6 thoughts on “Canada FATCA IGA Litigation Appeal”
In the Accidental Americans Facebook group Fabien Lehagre says that he has some “breaking news” regarding FATCA but it will have to wait.
Would anyone ok this website happen to know what it is?
Yes, I saw it too. Good job I wasn’t holding my breath.
I do hope they are not talking about yet another letter to the US government asking them to play nice (which I have just seen) because they are wasting their time.
If it’s something more earth shattering that that, I’m in the dark too.
I can’t imagine that Fabien would build suspence like this if it were just another stupid letter that he knows the US would throw into the trash can.
I’m hoping the breaking news is something like Ursula Van Der Leyden informing all EU member states that they must immediately withdraw from FATCA because it violates EU privacy law.
Privacy, data protection, anti discrimination, sovereignty, common decency, human rights….what does FATCA in combination with US tax code not trample on?
I would love to think you are right but I don’t think the EU are quite ready to stand up to the USA over this, it’s still far far easier to stand up to some whiny expats that can largely be stonewalled as has been proven by a decade of doing it.
That said pressure is growing, you can see the EU know they have been found out and that we know that they know this cannot continue as stands, certainly not as long as the complaints don’t go away and they won’t be.
We’ll just have to wait and see what Fabien has for us, but I doubt Fabien would be in a position to know if the EU were about to grow a pair and stand up for their residents. I don’t see them telling him first.
Still, fingers crossed.
The day that Germany has the Nord Stream 2 pipeline up and running will be the day that the EU will have stood up to the US . Amen.
The lack of true full US reciprocity re FATCA stinks more as the years go by. Anyone who believed that the US would ever provide more information than it already did under the existing terms of the Canada/US tax treaty is fantasizing or delusional. The Minister of Revenue should be ashamed of the continued obfuscation of the growing imbalance of information ‘exchange’; ex. see the response by our Minister of Revenue to a question about the rising amount of records sent to the US https://openparliament.ca/debates/2020/1/27/pat-kelly-2/https://openparliament.ca/debates/2020/1/27/diane-lebouthillier-2/ ).
Canada should be ashamed of continuing to waste our Canadian taxpayer dollars on defending the FATCA IGA against it’s own Canadian residents and citizen taxpayers.
That the Trudeau government continues the Harper government’s agreement to waste our hard earned domestic tax dollars on defending the unreciprocated interests of a foreign power who forced it on us through extortionate means, in order to impose a foreign US law on our own sovereign soil, is unconscionable.
So what are those the US claims extraterritorially as ‘taxable persons’ in Canada (and elsewhere around the globe) receiving in exchange for the loss of personal and financial data, and a lifelong status as a US serf?
Clearly those the US claims extraterritorially, across borders as ‘taxpayers abroad’ should expect no US extraterritorial help in a global pandemic.
They can be taxed, and fined, and threatened by the US, but can’t expect anything in return during a worldwide catastrophe:
The US State Dept. says;
“The U.S. Department of State has no greater responsibility than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas………”.
But not so fast – apparently, in a global pandemic, “US citizens overseas” are on their own, even though the US defines them extraterritorially as “US taxable persons’ no matter where they reside, and lifelong captives of the US extraterritorial CBT, FATCA and the FBAR regime;
“…As part of our efforts to give U.S. citizens timely information so that they can make informed choices about travel abroad, the Department advises that the United States Government does not plan to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to private U.S. citizens overseas. U.S. citizens traveling or residing overseas should follow host country developments and guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination.”……..”
“Q: Given assurances by both President Trump and President-Elect Biden that access to the vaccine for all Americans will be their priority, why isn’t the State Department ensuring U.S. citizens abroad get vaccinated? Why are you vaccinating your own personnel but not private Americans?
Not only isn’t the US and it’s State Department offices abroad (ex. in Canada and elsewhere around the globe) offering COVID-19 pandemic assistance or vaccinations to those it claims from afar as “taxable persons” or lifelong tax-citizen serfs “abroad”, it’s not effectively vaccinating its own State department staff abroad;
“……..“We’re asking them to go to dangerous places. We have an ethical obligation to vaccinate our people overseas,” he’s said. “And it’s hard not to bristle at the idea that we would farm out the protection of our diplomatic corps to a foreign government….”
The US farms out social, economic and other supports for ‘taxable US persons’ ‘abroad’ to the taxpayers of the non-US countries – like Canada, where they live, work and pay layers of local taxes – but reserves the right to demand crossborder first pick of the fruits of their labour and the details of their local legal bank accounts and savings despite being resident outside the borders of the US – with no economic connection, based solely on a US parent and/or a US birthplace.
It’s not the US government, Treasury or State Departments saving ‘taxable US persons’ lives and livelihoods in Canada and elsewhere, it’s the taxpayers of Canada and the rest of the globe. It’s not the US educating children, doctoring the sick, paving our roads or providing for the elderly ‘abroad’ – outside US borders.
