Author Archives: WhiteKat

Brian Mahany is  “a bit miffed by a recent story in Canada’s CBC News criticizing FATCA.”

In his latest article at TaxConnections World-wide Tax Blogs titled CBC Distorts FATCA Facts Brian writes:

There is a tremendous amount of misinformation circulating about FATCA and the requirement for US taxpayers to report foreign financial accounts. Some of the media horror stories are so bad that many taxpayers are simply too afraid to come into compliance. Add a few boneheaded mistakes by the IRS and one has a sea of uncertainty. For some folks, that means anxiety and bad decisions.

According to Brian, CBC’s  “recent article on FATCA has several factual inaccuracies and takes editorial license too far. ”  Brian dispels these so-called inaccuracies with his own version of the facts: Continue reading →

Let the exodus of foreign investments from the tax haven of USA begin! A new article out today at accountingtoday.com reports:

A federal court has ruled that U.S. banks must report to foreign governments on the holdings of nonresident alien account holders under the intergovernmental agreements that the Treasury Department has signed with other countries’ tax authorities in an effort to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Judge-Rules-Banks-Must-Report-Foreign-Countries-FATCA-Deals-69297-1.html

Remember all those infuriating comments to articles over the last couple years, where we tried to respond and explain to the ‘homelanders’ that ‘US slaves’  (err I mean ‘US persons’) living outside the USA, are not the tax evading, rich expats that the IRS, and the US media, often make make us out to be.

Well, here is another one, and judging by the misinformed comments, it desperately needs some Brockers to set the message straight, once again – yes I know it is getting very old!  And just when we are getting a lot of positive media attention.

Thanks to Badger for digging this up.  She comments on a Must Read at Global News:

Global News, has an updated story on the rising US expatriation figures – and this is by the author Patrick Cain who compares the numbers in the Federal Register ‘name and shame’ list to the FBI numbers for those – (see specific category for ex-citizens) precluded from owning firearms.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1072303/over-3100-americans-renounced-citizenship-last-year-fbi/
January 10, 2014 9:30 am
More than 3,100 Americans renounced citizenship last year: FBI
By Patrick Cain

Cain references and links to the letter by constitutional lawyer Peter Hogg to the Finance Minister re his concerns about the serious issues with signing a FATCA IGA, and also notes yesterday’s release of Nina Olson IRS Taxpayer Advocate 2013 Report to Congress. The author provide a link to the report, and quotes the TAS: “……On Thursday, a report released by the U.S. National Taxpayer Advocate strongly criticized FATCA in a report to Congress, saying the costs exceed projected revenue, the law creates sovereigntyconflicts with other countries – using Canada as an example – and the IRS’s computer systems aren’t ready to handle such a complex project.

“[The] IRS has not acted upon advice it has received from some well-informed stakeholders,” Nina Olsen warned in the report. “FATCA carries with it the potential for substantial resource burdens and significant due process concerns.””

Rumour has it that some people associated with the Issac Brock Society, attended a Diane Francis lecture and book signing event held Dec 4, 2013 in Toronto. The attendees included:  IRSCF, Gwen and friend, Tricia, and a Brocker sympathizer who will be called “Gordon.”   Although the attendees seem to feel that discussion of this event, given the presenter,  is not deserving of a thread of its own, I disagree, and am posting this on their behalf.

A photograph of the vehicle Ms. Francis flew in on, and the experiences described to me by the attendees follow.

Continue reading →

Bubblebustin just commented that Minister Flaherty’s holding a press conference tomorrow in Markham:

http://www.fin.gc.ca/notices-avis13/2013-12-05-eng.asp

Perhaps some TO area Brockers would like to organize a protest.     So far, I have heard back personally from one Brocker willing to go if she has company. As Atticus and I know from experience, it only takes two people to get media attention.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

UPDATE:   There must be thousands of ‘US persons’  living in Toronto, many of whom are just waking up to the fact that they are ‘US taxpayers’, and waking up to FATCA, and who frequent this site.

WHERE ARE YOU?

