Author Archives: WhiteKat

As Bill C-31 winds its way through the Canadian parliamentary system, those who defend the  FATCA IGA legislation buried within 300+ pages of the omnibus bill it is hidden in, respond to the cry of the victims, by repeating the message, ‘Well, you might win a Charter Challenge, but if you do, it will hurt ALL Canadians’.

Should the estimated one million Canadians, deemed ‘US persons’ by a foreign nation,  and their family members feel guilty about actively opposing this deal with the devil?  Should they all just shut-up, and take one for the team?  After all there are 30-something million other Canadians who are not affected by a FATCA IGA with the USA, who could care less, or so it seems.

Are Canadian citizens, deemed ‘US persons’, asking their fellow Canadians too much by insisting they risk their economic well being in exchange for the rights and freedoms, and economic well being of the ‘US persons’ in their midst?

Do  Canadians want to live in a country where the majority is protected – until it’s not – at the expense of others who find themselves in the cross-hairs of a foreign nation through no fault of their own?

Has Canada become a mockery of a country with a reputation for high standards of human rights and freedoms?

Has Canada never been what many thought it was, with those deemed ‘US persons’, the first to be disillusioned by the reality that none of us are free, and  none of us are protected, as is evidenced when a bigger power comes knocking and demanding tribute from those it illegitimately considers its own?

NorthernStar, in an email she shared with me, writes the following comment with regard to an article written by Don Cayo published at the Vancouver Sun:

I refused the offer.    and I got off lightly….
Continue reading →

With the concerns of constituents filling up their inboxes and voicemail, on Monday the NDP repeated their demand that the Conservatives remove a recently-signed tax agreement with the United States from the omnibus budget bill.

Read more:  http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/05/05/get-fatca-out-of-the-budget-bill-ndp-urges/

This is cross-posted from http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/what-we-leave-behind/ and was originally posted there on Jan 9, 2014. It is the text of a letter that was sent to the Honourable James Flaherty.

The Honourable James Flaherty, P.C., M.P.

Minister of Finance
House of Commons,
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Re: Minister Flaherty, how do you want to be remembered?

Dear Minister Flaherty:

There comes a time in many (not all that’s for sure) people’s lives when they wonder what they have accomplished, and what they will leave behind after their time on this planet is up. I’m at that point. And I feel like I’ve not accomplished much; at least nothing on a global scale. Sure, I’ve been a ‘good person’, always an exemplary employee, pretty good mom, polite to a fault, paid all my taxes (at least the ones I knew about it, and to the government of the country I’ve lived in all my working life), but I will leave nothing behind that the world will remember me by. Not that that’s a bad thing as it is the reality for 99.99% of all of us.

What about you? Will the world remember you? Will Canada?
Will your name go down in the history books? And if it does, what would you want to be remembered for?

Do you want to be remembered, as the Canadian Finance Minister who caved and signed on to FATCA and solidified US domination of the world forever more, or as the person who changed the direction of the world because he had the balls to say ‘NO’ to the USA bully? Because that would take huge balls! And that would surely get you remembered not just as a very ‘good person’, but as someone instrumental in positive global change.

A lot is at stake here. Not just for ‘US persons’ in Canada (or elsewhere), but for people of every citizenship living everywhere in the world, and for their children, though most don’t know it yet, and many never will. But the history books will tell the story.

You have a chance – I don’t – to write history. Don’t blow it. People like me are counting on you. Feel free to pass this letter on to your boss, if you think it will help change the course of history.

Sincerely,
Xxxxxxxx Xxxxx (real name not hidden from Flaherty)
Canadian citizen since birth in 19xx (unfortunately also born with red/white/blue tattoo)

Arthur Cockfield and Allison Christians in a new article out today at the Globe and Mail write:

For the first time in Canadian history, our federal government is preparing to provide a foreign government with sensitive personal financial information about hundreds of thousands of Canadians. It is doing so to stave off threatened economic sanctions, and is getting nothing in return.

