100 thoughts on “Canada: Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer is a US citizen”

1. It would be lovely if Scheer renounced without filing any tax paperwork.

2. This raises a few questions:
   1. Has he had his appointment and is awaiting his CLN, or is he awaiting the appointment and, if so, when is it?
   2. Have his bank accounts been reported to the IRS?
   3. Has he cut any deals with he IRS with respect to his tax filings and payments?

3. America’s notorious tax-compliance law faces another challenge
   Oct 5th 2019

   https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/10/05/americas-notorious-tax-compliance-law-faces-another-challenge

4. Scheer has left it a bit late. He must be too dumb to be our next P.M.

5. Andrew Scheer may soon have first hand knowledge as to how it is all wrong.
   In Australia, we had the leader of the “Liberals” [Conservatives here], a Mike Nahan, publicly say he was renouncing and pretending it all simple easy done. I think he was getting pension in the cross hairs and sounded as if he might be up for the Exit Tax. He never said it was wrong. He did end up resigning for unknown to me reasons. I will use his example in letters to politicians here in Australia about the need to fix the tax treaty.

6. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-has-american-citizenship-1.5307986

   CBC article says…

   Daniel Schow, a spokesperson for the party, confirmed Thursday Scheer decided to renounce the citizenship after he became Conservative leader.

   Schow said Scheer started the process of renouncing his citizenship in August, before the federal election campaign started, and the paperwork is now being processed by the U.S. government.

   “Like millions of Canadians, one of Mr. Scheer’s parents was born in another country and immigrated to Canada to start a family. He and his sisters received United States passports as children and Mr. Scheer has not renewed his as an adult. He has not voted in any United States election,” Schow said in a statement.

   The current wait time to renounce U.S. citizenship is roughly nine to 10 months for applications filed at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa.
   …
   As required by U.S. tax law, Scheer said he has reported his income and filed returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

   ********
   He could educate all his fellow Canadians on the process. Would he?

7. Maybe someone should ask him if he’s ok with his bank accounts, and any accounts he might have signing authority on, being reported to the IRS. Or if it’s ok with his sisters who also have, or did have, US citizenship. And at what stage of the renunciation process is he actually at. And what he thinks of the renunciation fee.

8. Our own Boris Johnson. How sweet.

   I’m sure he wants to put all that nasty US citizenship business behind him, as Boris did.

9. Oh and what about his travels (if any?) to the US without a US passport? He’s a US citizen, knows he’s a US citizen, files US taxes…..but no passport. Something doesn’t add up.

10. With his Canadian place of birth (“accidental” American by birth to one Canadian citizen and one US citizen) he could travel with no problem on his Canadian passport. He has not advised on how long he has filed US taxes and FBARs. May have played catch up as many of us that went through the whole process after renunciation. His US filings would have no effect on his US travel with his Canadian passport.

    Scheer was living under the radar as so many of us who didn’t know until we knew. This was a calculation he likely made to act on renunciation of that dual taint before someone else figured it all out.

    He also would not be subject to the Exit Tax if all requirements met…

    Renouncing without paying tax

    In order to renounce U.S. citizenship without adverse tax consequences, a taxpayer cannot be a “covered expatriate.” Covered expatriates (CEs) are people who meet one or more of the following criteria:

    a net worth exceeding US$2 million on the date of expatriation;
    average annual U.S. income tax liability for the five years preceding the year of expatriation exceeding US$165,000; and
    incorrectly filed U.S. tax returns for the five years prior to expatriation.

    Two classes of people can renounce without worry about their assets or average annual U.S. income tax liability:

    those who were born dual citizens of Canada and the U.S., and
    those who are under age 18 and a half.
    Both exceptions require the person to have not lived in the U.S. for more than 10 of the past 15 years. Additionally, both exceptions still require that U.S. tax returns were correctly filed for the past five years. In short, to exit the U.S. tax system without issues, you need to get caught up on taxes.

11. Perhaps the Canadian passport with Canadian place of birth meant he faced no questions at border crossings (contrary to those stuck with a US place of birth on a Canadian passport), but US law nevertheless requires US citizens to use a US passport to enter the country. He obviously knew he was a US citizen for some period of time. I’d like to hear his explanation, especially when the problems of “accidental” Americans should have been abundantly clear to him when his party was passing the IGA.

12. He certainly was smart enough to know and stay under the radar during the IGA time. He likely had not a lick of concern about any others with an “accidental” American status. Seems his political decision.

13. I personally don’t care one bit about the fact that Scheer would have used a Canadian passport to enter the US – possibly he never knew or was never told that he shouldn’t – and for all we know never filed US tax returns, because that’s what any intelligent person in his situation should do. (In fact I’d like him even less if he had made a point of following US law.)

    But it would be fun to ask him what he thinks about the FATCA IGA brought in by his predecessor. Alas it’s unlikely that anyone could put that question to him.

