Cross-posting while listening to viewing / listening to: http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/XRender/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20160414/-1/24805?useragent=Mozilla/5.0%20(Windows%20NT%2010.0;%20WOW64)%20AppleWebKit/537.36%20(KHTML,%20like%20Gecko)%20Chrome/49.0.2623.112%20Safari/537.36
http://maplesandbox.ca/2016/baby-elles-fatca-letter/
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau and President Obama:
Why do you think I am a tax cheat?
I am eight months old. I live with my Mommy and Daddy in Canada.
I can’t walk or talk yet. So my Nana’s friend Lynne is helping me write to you.
At Christmas time Mommy and Daddy opened a small savings account for me in Canada. When I was six months old in February, TD Bank sent me a letter and other stuff.
I can’t read. So Nana read it for me.
I don’t know what the gibberish in the letter means. Nana says it’s crazy. I believe my Nana.
The letter says TD will squeal on me to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Then the CRA will tattle on me to U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for FATCA. What’s a FATCA?
I don’t know what a citizen is. But I’m a double one.
I was born in the United States. My Mommy and Daddy are Canadian citizens. The Canadian government sent me a letter saying I am too. But I have a blue book that says I’m a U.S. citizen too.
TD says because they know I was born in the United States, I have to complete, sign and mail forms to them.
How can I? I can’t even print yet.
President Obama: Why do you want my information? What will you do with it?
Prime Minster Trudeau: Why are you giving your friend Mr. Obama information about me? Why are you helping him? Why aren’t you helping me?
Please help me. I can’t afford an accountant or lawyer from my allowance.
Bye Bye.
Baby Elle
Vancouver Canada
referencing also today’s: http://ipolitics.ca/2016/04/14/baby-girl-drawn-into-cra-irs-information-sharing-controversy/
AND
http://ipolitics.ca/2016/04/14/so-now-the-cra-is-going-after-infants/
…to be continued
Brilliant work, Lynne! Keep holding the Liberals’ feet to the fire on this.
@Marie
TD has a lot of branches in the US… they rather report anyone who has a US stink on them in Canada… even if they have $20 in the bank… Majority of banks treat seniors better… free this… free that… TD reduces the fees… that is it… I tried to get the elders to close their accounts there due to the fees… old people are set in their ways… they have been with TD over 40 yrs…
I am the Nana of ‘Baby Elle’. I would like to thank Blaze for all her work in getting this story out. I hope it helps somehow. I was not able to hear the discussion on ParlVu this morning but after reading the above comments I think I am glad I missed it. I don’t need skyrocketing blood pressure. I was lucky and able to relinquish before the fee was put in place, and never thought my granddaughter would be trapped by this mess. I am angry at the Canadian government for caving into the US and I feel very bad for all of those for whom getting rid of US citizenship is an expensive and difficult process.
@ Blaze
You and Elizabeth Thompson really delivered a one-two punch in the defence of Baby Elle. Too bad she won’t know this until she’s older. It’s nice to have Nana Somerfugl weigh in with a comment too.
I just read the letter fromTD to Baby Elle. If the account holder decides to do nothing, does not fill out the W8 or W9 and offers no social security number (probably does not have one), how can the CRA pass the information along without an identifying number? The IRS requires one.
@Marie There is a $100 fine for refusing to provide SSN or TIN or for not having one.
Are accounts under $50,000 reportable? Who knows?
The Privacy Commissioner is still seeking “clarity” on that 26 months after the IGA was signed. No one at CRA, Finance, banks, etc seem to be able to answer that question.
It is easier for the Minister, Commissioner and CRA to claim this is all about tax evasion. They tried to paint us as tax evaders. Then they merrily give shady deals to the real tax cheats. .
I’m done for today. I;m FATCAed out. (I think that is their intent–to wear us down until we give up.)
I am convinced CRA and others lurk here and at Sandbox.
Message to them: We’re not giving up. We’re not going away. Baby Elle and this morning’s farce have merely strengthened our resolve. Get used to it.
@ Blaze
I don’t do a smidgen of what you do but me and my smidgen aren’t giving up either. So CRA, IRS, compliance condors and surveillance state agents can just file that smidgen in their bloated database too.
I had a GREAT day with my USA polluted/tainted/putrid stench covered 13 year old today. We went out together and purchased several coins in precious metal with his money. FUCK YOU USA!
We don’t have to give $75,000 to Baby Elle to qualify her as a witness. We only have to LEND it to her so her account will be reportable (regardless of whether TD sets its own lower threshhold). We’ll get it back after the report is sent.
The IRS WILL penalize her for not filing an FBAR. Even though the IRS’s all FAQed up page says her Nana has to do it, when her Nana doesn’t do it the IRS will penalize her. So then she’ll file for bankruptcy. But we’ll still get our money back because she’ll return our loans before she gets penalized.
