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
Did the PM’s office send Stephen’s letter to Stéphane Dion because PM Trudeau still thinks Canadian-Americans are just foreigners abiding in Canada or because FATCA, to him, is a foreign affair? Could that foreign affair involve the continued canoodling of Canada with its mighty and mostly indifferent mate to the south? Justin Trudeau has stated that he wants to “strengthen Canada’s relationship” with the USA but sadly that seems to mean brushing aside its relationship with its own citizens and residents. I wonder if Stéphane Dion will also pass Stephen’s letter along to the unresponsive to date, desk of Bill Morneau?
Week 2, after Canadian Civil Liberties:
https://twitter.com/JCDoubleTaxed/status/699530791986921472
“Executive Correspondence Writer”
Translation: One who fends off letters so the addressee does not have to deal with anything, usually by passing on said letters to people who don’t care. The addressee is now absolved, as they can claim to have “acted” on the correspondence. So much for open and accessible Trudeau.
@EmBee Yes, Stephane will play Pass The FATCA.
Here is Stephane’s letter to me in which he has “taken the liberty of forwarding” my letter to Stephane to Bill.
http://maplesandbox.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Response-Dion.pdf
Jodi, Justin, Scott and Kate (my Liberal MP) did exactly the same. Kate will not meet with me even though I know her from working with her in the past. (@Bubblebustin’ I hope you have better luck with your MP than I have had with Kate.)
Emmanuel and Dianne have not even acknowledged my letters to them.
I do not know if Bill knows anything about FATCA. To the best of my knowledge, Bill has not said a single word about FATCA. In fact, I don’t know of any Liberal who has said anything about FATCA since the election (with the exception of “I have taken the liberty of forwarding…” to Bill.
@Blaze
Bill Morneau should know about FATCA. I sent him a copy of my email to Scott Brison in mid- December. I received this form reply:
Department of Finance
Canada
Dear Mr. and Ms. XXX
We acknowledge receipt of your correspondence of December 14, 2015, to the Minister of Finance, the Honourable Bill Morneau.
Please be assured that your comments will be brought to the Minister’s attention as soon as possible.
Departmental Correspondence Unit
I never received any responses from the PM, Attorney General, Minister or National Revenue, Ralph Goodale or Scott Brison.
@ Mr. A.
To enhance their knowledge about FATCA I e-mailed them the Jim Jatras video. Others probably did the same. It shouldn’t be too much longer before the government will have to reply to Q-352. That should be interesting.
Q352 is a pretty loaded, EmBee. Their response will be interesting, to say the least:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2016/01/22/bravo-mp-dusseault-for-keeping-the-pressure-up-on-fatca/
@Mr A: Yes, Bill Morneau SHOULD know about FATCA. Several people, including you and me, wrote to him and received the standard reply.
That does not mean Bill actually read the letters or that he understands or cares what FATCA means for second class Canadians.
Additional Donation just made; its my privilege to support you Ginny, Gwen, Stephen Kish and others who are working so hard on our behalf. Please everyone, help pay off our, yes OUR, legal bill, we must keep up the pressure! Ridiculous as all of this is, we MUST prove that we are TRUE CANADIANS first and foremost; that we require and expect the protection of our country and that we are serious about this issue.
Interesting:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/core-functions/financial-system/clearing-and-settlement-systems/
http://www.cls-group.com/Pages/default.aspx
https://youtu.be/gEwqjnT4J4A
Umm, pretty sure it’s Vancouver. Are they planning on invading us?
This note is not relevant to the thread, so my apologies for that.
There has been talk from time to time about reciprocity, or the lack thereof, in FATCA IGAs. I just read a short article indicating that Mexico is now eagerly going through bank records for some 170,000 Mexican received from the US, looking for evidence of tax evasion.
http://www.milenio.com/firmas/marco_antonio_mares/mil-mdd-mexicanos-EU_18_684711542.html
I haven’t time at the moment to translate…
So, reciprocity seems to be happening and the Mexican government is investigating the information received. What can’t be determined from the article is how many of these Mexican nationals are actually resident in the US.