14. I’d love to grill AS as to why he didn’t enter the US on a US passport knowing FULL WELL he knew he was a US citizen? How can we trust him to lead Canada when he didn’t know this very important requirement? Oh, but that’s US law, and what place does that have in Canada, you ask.

    I might even ask him how his father feels about giving up his sacred US citizenship for political reasons.

    But alas, I doubt he’ll even take my call.

15. He said he filed tax returns. Only two reasons for that: desire to retain US citizenship or plan to renounce. So yes, he may have made a recent filing so he could renounce “cleanly.” But it may have cost him a lot. Or not. What’s the US tax status of Canadian RELPs (Real Estate Limited Partnerships)? Wikipedia says he had or has such investments. Looks like he’s our Canadian Boris.

16. @BB

    Why would Scheer have known about the passport rule? The only way many people learn about it is when a border person notices the US birthplace and tells them. But that would never happen with his being born in Canada. Even people who know that they are US citizens don’t necessarily know that they supposedly need to declare that citizenship when crossing the border, let alone use a US passport.

    I’m trying to remember how I learned about this law. Certainly it was prior to my being “caught” using a Canadian passport – once only, and ignored without consequence ever since – but as I had for a period of time used US passports only, I don’t recall exactly what I knew and when.

17. @Maya

    Where did Scheer say that he filed US tax returns? I did not see that in any of the coverage today.

18. Basically all news media reporting he said this. See: https://election.ctvnews.ca/scheer-on-his-dual-canadian-u-s-citizenship-i-ve-never-been-asked-about-it-1.4623024
    CBC, Global, Globe&Mail, etc report the same.

    And why would he have known about the passport rule? Well….seems odd that he wouldn’t – apparently two of his sisters live in the US (per VICE quoting the Globe: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/xwe4b3/canadas-next-prime-minister-could-be-an-american)

19. @Maya

    Thanks, I had not seen any reference to taxes in the earlier articles.

    Frankly I’m disappointed that he’s been compliant. You’d want your Prime Minister to be smarter than that.

    It’s not at all surprising that he didn’t know about the passport rule. Even today, it’s rarely enforced, and he was born in Canada. (I’ve entered the US at least half a dozen times on a Canadian passport with a US birthplace, after having once been warned, with many notes typed in the file. They clearly don’t care.)

20. Slippery:

    “On Friday though, Scheer was asked how many times he has filed taxes in the U.S. and would not specify.

    “I’ve always been tax compliant and I’ve always followed the laws,” he said.

    “I’ve only ever earned income in Canada so I filed those taxes. My salary is publicly available on the House of Commons website.””

    http://globalnews.ca/news/5990192/andrew-scheer-us-draft/

21. Very slippery indeed. Looks like he registered for the US draft:
    “Under U.S. federal law, all male U.S. citizens must register for the draft with the Selective Service System within 30 days of reaching the age of 18.”

    But he couldn’t quite remember that:
    “Scheer initially did not say on Friday whether he had complied with the rule when questioned on the requirement.
    “I would have to check and get back to you on that,” Scheer said when asked by reporters.”

    But his campaign spokesperson says he did:
    “Mr. Scheer registered as required by law,” campaign spokesperson Simon Jeffries said.

    And the Selective Service System confirmed registration on July 28, 1997, two months after Scheer turned 18.

    see: https://globalnews.ca/news/5990192/andrew-scheer-us-draft/?utm_source=ShawConnect&utm_medium=MostPopular&utm_campaign=2014

22. More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/andrew-scheer-draft-us-selective-service-1.5309002

23. Like so many others, Scheer had the misfortune to be born with a US connection. Not his fault. If I understand the facts correctly, the bad luck was further compounded when his parents gave each of the kids the “gift” of a US passport. Otherwise, he could have flown under the radar forever due to his Canadian birthplace.

    As far as I can tell, all this happened more than twenty years ago and I’ll bet that at the time even his father didn’t know about CBT and the requirement to file US taxes because back then, nobody did. But it sure seems strange to me that he didn’t take steps to renounce when he first ran for public office, particularly when Conservatives were slagging other politicians for holding dual citizenships. By then he would have to have been fully aware of the complications of US personhood. What was he thinking? That nobody would notice? Personally, I don’t care because we’ve all got the same problem, but no way do I buy the “nobody ever asked me” explanation. It looks stupid and it sounds even worse.

    I can think of a very long list of fun questions I’d like to ask him. I sure hope this winds up having legs because its a great opportunity to get our story noticed by the general public.

24. Don’t know where to put this.
    Regarding Sheer’s dual US citzenship , there must a number of hiding-in -the – closet dual americans in the federal or provincial parliaments . The
    folks at IBS must have the resources or list of such. Mind you, It might be more difficult to id someone like Sheer . However, by approaching and politically nudging them with some negative publicity if they don’t respond
    could be helpful. But then, that calls for political action and not just court challenges . At the end ,that could be the only way out.

25. Wouldn’t it seem obvious that Scheer wanted to keep his US citizenship, that is unless there was the real possibility of becoming PM.

    What’s worse, black face with regret or a hypocritical red white and blue face?