218 thoughts on “The #StopFatca Press Release and Social Media Page – Information Turnover for Canada Will Not Occur Before September 29”

1. @Cheryl

   I tweeted 10 of our major contacts the minute the news from IRS came

   The media has received an email with the Press Release. We have an extensive media list.

   Unfortunately, there is a limit to what a few people can do

2. @trish thanks. I tried to get started with Twitter to help but it was just too confusing…I’m not savvy enough. I’ll try to get my daughter to help me tomorrow. I must admit it scares me.

3. The “Kiss my Fatca(ss)” cartoon is right on target. 🙂

4. @EmBee

   This all the more reason why Canada should have STALLED, STALLED, STALLED, but all we heard was “where do we sign?”

   Disgusting.

5. @all, the list of those countries who haven’t yet legislated the FATCA IGA Model 1 into their domestic laws includes small ones like Croatia, the Phillipines, Belgium, etc.

   So, what was the inducement or delusion that had the Canadian Harper Cons jumping, scraping and bending over to kiss the US Emperor’s ‘ring’ despite warnings from leading constitutional scholar and lawyer Peter Hogg, initial public statements by late Finance Minister Flaherty, submissions from Profs Allison Christians and Arthur Cockfield, and all the submissions from opposition MPs, individual Canadians, the ADCS, etc. ?

   Makes Harper look desperate and craven.

   Again, I wonder what was the price for betraying over a million Canadian citizens and residents to a foreign country, and taking orders from Harper’s boss – the US Treasury?

6. I refer to items like this:
   “..Just recently, the BIR issued an advisory postponing the first reporting period by Philippine FIs to the second quarter of 2016, months after the initial target date of Sept. 30, 2015. The BIR also mentioned that the first batch of reports to be submitted will include information relating to 2014 and 2015 US reportable accounts.

   The main agreement also makes it clear that although the IGA has been signed, it is a part of a longer negotiation process. The IGA shall enter into force on the date of the Philippines’ written notification to the US that the country has completed its necessary internal procedures for implementation. This includes being satisfied that the US has established safeguards and infrastructure on information that will be exchanged. The agreement can also be amended any time before Dec. 31, 2016..”…
   from
   http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=fatca-where-are-we-now&id=115621

   and,
   Belgium hasn’t yet passed domestic laws to implement a FATCA IGA;
   https://home.kpmg.com/xx/en/home/insights/2015/09/tnf-belgium-update-fatca-reporting-2014.html

7. The first time I went to the Central Bank in the Philippines, a sign was posted warning that Filipinos were not allowed to hold bank accounts outside of the Philippines except when they obtain permission from the Central Bank.

   I wonder how the US enforced that. I wonder how many US banks reported accounts.

   By the way the IRS used to be called BIR too. The old name included one Orwellian lying word instead of two.

8. @Cheryl

   Thank you so much for trying. I know how daunting Twitter can be; I used to feel dizzy just looking at a Tweet with all the weird signs and numbers etc. If it weren’t for Just Me, I would never have bothered with it. Way back, there were only about 7 or 8 expats we knew, who were active and he impressed upon me how important it was that we make use of social media. It feels totally “natural” to me now and IMHO, Twitter is potentially the most powerful of the forms I am familiar with (I don’t think Facebook for instance, is nearly so useful for our purposes.)

9. @Trish I just sent a tweet to JT, PMSH and TM but I don’t know how to tell if it went out my #Stateles_CA. I’m trying.

10. Yay, Cheryl.

11. PACC just tweeted on behalf of the ADCS cause:

    https://twitter.com/PACC_CCAP/status/646124381844951040

12. Thanks for letting us know, JC — and for your, Tricia’s and all other Twitter Tweeters.

    And thanks PACC (PACC / @PACC_CCAP / The voice for privacy & access in Canada).

13. @Cheryl

    Fantastic! It takes time to get used to. You can email me anytime to trade tips, info etc

    I can’t find you. Is this right @Stateles_CA?

    Try bookmarking your twitter page so you can always find it. Then you can click on the #Tweets linl under ur handle and a new page will open with the tweets you have sent-on that second page is also a link fot tweets and replies. Once I find you we can follow each other and so on plus I am going to make a list for all the expats who are connected…..

    Thank you!

