Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 5 of 11 (Year 2018)

1,714 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 5 of 11 (Year 2018)”

1. No mention of the fact that the CRA will use the additional information for its own purposes – no other Canadian is exposed to.

2. “I for one do not rate keeping what is already mine a “benefit”.”

   But you are not Canada.

   All the IGA1 countries have benefited from signing the agreements, and so have the banks. Which makes it pretty hypocritical for the Dutch to be writing letters to US politicians complaining about FATCA and CBT. IMO.

3. I used myself only as an example. Canada does not “benefit” by being able to keep what is already theirs.

4. Yeah that was my thought when I saw the Dutch letter: “You don’t like it? Then why did you sign the IGA?”

   But of course the IGA made a bad situation slightly less bad.

5. Canada’s current government didn’t like it when the previous government signed the IGA, but they like it now.

6. @ plaxy
   Basically this Canada that supposedly benefits from the IGA is not actual individuals but rather financial institutions which can dodge the US bully stick by ratting out their clients to the CRA which then rats them out to the IRS. How reassuring — NOT! — to have one’s financial details reported to both home and foreign governments and every prying eye between. Where’s the sense of reason gone? Look, no amount of lipstick concocted by Finance Canada will hide the fact that FATCA is a pig, a glutton for personal data it should never be fed.

7. EmBee:

   “this Canada that supposedly benefits from the IGA is not actual individuals but rather financial institutions ”

   Yes, Canada the government. And the banks.

8. Thank goodness for “self-certification” here in Canada.

9. Yes. Reading that statement about the IGA, and how it was Canada’s suggestion that FATCA could be implemented extraterritorially by hooking it into the tax treaties, it dawned on me that North American banks are really in a very different position from European banks, when it comes to US tax matters, just because of geography. Banks on both sides of the border must deal constantly with both tax systems and presumably the Canadian banks don’t have a history of trying to persuade US-resident US citizens to deposit money in Canadian accounts to avoid US tax. So they’re not as nervous as European banks.

10. Well that and the fact that the KYC rules in Canada are relatively loose, so there’s no birthplace or citizenship on record for existing customers (which stems in part from a history of not having any national ID or residence registry, unlike Europe). As far as I can tell there are no plans to add that; currently they only ask you to self-certify any foreign tax residency.

    Honestly the exclusion of all the tax-protected accounts, along with absence of any collection assistance against Canadian citizens, is to me a giant wink-wink-nod-nod to duals, telling them to ignore US tax compliance. Sadly the government can’t or won’t just come out and say that publicly. So instead people get suckered in by the lawyers and accountants.

11. “Honestly the exclusion of all the tax-protected accounts, along with absence of any collection assistance against Canadian citizens, is to me a giant wink-wink-nod-nod to duals, telling them to ignore US tax compliance. ”

    You think? I would have thought they would keep clear of having or stating or implying any view on what duals should do with regard to US tax obligations. But who knows – not I.

12. Oh they don’t imply anything, they just state that dual citizens “have obligations to their other country of citizenship” or whatever. However, to me at least the exclusion of registered accounts from FATCA, when added to the lack of collection assistance, amounts to a giant get-out-of-jail-free card for Canadians. Why else would they have negotiated the exclusion in the IGA, since to the US all those accounts are still FBAR reportable on FBARs and gains (on all but RRSP I believe) are taxable?

13. “FBAR reportable on FBARs”

    I hate the lack of an edit feature…

14. All the IGA1s have exclusions for various tax-favoured accounts.

    And no country has a mutual collection agreement with the US which doesn’t exclude duals. I assume that’s largely because the IRS hates going to court and would presumably particularly hate going to court to collect another country’s revenue. Like that Danish case.

    I don’t know about Canada, but I can tell you that the UK government, for one, doesn’t care a flip whether US citizens are or are not filing US tax returns. Not my department, said Werner von Braun.

15. Now there’s reference that brings back many happy memories. Poor Tom Lehrer is still alive. I can’t imagine what he’s thinking these days.

16. Good heavens, is he really?

    Definitely a great memory.

17. @Plaxy why are you certain that the UK government doesn’t care whether US citizens are filing returns to the USA? Just curious…

18. It’s in your passport. Have a look. Under “Dual citizens”.

19. The only quote is ‘such as military service.’ Says nothing about taxes. I guess is it ‘i.e’ or ‘e.g.’?

20. e.g.

    If the UKG cared about US tax returns they’d be caring on UK taxpayers’ money. There is no duty to give a flip, no budget allocation to cover the costs of giving a flip, and above all, it’s none of their business how UK taxpayers choose to spend their disposable income. If they choose to send money to the IRS, that’s not interesting to the UKG. Quite rightly.

21. “If they choose to send money to the IRS, that’s not interesting to the UKG.”

    Well it should be of some interest – surely the UKG would prefer that the money were spent in the UK.

22. That’s one of the many reasons that I’ve decided not to send ANY paperwork to the IRS. It’s not only to protect my financial interests, on money earned solely here in the UK. If I reduce my finances, I then reduce my ability to look after myself in retirement, and the UK would have to help me out through benefits etc. Why should I disadvantage the country which has given me so much–a BA and a Masters, healthcare when I developed an autoimmune disease and skin cancer, safety and security? I have a responsibility to both myself and to the society in which I live now. NOT to one which I left over 32 years ago.

23. It’s none of their business how the citizenry spends its money, as long as they’re not breaking the law.

    I’m a little surprised that you think it should be.

24. Last comment responding to Nononymous, not BirdPerson. Our posts crossed.

25. @Plaxy – no probs. Actually, your comments on various threads have been incredibly helpful, many thanks!

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