So why does our Canadian federal government continue to defend the use of our Canadian tax dollars and the taxpayer supported resources of our Canadian CRA to assist a foreign country – the US – in collecting the personal and financial date of Canadian taxpayers, citizens and residents? And squander our hard earned Canadian tax dollars to defend the FATCA IGA agreement (born out of US threats and extortion) and US interests – against Canadian taxpayers and residents?
The Trudeau government (and the Cons who preceded them) should be ashamed that in a true emergency of global proportions, local taxpayers continue to foot the FATCA bill to further the aims of a foreign country, the US. Reciprocity by the US under the FATCA IGA https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-10.58/page-2.html?wbdisable=true was always only at best ‘aspirational’ (and delusional if the MPs of the Harper government who rammed it through in an omnibus bill, and those of the Trudeau government who defend it ever actually believed it would materialize).
And as seen below, the OECD continues to give the US it’s predictable *annual free pass – despite the disingenuous stink of FATCA’s lack of true reciprocity growing stronger with every passing year;
* “1 The United States has undertaken automatic information exchanges pursuant to FATCA from 2015and entered into intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) with other jurisdictions to do so. The Model 1A IGAs entered into by the United States acknowledge the need for the United States to achieve equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic information exchange with partner jurisdictions. They also include a political commitment to pursue the adoption of regulations and to advocate and support relevant legislation to achieve such equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic exchange.” https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/commitment-and-monitoring-process/AEOI-commitments.pdf .
Consider donating to the cost of the ADCS lawsuit.
In the Accidental Americans Facebook group Fabien Lehagre says that he has some “breaking news” regarding FATCA but it will have to wait.
Would anyone ok this website happen to know what it is?
Yes, I saw it too. Good job I wasn’t holding my breath.
I do hope they are not talking about yet another letter to the US government asking them to play nice (which I have just seen) because they are wasting their time.
If it’s something more earth shattering that that, I’m in the dark too.
I can’t imagine that Fabien would build suspence like this if it were just another stupid letter that he knows the US would throw into the trash can.
I’m hoping the breaking news is something like Ursula Van Der Leyden informing all EU member states that they must immediately withdraw from FATCA because it violates EU privacy law.
Privacy, data protection, anti discrimination, sovereignty, common decency, human rights….what does FATCA in combination with US tax code not trample on?
I would love to think you are right but I don’t think the EU are quite ready to stand up to the USA over this, it’s still far far easier to stand up to some whiny expats that can largely be stonewalled as has been proven by a decade of doing it.
That said pressure is growing, you can see the EU know they have been found out and that we know that they know this cannot continue as stands, certainly not as long as the complaints don’t go away and they won’t be.
We’ll just have to wait and see what Fabien has for us, but I doubt Fabien would be in a position to know if the EU were about to grow a pair and stand up for their residents. I don’t see them telling him first.
Still, fingers crossed.
The day that Germany has the Nord Stream 2 pipeline up and running will be the day that the EU will have stood up to the US . Amen.
The lack of true full US reciprocity re FATCA stinks more as the years go by. Anyone who believed that the US would ever provide more information than it already did under the existing terms of the Canada/US tax treaty is fantasizing or delusional. The Minister of Revenue should be ashamed of the continued obfuscation of the growing imbalance of information ‘exchange’; ex. see the response by our Minister of Revenue to a question about the rising amount of records sent to the US https://openparliament.ca/debates/2020/1/27/pat-kelly-2/ https://openparliament.ca/debates/2020/1/27/diane-lebouthillier-2/ ).
Canada should be ashamed of continuing to waste our Canadian taxpayer dollars on defending the FATCA IGA against it’s own Canadian residents and citizen taxpayers.
That the Trudeau government continues the Harper government’s agreement to waste our hard earned domestic tax dollars on defending the unreciprocated interests of a foreign power who forced it on us through extortionate means, in order to impose a foreign US law on our own sovereign soil, is unconscionable.
So what are those the US claims extraterritorially as ‘taxable persons’ in Canada (and elsewhere around the globe) receiving in exchange for the loss of personal and financial data, and a lifelong status as a US serf?
I commented earlier about the lack of US extraterritorial pandemic assistance to those it imposes it’s extraterritorial information and tax regime on ( http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments-part-8-of-8-year-2021/comment-page-1/#comment-8957346 ).
Clearly those the US claims extraterritorially, across borders as ‘taxpayers abroad’ should expect no US extraterritorial help in a global pandemic.
They can be taxed, and fined, and threatened by the US, but can’t expect anything in return during a worldwide catastrophe:
The US State Dept. says;
“The U.S. Department of State has no greater responsibility than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas………”.