I’ll join, despite my poor circumstances this year. Think we can raise this much to get a spectacular witness?
@ Norman Diamond
Doesn’t the letter prove that the threshold is meaningless? Isn’t that part of the issue?
This Baby Elle story is simply scandalous. What else can I say but to thank Blaze, Somerfugl and Elizabeth Thompson (our Woodward and Bernstein!) for getting this story “out there”.
On the subject of the Committee meeting yesterday morning here is my comment on another thread:
We now know *exactly* why the Liberals are now supporting the FATCA IGA, and we heard it from the mouth of the Minister of National Revenue yesterday morning in the Ethics Committee meeting. It’s because while they were in opposition they weren’t given an adequate opportunity to read and study the legislation. Now that they are in power they have had that opportunity and they now find it acceptable.
Well, gosh, how is it that all of us here, who have never sat in the halls of power in any capacity, have had the opportunity, for the past many years, to study this legislation in the greatest of detail? The Minister of National Revenue fell flat on her face IMHO.
To label us as tax evaders is absolutely ridiculous. We pay our taxes to Canada. We feel we shouldn’t have to pay to a government from which we derive no benefit. The government is acting as traitors to the sovereignty of Canada. You know what the country’s populace do to traitors if enough people get angry?! If any CRA drone, IRS scumbags and compliance condor traitors are hanging around here: note that you are on borrowed time. To the CRA and compliance condors: they hang traitors who damage the sovereignty of nations. To the IRS: your borders end at the Alaska border (for Alaska) and the 49th Parallel for the Contiguous United States; now spare us your hypocritical diatribe (Remember the Boston Tea Party) and go fellate yourselves.
As a Canadian born and raised; I’m not giving up. I will not rest until this IGA is overturned. I will not rest until my sons and daughter (born in Canada) are given the same equality as any other Canadian instead of being labelled as a tax evader to the United States because of the circumstances of their mother’s place of birth. I am angry! I am angry that shortsighted residents of my community got rid of Jasbir Sandhu and replaced him with a LIEberal MP who doesn’t even have a way of criticizing him on his social media. (FB) At least when my MP was Jasbir Sandhu, I could discuss matters with him. Randeep Singh Sarai happily toes the party line.
“Doesn’t the letter prove that the threshold is meaningless? Isn’t that part of the issue?”
It’s part of the issue but it has the potential to hurt the case. When TD reports an account below the threshhold, TD can be blamed. If Elle’s account is over the thresshold, the IGA can be blamed.
Can we raise $75,000 to lend to Animal to deposit temporarily in the account of one of his children and then pay it back? Or better yet, bounce it from child to child before paying it back? I’d love to see an 8 month old witness in the witness box, but older children should be OK too.
http://www.internationalinvestment.net/regions/canada-anti-fatca-campaigners-revel-banks-letter-baby/
Don’t know if this has been posted already;
‘Canada baby’s letter to PM, US prez is focus of anti-FATCA campaigners’
By: Helen Burggraf | 15 Apr 2016
From the Maple Sandbox … Lynne lets us know Baby Elle has crawled into the pages of “Tax Connections” and “Republicans Overseas Switzerland” has posted a link to her story too.
https://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/is-this-canadian-baby-an-american-tax-cheat/
https://www.facebook.com/RepublicansOverseasSwitzerland/posts/10153701984658668?fref=nf
What to do when junior gets FATCA’d:
https://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/when-junior-has-a-foreign-bank-account-whats-to-be-expected-2/
@Bubblebustin,
What to do when junior gets FATCA’d?
Parents, “compliance” in US speak means; surrender your children to the tender mercies of the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the US Treasury.
At what price US citizenship?
Lynne’s ‘baby Elle’ letter reprinted;
http://ayarlawgroup.com/fatca-inflexible/
This makes me so mad that I think they’ll find me a pile of smoke and ashes one day! Grrrrrrrrr!
“This makes me so mad that I think they’ll find me a pile of smoke and ashes one day! Grrrrrrrrr!”
Watch it, bubblebustin’. The NSA may put you on the No-Fly list. 😛
That’s TSA not NSA, but I expect the NSA can hack the TSA’s computers to put every honest, ethical person on the No-Fly list. No wait, it’s the DOJ that tells TSA to put honest, ethical persons on the No-Fly list.
“……..Among the Canadian banks, TD has the most at stake in the U.S. market. It ranks among the top 10 retail banks in the United States, with 26,000 employees and a network of 1,300 branches along the East Coast, and it is the largest shareholder in U.S. online broker giant TD Ameritrade. ……….”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/bill-hillary-clinton-giustra-corporate-canada/article32675340/