Read the entire article here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/how-the-us-pulled-off-the-great-canadian-privacy-giveaway/article17916327/#dashboard/follows/

Alex Newman writes:

It broke Ruth Freeborn’s heart to give up her U.S. citizenship that fateful day last year. Unfortunately for the Oklahoma native, though, it was either that, or her family. Ruth’s Canadian husband of 33 years, who earns all of the middle-class family’s income, “simply could not go along with this situation,” she explained. “To find myself suddenly not able to live, bank, save or to keep peace in my marriage while being American at the same time was shocking at first and deeply disturbing to me.”

Read the entire article here: http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/item/17986-the-dark-road-the-worst-tax-law-you-ve-never-heard-about://

Brockers are interviewed in Patrick Cain’s new article at Global news.  He writes:

Is a second citizenship in the United States an asset? It depends.

Many Canadians have built careers in the U.S. that were simplified by the accident of their birthplace, or of a parent’s. If you want to work in the U.S., it’s useful to not have to worry about visas and green cards. (“Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to let you in,” wrote New England poet Robert Frost.)

But it became a potential liability in February when Canada made a deal with the U.S.  on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA.

Read the entire article here: http://globalnews.ca/news/1217871/how-to-get-rid-of-an-unwanted-u-s-citizenship/

A recent letter published in the Squamish Chief, called “The FATCA of the Matter”, by Suzanne Herman, must have upset some people with the truth.  Not to be outdone, Bill Cavanagh, former Program Manager, Capital Markets, Bank of Montreal has managed to get a counter letter published, titled “The Facts about FATCA”.

Read Mr. Cavanagh’s enlightening facts:

http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/the-facts-about-fatca-1.932064

Read Ms. Herman’s original letter:

http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/the-fatca-of-the-matter-1.933164

Update Apr 2, 2014:

MP John Weston responds: http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/safeguards-lauded-1.939921

In an article at Bangkok Post. Andrew Wood writes “the arrival of FATCA has given rise to some myths”, and:

All institutions worldwide will be required to report any US citizen’s account with a value exceeding US$200,000 (6.47 million baht) for non-resident expats. That means that if you have a bank account, the details could be sent to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This may seem significant, although if Americans worldwide were acting as they should, it would be insignificant and even unnecessary.

The entire article can be read here: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investigation/401244/is-fatca-just-for-fat-cats-us-expats-beware

I just read a report from the Credit Union Central of Canada, which seems to indicate that most Canadian credit unions will be at least partially exempt from FATCA.

Even credit unions over the 175 million asset limit (which are MOST credit unions) appear to be partially exempt. IF less than 2% of their customers are non-resident ‘US persons’  they only have to report those non-residents of Canada under the FATCA IGA presuming I am interpreting this report correctly.

Am I dreaming?  I sure hope not, and if not, we should have a HUGE BANK PROTEST DAY by moving all our funds out of the big banks and into a credit union!

Select the article titled: “FATCA IGA & Guidance provide much needed details, Mar 11, 2014” from:

http://www.cucentral.ca/SitePages/Publications/Connections.aspx

I have been trying for months to educate people about FATCA at Garth Turner’s blog which focuses on the Canadian housing market, as well as investing.  It has been a frustrating exercise. I am either ignored, or told to go find a FATCA blog somewhere to complain.  After staying away for awhile, I could not resist today, when Garth wrote a post called ‘F’, especially since there were a couple anti-FATCA comments already there, which surprised me since I have never seen anyone dis FATCA there before (one was from BCDoc who referenced isaacbrock, YAY BCDoc).

Unfortunately, after I posted my comment, I got the usual negative feedback.  Keep in mind this is a Canadian blog, frequented by Canadians, and yet rarely have I ever received a supportive reply. This makes me very sad.

Here is the link to Garth’s post about ‘F’: http://www.greaterfool.ca/2014/03/18/