Revenue minister could have to face committee on record sharing with IRS
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NDP Revenue Critic Pierre-Luc Dusseault is asking Parliament’s Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee to hold hearings on the transfer and its impact for the privacy of Canadians. Among the people he wants the committee to call to testify are Lebouthillier and Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien.
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A second transfer of records to the IRS is scheduled for September 30, 2016.Wednesday, Lebouthillier defended the transfer of Canadian banking records to the IRS.
“Minister Lebouthillier wants to reassure Canadians that all exchanges of information are subject to strict confidentiality rules,” reads the e-mail sent by Lebouthillier’s office.
“The CRA ensures that tax cooperation with its foreign partners is done in a manner fully consistent with privacy rights in Canada. It is important to note that Canada and the United States have a long history of exchanging tax information in a fair and responsible manner, going back to 1942.”
Some of us will disagree — see the first comment from John Richardson.
This is fabulous. Thank you Ipolitics. Thank you Lynne for your persistence and smarts. Thank you John. Thank you Pierre-Luc Dusseault. Could it really happen? It seems like things are happening faster than slow and steady.
Of course both the conservatives and liberals will fight this all the way. But cracks are showing. Fingers crossed.
Thank you everyone for helping to bring out the truth about the so called IGA. I have a lot of writing to do tomorrow not only to Lebouthillier, but to the Chiefs and Aboriginal leaders here in Canada as well. Again, thanks and lets get this dirty little deal out in the public and lets see the outrage from Canadians finally!
Good to see the press turning up the heat on this. I look forward to seeing the government called to task on this.
Excellent article by Elizabeth Thompson. Keep turning up the heat and be relentless on this. Every sane person, with even the most cursory legal knowledge knows that this so-called agreement to enforce FATCA in Canada, and elsewhere, has no legs to stand on. The U.S. is nowadays a tyrannical state that has no respect for the law, nor for justice, nor for redress. As they operate only by threats and imposing their will, irrespective as to whether it is legal, just, fair or ethical. When dealing with such systems, one must be relentless and unyielding, repeatedly highlighting the injustice, the breaking and desecration of Charter laws and the harm that it is causing to innocent law abiding Canadian citizens. Thanks to all who have boldly and unrelentingly dealt with this human rights abuse on behalf of so many. The U.S. is today ranked as a major tax haven, imposing “do as we say, but not as we do” rules upon the world. Fortunately, so many people and in the media, who are not directly affected by FATCA and its gross violations, are starting to take notice. Keep up the momentum and don’t let a single official off the hook. They are accountable for this travesty and need to be held accountable and they need to know that the assault on them will be relentless.
Hallelujah! Deepest thanks to Elizabeth Thompson, Mr. Dusseault, Lynne, and John Richardson for getting in there right at the top with such a great comment! Maybe this is the start of getting Canada’s (and America’s!) dirty little secret out into the light of public scrutiny.
(I’m thrilled that Elizabeth Thompson reported the buck-passing between the CRA and the PMO! We’ve all experienced it ourselves by receiving letters from our MP’s offices and other ministers saying that our letters have been forwarded to the Finance Minister! And none of us have heard back from him. *Nobody* in the government wants to deal with this. Maybe now they’ll have to!)
I have today posted the following at iPolitics.ca at http://ipolitics.ca/2016/03/17/revenue-minister-could-have-to-face-committee-on-record-sharing-with-irs/
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Thank you Elizabeth Thompson for pursuing and exposing this abusive matter.
I have included the following in a response to Tracydeanne below BUT feel that it is of such importance to the topic that it deserves its own post:
Without even getting into the fact that data on US Govt computers all too often end up in the public domain, the question of confidentiality of information sent to the US by the CRA does not arise as the information is NOT deemed by the US to be US Tax Confidential (or even tax related) unless and until an audit of a particular tax payer is initiated. Thus on receipt from agencies like the CRA around the world, FATCA data is to be available to ALL US law enforcement and Thee Letter Agencies. This is discussed on a US law firm’s web site at http://www.mahanyertl.com/2013…
An extract of some of Democrat Senator Carl Levin’s words (Levin was the Chairman of the Committee which put the FATCA law into the US 2010 Hire Act):
”Finally, one additional issue is critical to successful implementation of FATCA’s disclosure obligations: treating FATCA offshore account information as non-tax return information to ensure its accessibility to law enforcement and national security communities combating crimes other than tax evasion.”
“Although FATCA is structured to address offshore tax abuse, offshore account information has significance far beyond the tax context, affecting cases involving money laundering, drug
trafficking, terrorist financing, acts of corruption, financial fraud, and many other legal violations and crimes. Given the importance of offshore account disclosures, FATCA guidance and implementing rule should create account FATCA forms that are not designated as tax
return information but, like FBARs, may be provided to law enforcement, regulatory, and national security communities upon request.”
I wonder what Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has to say about that under oath.
FATCA treats all counties like tax havens. FATCA treats all Canadians considered US persons as tax evaders. Both without probable cause.
It seems that Canada wants to join the US on the wrong side of history.
@ Arthur
It would be nice if you’d post your comment at ipolitics.ca. If you don’t use any of the 4 modes of access (Disqus, Facebook, Twitter, Google) then I would be happy to transfer it there with credit to you … with your permission of course.
I just added the following as a separate post on the iPolitics.ca web site:
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One more thing. If you operate a business or a charity or anything else and have a senior employee who is deemed to be a “US Person” and that person is an authorized signatory on your business bank accounts …. then that “US Person” is required to disclose YOUR business bank accounts (and details) and the PERSON’s declarations to the US including the FBAR fled with the Financial Crimes Division. YOUR Canadian Bank will send YOUR bank account details to the US as part of reporting on the “US Person” employee.
Suppose Madam Canadian, your Canadian husband is in a Care Facility due to Alzheimers or some other awful complaint, and you are about to have heart surgery (in Toronto) and so ask your daughter to become a signatory on YOUR accounts to put her in a position to look after your ailing husband “just in case” … and your daughter 40 years ago got a Green Card and worked in Buffalo for a year before returning home to Toronto … and she never knew that she had to FORMERLY surrender the Green Card even though it has expired … then, because she is now a signatory on YOUR accounts, now YOUR accounts will be subject to reporting to the US by your bank in your daughter’s name and she is obliged to report YOUR account details to the Treasury Dept Financial Crimes Division on the FBAR form. Oh the webs we weave when first we practice to deceive … wait a minute … YOU were not deceiving anybody …. yet you are now entrapped in a web of horror with penalties sufficient to bankrupt you. Good Lord, where is your Government, National Sovereignty and Charter of Rights to protect you from these wicked foreigners !?!
@EmBee
Please feel free to post my earlier message to ipolitics.ca. I am very grateful for your suggestion and for forwarding it on to them. We all need to work together on getting this outrage overturned as quickly as possible and restore some semblance of justice and fairness and peace of mind back into our lives in Canada.
@ Arthur
Done. Happy to help.