14. If Stephen Harper needs an IRS contact, he could start here.

    http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Large-Business-and-International-(LB&I)-Division-Directory

    COMMISSIONER
    Douglas W. O’Donnell

    DEPUTY COMMISSIONER (DOMESTIC)
    Sergio E. Arellano (Acting)

    Internal Revenue Service

    Street Address:
    Mint Building
    801 9th Street, NW
    4th Floor
    Washington, DC 20220 Mailing Address:
    1111 Constitution Avenue, NW
    Large Business and International Division
    Attn: SE:LB
    Washington, DC 20224
    TEL: (202) 515-4400
    FAX: (202) 515-4437

    DEPUTY COMMISSIONER (INTERNATIONAL)
    Dave Horton (Acting)

    Internal Revenue Service

    Street Address:
    Mint Building
    801 9th Street, NW
    4th Floor
    Washington, DC 20220 Mailing Address:
    1111 Constitution Avenue, NW
    Large Business and International Division
    Attn: SE:LB:IN
    Washington, DC 20224
    TEL: (202) 515-4343
    FAX: (202) 515-4455

    I’m sure one of these people could help.

15. Perhaps an NDP or Green Party MP could write directly to the IRS asking for an extension?

16. Maybe the PEOPLE of Canada should contact the IRS and ask them for the extension?

17. @Trish, Could you give me your email address. I still don’t think my tweets are getting out. They are not showing up on this site and so I wonder if they are not showing up anywhere else??? Thanks

18. I think the lack of response on this issue from anyone in the government proves that they really wanted to implement FATCA in Canada and turn over this data to the IRS all along. Their cover story about being forced to do it against their wills to avoid crippling sanctions by the US is a load of bunk. The CPC is a party that wants to make Canada into ‘Little America’ and their actions in government show this to be true at every turn. A good example that I discovered the other day involves the new Canadian Citizenship rules brought in under Bill C-24. On the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website, it now says that one of the requirements for becoming a citizen is:

    “Income tax filing
    You must have met your personal income tax filing obligations in four taxation years that are fully or partially within the six years immediately before the date you apply.”

    So, is it now correct to assume that, in Canada, citizenship is conflated with taxation, just like south of the border? One’s citizenship, and the rights and responsibilities pertaining thereto, have exactly f***-all to do with taxation! Taxation is an administrative levy implemented by a jurisdiction to cover the cost of services provided in said jurisdiction, nothing more. To conflate that with one’s citizenship is absurd in the extreme and smacks of typical American hyper-patriotic, irrational nonsense. So, is CBT in Canada coming next?

    Will this pattern of continuing nonsense be Canada’s ultimate destiny? To become just another ‘Little America’ to the north that copies everything the actual America says and does? Pathetic.

19. @Cheryl

    email me at
    nobledreamer16 at gmail dot com

20. @ RefugeeFromAmerica
    What a well thought out comment. I follow your reasoning and sometimes I think the North American Union has already happened but they’re just not telling us about it.

21. @EmBee
    Yes, I think the North American Union is already here, but they will just never call it that overtly. Actually, I think it is much bigger than just North America, sadly. The US, through it’s economic might and veiled threat of thousands of H-bombs, essentially runs the world, whether anyone wants to admit it or not. No western nation will stand up to them on any issue. This is what happens when you cede your sovereignty to the supposed good guys in return for protection, but the good guys, due to the corrupting influence of their near-absolute power, become bad guys. We all live in an American-run world prison and most people don’t even realize it.

    As for more evidence of Canadian capitulation to American demands, here is info from the Canadian government about a new program to force people visiting Canada (or transiting through Canada) to obtain travel pre-authorization from the government:

    “Starting March 15, 2016, visa-exempt foreign nationals who fly to or transit through Canada will need an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA). Exceptions include U.S. citizens and travellers with a valid visa.”

    What good is having a visa-exempt program for certain countries if you are going to then require their nationals to obtain a separate travel authorization? Sounds like another kind of visa, no? When will this North American security paranoia ever end? The US has an almost identical program called the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, ESTA. I’m sure that the US demanded that Canada implement an identical program, the eTA, as part of the recent Beyond the Border security plan and Harper and the Conservatives jumped right in and did it with fawning, US-adoring glee. I think I’m going to go live on a deserted island somewhere…

22. “Income tax filing
    You must have met your personal income tax filing obligations in four taxation years that are fully or partially within the six years immediately before the date you apply.”

    I wonder why not six of the six past years. Part of the oath is to obey laws of Canada. Of course as residents even before citizenship the law required six of those six years, but it doesn’t hurt to double check.