RECIPROCITY OR LACK THEREOF:
What US IRS turns over to Canada CRA assuming IGA is accurate:
“In the case of the United States, with respect to each Canadian Reportable
Account of each Reporting U.S. Financial Institution:
(1) the name, address, and Canadian TIN of any person that is a resident of
Canada and is an Account Holder of the account;
(2) the account number (or the functional equivalent in the absence of an
account number);
(3) the name and identifying number of the Reporting U.S. Financial
Institution;
(4) the gross amount of interest paid on a Depository Account;
(5) the gross amount of U.S. source dividends paid or credited to the account;
and
(6) the gross amount of other U.S. source income paid or credited to the
account, to the extent subject to reporting under chapter 3 of subtitle A or
chapter 61 of subtitle F of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.”
What Canada CRA gives to US IRS assuming IGA is accurate:
“In the case of Canada with respect to each U.S. Reportable Account of each Reporting Canadian Financial Institution: (1) the name, address, and U.S. TIN of each Specified U.S. Person that is an Account Holder of such account and, in the case of a Non-U.S. Entity that, after application of the due diligence procedures set forth in Annex I, is identified as having one or more Controlling Persons that is a Specified U.S. Person, the name, address, and U.S. TIN (if any) of such Entity and each such Specified U.S. Person;
(2) the account number (or functional equivalent in the absence of an account number);
(3) the name and identifying number of the Reporting Canadian Financial Institution;
(4) the account balance or value (including, in the case of a Cash Value Insurance Contract or Annuity Contract, the Cash Value or surrender value) as of the end of the relevant calendar year or other appropriate reporting period or, if the account was closed during such year, immediately before closure;
(5) in the case of any Custodial Account: (A) the total gross amount of interest, the total gross amount of dividends, and the total gross amount of other income generated with respect to the assets held in the account, in each case paid or credited to the account (or with respect to the account) during the calendar year or other appropriate reporting period; and (B) the total gross proceeds from the sale or redemption of property paid or credited to the account during the calendar year or other appropriate reporting period with respect to which the Reporting Canadian Financial Institution acted as a custodian, broker, nominee, or otherwise as an agent for the Account Holder;
(6) in the case of any Depository Account, the total gross amount of interest paid or credited to the account during the calendar year or other appropriate reporting period; and
(7) in the case of any account not described in subparagraph 2(a)(5) or 2(a)(6) of this Article, the total gross amount paid or credited to the Account Holder with respect to the account during the calendar year or other Page 11 of 47 appropriate reporting period with respect to which the Reporting Canadian Financial Institution is the obligor or debtor, including the aggregate amount of any redemption payments made to the Account Holder during the calendar year or other appropriate reporting period.”
@ Stephen Kish
In simpler terms: First list is 4 inches long. Second list is 8 inches long. Conclusion: That is NOT reciprocity. Besides, the USA will only provide this faux reciprocity to countries which it alone determines have met the high standards of data security that the USA pretends it has achieved itself. What the USA actually offered was hypocrisy, not reciprocity, and then it waltzed off with the award for the World’s Biggest Tax Haven, practically uncontested now.
Quote of the day goes to EmBee:
“What the USA actually offered was hypocrisy, not reciprocity, and then it waltzed off with the award for the World’s Biggest Tax Haven, practically uncontested now.”
ZINGO!
@Stephen Kish @Blaze
To my MP, Pam Goldsmith-Jones, Parliamentary Scretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs:
Dear Pam,
Please read this recent letter below sent to ADCS cosignatory Dr Stephen Kish from Prime Minister Trudeau’s correspondence officer addressing the anti-FATCA IGA lawsuit. Also note that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has been included in the correspondence between the Prime Minister and Dr Kish. I would appreciate you taking a special interest on my behalf, as I’ve decided to join the ADCS lawsuit as a witness to the harm that the FATCA IGA has brought many Canadians, harm that will only spread to more Canadians as time passes.
It’s of great concern to me that in joining the lawsuit, you will effectively cease to represent me as my MP, and instead become an adversary as our new government promises to be since it has failed to come out in opposition to the legislation the Harper government saw fit to impose upon the people of Canada.
With this, I ask you as my MP and Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to bring this matter to Minister Dion’s attention to be dealt with in a manner that enforces the Charter rights of all Canadians, and restores my trust in the Canadian government.
