March 8, 2016 UPDATE: Legal fees paid — on to Federal Court for Charter trial contesting Canadian FATCA IGA legislation.
Canadians and International Supporters:
You came through once again: $594,970 for legal costs have now been donated and our outstanding legal bill is finally paid off.
Thanks especially to those who donated even though they never had any “spare” money to give, and despite this gave over and over and over again.
This last round of fundraising also shows that our Canadian lawsuit remains dependent on the kindness of our International Friends: There would be no lawsuit without their financial help.
Know that a very generous donation (today) from a supporter in the United States made it possible to pay off the remaining legal debt. Also please appreciate that there would be no lawsuit without the help of the Isaac Brock Society which has kindly let us use its website to solicit funds.
Our next step is the Constitutional-Charter trial in Federal Court.
For this we need more Canadian Witnesses, and my next post will be devoted only to a request for Witnesses willing to go public, like our Plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen.
For the future: I want a win in Federal Court — and I want the new Liberal Government not to appeal that win.
Thank you all for your support,
Stephen Kish,
for the Directors,
Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty
@Calgary411 @Ann#!
I have had a hard time with my PC since yesterday … and this morning was terrible …. as if I was suffering a Denial of Service attack …. finally however, the PC seems (yes SEEMS) to be working properly and can again print on my printer. I have been seeing error messages about failure to start Group Policy Services (or some such gibberish) …. but that SEEMS to be over now. If this loss of a day or more has really been due to Microsoft upgrading Win 10 then … it stinks ! People need to be given warning as to what is about to happen and be given the choice to delay the update until one has hours to waste. Maybe this is what has been affecting you all as well.
$29,773 remaining to be paid on our legal bill.
Your $25 donations DO help.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/22448-obama-s-task-force-on-new-americans-launches-citizenship-initiative-in-la
Interesting article nothing groundbreaking but interesting.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/new-americans
Here’s Obama’s propaganda on his ‘Task Force’ if anyone is interested. Perhaps they should point out the US’ $2350 renunciation fee+CBT on this webpage as well so people can make informed choices.
Don,
I think that your suggestion makes a lot of sense. When one enters into any “contract” there should be full written disclosure of both benefits and risks. The risks include costs to achieve renunciation of citizenship and separate costs to achieve renunciation of future “obligations” to U.S. IRS in order to terminate contract.
$100.00 mailed in today. Thank you Stephen Kish, and to all others working on our behalf.
Nice to see we have cleared the $30K ceiling. Thanks, donors. We’re moving on up!
@ 2nd Class Cdn
You are 1st Class in my eyes.
Just a reminder, if anyone is wondering what being a witness entails, please email me if you like. Just ask a moderator to connect us. I am happy to answer the practical questions you might have. No legal speak, promise.
Plus I get to make new friends! You can trust anything you say to me is always confidential.
We will hit 96% paid @ $23,799 to go — 97% at $17,849 — 98% at $11,899 — 99% at $5,949. Thinking of it as a 5 step advance (each step is $5,950) might help us arrive at the 100% mark easier. I’ll mail another green envelope next Monday — it will be for Anne Boleyn’s challenge. Maybe we’ll be at 96% or better by then … hope so.
EmBee, I calculate those percentages with a lot of hope every day. Today we reached 95.20% and I am certain to mention when we get to that 96.
@ Stephen Kish
I’m sure you watch that percentage closely. I thought if people could think of smaller doable steps instead of one giant step it might help. We’ll get there but I’m sorry we’re in overtime. In case you’re wondering what’s this green envelope thing. It’s just a reminder to me to put a little cash in each day until I get enough worth mailing is all. (I don’t have a piggy bank.)
Sent you guys a greeting – a combination of very belated Xmas + early Valentine.
One advantage to being in New Hampshire is, I get to meet the Presidential candidates. On Wednesday evening, 3 February 2016, I met Ted Cruz at an event at Elm Street Middle School in Nashua. I tried to pose a question during the town meeting part, but I suspect they planted Cruz supporters in the audience and then called on them. While he was hastily shaking hands with the crowd, however, I was able to ask him, as he hurried by.
Tom Alciere: What about FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act?
Ted Cruz: Yeah, I know, it’s a real problem. It needs to be repealed.
@Tom Alciere
Thank you for that report re Cruz and FATCA. I wish that he would go public with that.
@Tom
Well done for pinning Cruz down.
I hate to say this but the repeal of fatca will do little for those Americans living outside the US, if they still need to file taxes and fbars and have restrictions placed on their choice of investments and retirement savings. It’s cbt that is he real problem.
Well done TOM!!!!!
That sounds like Cruz has learned a lesson or two.
@heidi
If only I had been able to bring up the whole issue. For the record, he spent considerable time meeting voters and posing for photo opportunities but as time was running out he had to abbreviate for the remainder of us. I really wanted to get in the sarcastic jab about how some of the victims are claiming they didn’t even realize they were still also a citizen of the country where they were born, until they read something about it in a newspaper, as far-fetched as that might sound, Senator. That’s how Cruz learned in 2013 that he was still a citizen of Canada.
@Tom…you could have also asked;
“Mr. Senator, did it ever cross your mind that you would need to file back tax returns and pay an exit tax to renounce your Canadian Citizenship?”
Tom Alciere: Thanks for your short chat with Ted Cruz. The information he gave you provides a small measure of hope.
I know Tom. You are up against a whole scripted performance , planted questions and the kissing of babies etc..
http://www.iexpats.com/fatca-list-february-1-2016/
IRS has stopped updating FATCA registration lists. Is this only a technical hitch or has FATCA registrations peaked with some FFIs never intending to register at this juncture?
Until ‘pass thru’ payments are liable to withholding, perhaps there are a number of banks that have decided to not comply with FATCA. It’s on speculation, but if anyone has a better answer it would be interesting.
IRS says it’s uptodate as of 25 Jan 2016.
https://apps.irs.gov/app/fatcaFfiList/flu.jsf
@Don
The website linked from my posts is NON-FATCA-BANKS.COM which is an out-of-date list of banks that are not registered to comply with FATCA. In countries with an IGA in force, the local government is required to require her banks to register with FATCA, and so total noncompliance is not an option. The banks would be violating their country’s laws.
In some non-IGA countries, all the banks have registered to comply. Examples include Belize, Andorra and Monaco.
Strangely, the Bank of the Federated States of Micronesia is insured by the U.S.A. Government’s F.D.I.C. and is not FATCA registered.
Please forward this to Arvay/Gruber legal team. Draft legislation is being released for public comment shortly.
Also interesting is why is Switzerland signing on to this agreement with Canada of all countries.
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n16/16-020-eng.asp
•In September 2013, G-20 Leaders committed to the automatic exchange of information as the new global standard. In November 2014, Canada and the other G-20 countries endorsed the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for multilateral automatic information exchange as developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
•In November 2015, G-20 Leaders reaffirmed previous commitments to the automatic exchange of information by 2017 or 2018. To date, over 90 jurisdictions, including Canada, have committed to implement the new standard.
•The CRS will require financial institutions to implement due diligence procedures to identify accounts held by non-residents and report certain information relating to these accounts to domestic tax authorities. Tax authorities will then exchange with each other information relating to financial accounts in their jurisdictions held by residents of the other jurisdiction. The CRS will not require reporting on accounts held by residents with foreign citizenship.
Cross-posting comment: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/02/04/not-much-to-hope-for-in-democrats-vision-for-expats/comment-page-2/#comment-7169786
Tim, I have forwarded your email to the Arvay team.
Everyone: Can we please retire this outstanding legal debt? No donations yet today.