But not so fast – apparently, in a global pandemic, “US citizens overseas” are on their own, even though the US defines them extraterritorially as “US taxable persons’ no matter where they reside, and lifelong captives of the US extraterritorial CBT, FATCA and the FBAR regime;
“…As part of our efforts to give U.S. citizens timely information so that they can make informed choices about travel abroad, the Department advises that the United States Government does not plan to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to private U.S. citizens overseas. U.S. citizens traveling or residing overseas should follow host country developments and guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination.”……..”
“Q: Given assurances by both President Trump and President-Elect Biden that access to the vaccine for all Americans will be their priority, why isn’t the State Department ensuring U.S. citizens abroad get vaccinated? Why are you vaccinating your own personnel but not private Americans?
A: The Department of State does not provide direct medical care to private U.S. citizens abroad.”……..
From; https://eg.usembassy.gov/covid-19-vaccinations-and-consular-issues/
Not only isn’t the US and it’s State Department offices abroad (ex. in Canada and elsewhere around the globe) offering COVID-19 pandemic assistance or vaccinations to those it claims from afar as “taxable persons” or lifelong tax-citizen serfs “abroad”, it’s not effectively vaccinating its own State department staff abroad;
“……..“We’re asking them to go to dangerous places. We have an ethical obligation to vaccinate our people overseas,” he’s said. “And it’s hard not to bristle at the idea that we would farm out the protection of our diplomatic corps to a foreign government….”
from; ‘Vaccine shortage prompts U.S. diplomats to request doses from foreign governments, including Russia’
Washington Post by John Hudson, Feb. 17, 2021 https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xnBKKqzOutoJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/state-department-coronavirus-vaccine-diplomats/2021/02/17/ec507e84-70d5-11eb-a4eb-44012a612cf9_story.html+&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=firefox-b-d
The US farms out social, economic and other supports for ‘taxable US persons’ ‘abroad’ to the taxpayers of the non-US countries – like Canada, where they live, work and pay layers of local taxes – but reserves the right to demand crossborder first pick of the fruits of their labour and the details of their local legal bank accounts and savings despite being resident outside the borders of the US – with no economic connection, based solely on a US parent and/or a US birthplace.
It’s not the US government, Treasury or State Departments saving ‘taxable US persons’ lives and livelihoods in Canada and elsewhere, it’s the taxpayers of Canada and the rest of the globe. It’s not the US educating children, doctoring the sick, paving our roads or providing for the elderly ‘abroad’ – outside US borders.
So why does our Canadian federal government continue to defend the use of our Canadian tax dollars and the taxpayer supported resources of our Canadian CRA to assist a foreign country – the US – in collecting the personal and financial date of Canadian taxpayers, citizens and residents? And squander our hard earned Canadian tax dollars to defend the FATCA IGA agreement (born out of US threats and extortion) and US interests – against Canadian taxpayers and residents?
The Trudeau government (and the Cons who preceded them) should be ashamed that in a true emergency of global proportions, local taxpayers continue to foot the FATCA bill to further the aims of a foreign country, the US. Reciprocity by the US under the FATCA IGA https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-10.58/page-2.html?wbdisable=true was always only at best ‘aspirational’ (and delusional if the MPs of the Harper government who rammed it through in an omnibus bill, and those of the Trudeau government who defend it ever actually believed it would materialize).
All these years later, we’re all still footing the bill for the FATCA IGA, and the US is still the one benefiting. It still isn’t a CRS signatory and continues to offer the benefits of secrecy to both domestic and foreign actors (ex. https://www.industryweek.com/the-economy/regulations/article/21963611/domestic-tax-haven-delaware-under-pressure and https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/why-america-is-the-leading-jurisdiction-for-trusts ).
How much has the administration of FATCA cost our government and our financial sector? The CRA doesn’t tell us how much the IGA costs them and won’t tell Canadians how many additional records it receives under the IGA than it did without it. For example, how many of the budget dollars the Minister likes to cite (https://openparliament.ca/debates/2021/2/23/diane-lebouthillier-1/ https://openparliament.ca/debates/2020/11/30/diane-lebouthillier-1/ https://openparliament.ca/committees/covid-19-pandemic/43-1/13/diane-lebouthillier-6/ ) goes towards the cost of collection and transmission of Canadian taxpayer personal and financial information to the US for FATCA – without any evidence of wrongdoing or US taxes owed?
And as seen below, the OECD continues to give the US it’s predictable *annual free pass – despite the disingenuous stink of FATCA’s lack of true reciprocity growing stronger with every passing year;
* “1 The United States has undertaken automatic information exchanges pursuant to FATCA from 2015and entered into intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) with other jurisdictions to do so. The Model 1A IGAs entered into by the United States acknowledge the need for the United States to achieve equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic information exchange with partner jurisdictions. They also include a political commitment to pursue the adoption of regulations and to advocate and support relevant legislation to achieve such equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic exchange.”
https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/commitment-and-monitoring-process/AEOI-commitments.pdf .
Consider donating to the cost of the ADCS lawsuit.