Also, I haven’t received a response from your office to my letter dated February 1, 2016 when I asked you to enquire with the Revenue Minister as to whether my account information has been handed over to the IRS via the CRA. The IGA requires that I be advised of whether it has, should I ask.
Here is the letter from the PMO to Dr Kish:
“February 1, 2016 [Received February 16, 2015]
Mr. Stephen Kish and Co-signatories,
Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty
etc.
Dear Mr. Kish and Co-signatories:
On behalf of the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau I would like to acknowledge receipt of your correspondence of October 23. I regret the delay [coming on to four months now] in replying.
Thank you for taking the time to write to the Prime Minister.
You may be assured that your comments, offered on behalf of Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty, have been carefully reviewed.
As the issue you have raised are of particular interest to the Hounourable William Francis Morneau, Minister of Finance, and the Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs, I have taken the liberty of forwarding copies of your correspondence to them.
I am certain that the Ministers will give your views every consideration.
Once again, thank you for writing.
Yours sincerely,
[XXXXX]
Executive Correspondence Officer”
[bubblebustin]
@ Bubblebustin
Thank you for volunteering to be a witness. That’s not an easy decision to make and I hope your MP appreciates the gravity of the situation in which you and a million other Canadians find themselves (even if a significant percentage don’t know it yet). Your letter is the letter of the day.
Thanks, EmBee.
I should clarify that I’ve offered myself as a witness. We’ll take it from there.
As a note – I wasn’t browbeaten to offer myself. It’s something that I feel I should do, and am in the position to be able to do. For me it’s the “right” thing to do, but that’s not to say that those who refrain are doing anything wrong.
Thank you very much, bubblebustin.
“In simpler terms: First list is 4 inches long. Second list is 8 inches long.”
Hey, it’s time for spammers to display some social responsibility. Let them offer pills to the first list.
@ Norman Diamond
LOL. It took me a few seconds to get that.
@ Bubblebustin As a note – I wasn’t browbeaten to offer myself. It’s something that I feel I should do, and am in the position to be able to do. For me it’s the “right” thing to do, but that’s not to say that those who refrain are doing anything wrong.
Thank you so much. This is exactly how Gwen and I feel. It was the right thing to do and we were able to do it. Many cannot and they are our supporters.
There have been many speculating about lurkers who read and follow developments yet are not contributors; or people who don’t use their actual names when they post. There is an implication that they are leaving the heavy lifting to the rest of us, and to some extent that is fair comment in terms of fundraising.
But I cannot sit in judgement about anyone whose situation is different from mine. So many of you are better researchers than I ever could hope to be; many understand and can quote US tax regs and forms than I ever knew existed. The archives created on our websites are a wealth of information thanks to all the contributors. The Swat team is my personal favorite when you post in comments to publications that are much less accurate than true facts about our situation. There are not enough thanks to those of you who write our politicians even though your letters remain unanswered.
Too many people to thank.
We each bring our talents and strengths and support to this cause and that’s the upside to this nightmare.
So Bubblebustin, thanks for applying and setting the example for others.
Now let’s break that $18,000 log jam debt and move on. As Dr. Kish said, there’s lots of work going on in the background of our legal case which for confidentiality reasons we can’t always talk about in this public forum as you will appreciate. Thank you for the trust you have placed in our hands while we stay busy handling that side of things for all of us so affected, whatever country we live in. Please also note that whatever life situations you share with us affect us deeply and keep us motivated to move this forward. We are honoured by your support in the many generous ways you offer it.
The plaintiffs, the witnesses (now adding Bubblebustin to the list of volunteers!) and the organizers of the legal action are indeed the representatives of us all. You are our best hope and I’m so grateful to all of you! The rest of us will toil in your support, as letter-writers, comment-makers, donors, pray-ers, etc., etc., as long as it takes.
@Bubblebustin
Thank you for offering to be a witness. Since you have confirmed that your Canadian bank has sent your information to the CRA who sends it to the IRS, I think HARM will be indisputable in your case. This is a case of second class Canadian citizenship without a doubt. Sending financial information to a foreign government’s tax authority would be offensive to any Canadian citizen and should be illegal.