When things do not turn out as you would like, please don’t blame Gwen, or Petros, or IRSCompliant, or NobleDreamer, or Marie, or Blaze or Schubert, or NorthernStar, or Badger, or Bubblebustin, or Calgary411, or any of the others who have been working on your  behalf to put an end to all this FATCA nonsense.    ‘US persons’ from all over the world come to this website, and look to Canadians for answers.  We are the only light they have in the darkness of all this madness. Hundreds of thousands of people  are counting on Canada to save them.   When opportunities to make ourselves LOUD, such as tomorrow’s announcement, come around, to not take advantage of them, is to show weakness, and to admit  defeat.   Don’t let them win.  Now is our time.

Bubblebustin has had to postpone the protest but would like to have one in the near future.

Bubblebustin would like to know if there are any West coasters interested in being part of a FATCA protest in downtown Vancouver, Ministry of Finance, 300 Georgia Street West, Monday Dec 2 at 1 pm. The press are invited:http://www.fin.gc.ca/notices-avis13/2013-11-29-eng.asp

Am I dreaming?   Could we open our internet browsers some morning soon and see this headline?   Northernstar talks about  the ripples of anti-FATCA sentiment spreading throughout the world.  We are seeing it in increased media reports like this one that JustMe pointed out: http://www.freeenterprise.com/economy-taxes/fatca-trap-opposition-builds-can-intrusive-foreign-tax-compliance-law-be-stopped, and this one that describes Ruth Freeborn’s FATCA nightmare: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/27/209810/new-tax-law-driving-expats-to.html.

Maybe,  just maybe….

Does anyone else see the connection between this article and FATCA?    If you are against internet surveillance, you are for child pornography.  If you are against FATCA, you are for tax evasion.

Jess Kline at National Post writes:

In trying to defend the government’s lawful access legislation last year, then public safety minister Vic Toews said that Canadians can either “stand with us, or with the child pornographers.” Given that the proposed Internet-spying legislation was incredibly unpopular, this statement didn’t sit well with many people. Surely law-abiding citizens could object to living in an online surveillance state without siding with child pornographers.

Indeed, the backlash against the Tories’ lawful access legislation was so harsh the last time around, they eventually promised the shelve the idea for good.

“We will not be proceeding with Bill C-30 and any attempts that we will continue to have to modernize the Criminal Code will not contain the measures contained in C-30,” said former justice minister Rob Nicholson in February. “We’ve listened to the concerns of Canadians who have been very clear on this.”

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The Conservative strategy appears to have been to lay low for awhile, pick another cause de jure and reintroduce the legislation under a different name.

Read the full article here:  http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/11/26/jesse-kline-tories-bully-canadians-into-accepting-internet-surveillance-bill/

Frustration, exhaustion, and a sense of impending disaster appear to lurk among those Brockers and Sandboxers who have had FATCA on their minds more frequently in a day than teenagers think about sex. We are at a crossroads here in Canada. Our Conservative government is about to make history; we all feel it here in this place we call the Isaac Brock Society, which is much more than just a website.  We all hope that the history our government is about to make is the ‘right’ one.

Many citizens of the world, not just Canadians, have contributed their individual talents, and personal attributes  in countless ways to educate those who do not understand FATCA,  which is no easy task!  It is not my intention for this post to name them all, or describe what they have done, but we know, and they know, and everyone reading this who values human rights and freedoms knows.

Sadly, we are not there yet. Most Canadians have never heard of FATCA. Most people in the world have never heard of FATCA, nor have they heard of citizenship based taxation. Intuitively, almost everyone gets it that it is unfair to tax people who do not live in the taxing country, and do not earn income there. Unfortunately, most people don’t connect the dots between the bad, unfair things that happen to ‘other people’ with the bad, unfair things that could happen to them.

Our job is to educate the masses, so that our voice becomes much LOUDER. We have been trying, but people in Canada, and the USA are easily distracted with things such as the antics of Rob Ford. How sad is it that little media attention was paid to a group of Canadian citizens who spent 2 days in the cold demonstrating on 18 inches of curb outside a meeting held by Canadian bankers who were discussing how to smoke out the ‘US Persons’ among us? Continue reading →