animal. An excellent snap of FATCA ruin. What about the education “advantage”? Those with education are more likely to be deemed “willful”. Neither my fine art BA nor my wife’s speech pathology degree equip us for IRS incomprehensibility re a partnership small business we shared. It has visably aged me trying to deal with it. I’ve given up. My type of college education is no help at all. My head is not built for the vocabulary and catagories on their forms. Will that distinction impress the IRS? There is no qualified professional help available on this island at any price, even if we could afford it.
I’m dyslexic!
I’m OCD and have a comp sci degree with a business analyst background. This means I have NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER! 🙂
I should have known I was a US taxpayer decades ago, avoided Canadian mutual funds, kept my name off the kids’ RESPS, never got married to a ‘pure’ Canadian, and be capable of filling out ALL the forms!
How did I miss this?!? Sigh….
This reminds me of an American sports newscaster several years ago who was commenting on how well golfer Mike Weir was doing and remarked that Weir “is Canadian AND left handed” as though it was a double handicap.
Just state “I’m Canadian” as reasonable cause and that should be good enough, but if concerned, you can add that our socialist (aka communist in Americaland) government controls what information we receive in Canada and never told us.