    ‘So, is it now correct to assume that, in Canada, citizenship is conflated with taxation’

    There is no such indication from what you quoted. Aside from not having intended to stay in Japan so many years, the fact is still that I don’t have to file Canadian tax returns most years. When I had no Canadian sourced income other than dividends and interest, withholding at the source was the same as for any non-resident. I couldn’t even get refunds by filing (unlike the US, where the diaspora could get refunds in years where the IRS’s identity thieves hadn’t stolen the withholding). I only have to file Canadian returns for years where I have other kinds of Canadian sourced income.

    Canada actually has SBT + RBT (source based taxation + residence based taxation), sensible and compatible with most of the world. No sign of CBT (Eritrean Style Taxation) there.

23. ‘What good is having a visa-exempt program for certain countries if you are going to then require their nationals to obtain a separate travel authorization? Sounds like another kind of visa, no?’

    No. I haven’t looked at the price of a Canadian tourist visa application since a Canadian consul promised my wife will never get one, sorry. But she paid US$160 for a tourist visa to go to US Tax Court. The fee would have been the same if her visa application had been rejected. Unless there are fees and rejections of authorizations to applicants from visa-exempt countries, it’s not the same.

24. @Norman Diamond
    When I became a citizen of Canada, there was no mention of taxation whatsoever and no requirement to certify anything tax-related to become a citizen. Also, if you look into the history of the Canadian tax form, T1135, you will see that it is morphing into something like a Canadian FBAR. Under the current government, it has grown into a form requiring balances and account numbers from all foreign accounts (if the aggregate is greater than $100,000) and the penalties are now much more severe. There is also no appeals process built into the penalty scheme for this form, unlike all other Canadian tax forms. There are definitely actions going on behind the scenes in this government to tie taxation to citizenship and to implement American-style reporting of financial assets. If the Canadian government were to ever make CBT the law of the land, it looks like they will already have all the pieces in place behind the scenes to create a system that closely mirrors the American one. Never say never.

25. “When I became a citizen of Canada, there was no mention of taxation whatsoever and no requirement to certify anything tax-related to become a citizen.”

    Same for me, but so what? For me there was a promise to obey the laws of Canada. Did you make such a promise?

    “Also, if you look into the history of the Canadian tax form, T1135, you will see that it is morphing into something like a Canadian FBAR.”

    I haven’t seen it. Does Canada require me to file one while I live in Japan?

    Japan got something like an FBAR too, for residents (including temporary residents) of Japan. Non-resident citizens of Japan and non-resident aliens of Japan don’t have to file them.

    I haven’t seen any evidence of CBT (Eritrean Style Taxation) or AFU (American Filing Universe) coming to Canada or Japan. AFU is Situation Normal only for the US as far as I can see. Do you have some evidence that you didn’t reveal here?

    “There is also no appeals process built into the penalty scheme for this form, unlike all other Canadian tax forms.”

    Oh that’s bad.

    US tax law experts have remarked on the badness of a particular law that the IRS has abused to prevent appeals process too. If the IRS alleges that a person had unreported income or most other alleged misdeeds, there is an administrative appeals process before going to court. If the IRS alleges a mathematical or clerical error then the usual administrative appeals process doesn’t apply, and the IRS has been abusing that law by alleging mathematical or clerical errors for things which clearly aren’t. A few weeks ago I accidentally discovered that the IRS should have sent me a notice number CP2000 for 2005 and maybe other tax years, when Monica Hernadez stole withholding from Forms 1099 so IRS records didn’t match the withholding that I declared. If the IRS had sent CP2000 then the situation would resemble the mathematical or clerical error situation except that there would be no administrative appeals process at all, but I would be able to demand a Notice of Deficiency and proceed directly to Tax Court. So the IRS, besides sandbagging me by stealing my withholding and altering records of my returns and framing me for fraud, also conveniently forgot to send me CP2000 so I couldn’t guess what was going on or what to do. I’m trying to demand CP2000 notices now, but the IRS refuses even to tell me the address of my local appeals office.

    So yeah, the absence of an appeals process is really really bad.

    “If the Canadian government were to ever make CBT the law of the land”

    If they do I might end up stateless. Even communist countries, even the successor countries when the former USSR broke up, don’t do it. Eritrea, US, and Canada, wow what a team. Let’s hope Canada won’t do it.

    But taxation of residents, so what. Only the absence of an appeals process is bad.