Media and Blog Articles – part 2 of 11 (Year 2015)
You can access all years at this link: Media and Blog Articles – Links for All Years
If clicking on a comment link brings you to the wrong comment, click here to get on the most recent page of comments.(alternatively, to reach the most recent comment page, go to the url in the bar at the top of your browser and delete everything after http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments-part-2-of-2 )
Media and Blog Articles
EmBee suggested that it would be good if there was a thread for new articles, so that people would be aware of where to comment. So, I created this permanent page. You could mention such articles in the comment stream for this page, or if I see one on another thread, I can copy the link to here. I’ll keep adding to the list, but not deleting, so we’ll end up having sort of a “bibliography” too. [Note: Some articles are not open for comments]
For more articles on FATCA, enter FATCA into Google then click on the link “more news for fatca” just below the most recent featured article.
Note also: JC suggests to see #FATCA on Twitter for latest breaking news. JC finds that is quite a good source and there even are some international articles that one may read using Google Translate.” Others may help certain tweets and articles remain in elevated position by retweeting them.
Be sure to read the comment stream for this thread — there are usually very recent articles mentioned there that are not yet on this list.
2015.01.01
Raising revenue off Caribbean backs, Bruce Zagaris, NationNews, Barbados.
On or about 2016.01.01
16 issues to make 2016 candy for the market, Westfield Times.
2015.12.31
Tax reporting norms: FinMin updates guidance note on compliance, K.R. Srivats, Hindu Business Line, India.
2015.12.30
Top Tax Blogs from 2015, Tax Connections. (Congratulations to John Richardson and Lynne Swanson who placed 2nd and 4th!)
Global dragnet puts pressure on tax evaders as year-end deadlines loom, Jeff Gray, Globe and Mail, Canada.
IRS Employee Whose Job Was Assisting Victims Of Identity Theft Charged in $1 Million Identity Theft Tax Fraud, Paul Caron, TaxProfBlog, US.
How America’s Wealthiest Are Saving Billions Through a Private Tax System, TruthDig.
RA Returns Home, TaxProTalk forum.
2015.12.29
For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions, Noam Scheiber and Patricia Cohen, New York Times, US.
IRS Stirs Up New Crisis With Non-Profits Over Social Security Numbers, Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times.
DNC Must Heed Warning Bells From 2000, Bennet Kelley, Huffington Post, US.
2015.12.28
IRS Creates “International Practice Units” for their IRS Revenue Agents in International Tax Matters, Patrick Martin, Tax-Expatriation, US.
MF investors: Les than a4th comply with US tax law, Jayshree P. Upadhyay & Ashley Coutinho, Business Standard, India.
IRS service should improve after some saw their ‘worst tax season,” advocate says, Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch, US.
@WhiteKat. Check your link. I believe you mean: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/gabrielle-cintorino/record-number-americans-renounced-their-us-citizenship-2015#comment-2073500114
Nope JC. I got my link right.
Anti-FATCA group finalises lawsuit against Canadian Gov’t
http://www.international-adviser.com/news/1022937/anti-fatca-finalises-lawsuit-canadian-gov
@Tomalciere
Wow- maybe that sentence about taking away people`s retirement funds will be a wake up call! What a bullseye comment! I think something should have been said about exactly who is affected. As long as Canadians think “weil this doesn’t pertain to me- it is just those americans living here” they wont care.
Polly and Tom,
To me, reading …
is an over-the-top statement. An exaggerated message, with such a stark stated outcome, is not helpful. A lot of our retirement savings, for those who have the *luxury* of such, will be spent on compliance — to US tax lawyers and US tax accountants, not transferring them to the IRS (leaves the reader with, or did to me, the impression my retirement savings will all be confiscated by the CRA and turned over to the IRS?). Not one penny of our retirement savings should have to be spent that way! Leaves the impression (to me) this is *all about taxes that we have somehow evaded*, which it, of course, is not.
Neither is the final message left with the reader helpful — the statement by National Revenue minister Kerry-Lynne Findley that there is no problem. What does “does not collect the US tax liability of a Canadian citizen if the individual was a Canadian citizen at the time the liability arose” even mean?
It is wonderful that in the article we ARE referred to as Canadians instead of *US citizens who happen to reside in Canada* and that our litigation efforts are recognized. But, again, (to me) an article that could have been more responsibly written.
@Calgary
Maybe you are right, but I think one of the biggest scandals about all of this IS that people fear for their retirement. And it is something that other people should be able to relate to.
Let’s not overlook these so called treaty gaps the expert witnesses refer to in the lawsuit – taxes owing to the US government on the sale of one of our greatest retirement asset, our principal residence, and how the IRS gaining knowledge of bank account records could lead to the payment of that tax regardless of whether that person is a Canadian citizen or not. According to the same expert witnesses, a letter from the IRS could send many recipients into compliance (at least that’s my interpretation of what they’re saying). Does that line in the sand – whether someone is a Canadian citizen or not – really matter when the account holder in question is faced with the full retaliation of the US government for non-compliance?
How duplicitous and disingenuous the Harper government is in handing us over to the US government while leaving only open defiance as our last line of defence!
Absolutely!!!!!!
My husband sent me a comment this morning (perhaps to the Bill C-24 CBC article that I sent him) / re dual that is not US …
So, yes, as I see it, we are no longer protected in Canada…
It’s all laid out, legislated for *dual Canadian citizens* that their Canadian citizenship is now conditional. Second-class citizenship with legislation in place for Canadian citizenship removal for *dual citizens*. Now Canadian dual citizen *protestors* must keep their mouths shut or they *could* too easily and readily (by an unjust government in power) be deemed *terrorist* and sent to the country of their *other* citizenship. Could we be deemed *terrorist* for standing up for what should be our Canadian rights under the Charter, protesting against the IGA that places US law over Canadian laws and any non-compliance with US law (as we are *US citizens who only happen to reside in Canada*)? Bills C-31 (second-class Canadian citizenship for so-called *US Persons*), C-24 (pertaining to ALL *dual citizens* in Canada) and C-51 are nicely intertwined to let this happen. History (Germany, etc.) repeats itself in the name of fear-mongering *terrorism*.
Every permanent resident of Canada and every *dual citizen* of Canada should be contributing to the ADCS-ADSC litigation. But, we all go along our merry way, our lives taken up in distractions, as our rights are taken away. What is Canada (and other countries) becoming?
Calgary411
At first they came for the dual citizens from Islamic countries, and I did nothing…
Yes, history repeats itself over and over, and that is exactly right, bubblebustin!
We, here, with our discussion, support and the Canadian ADCS-ADSC litigation do heed what has happened in other countries and before our time. I am proud of all of us who continue to *try* to protect our rights, the rights of ALL Canadians — and in doing so, hopefully, an example for what must be also done in other countries to do the same.
@Calgary411 re: ” To me, reading …
force them to transfer their retirement savings to the IRS is an over-the-top statement. An exaggerated message, with such a stark stated outcome, is not helpful. ”
Didn’t that comment come from ADCS itself?
The article says, “The alliance said today that it has raised $400,000 of the $500,000 required to take the lawsuit through the first court, and must pay the next instalment by 1 August this year. It claims the IGA “aims to round up innocent Canadians, turn them over to a foreign government, and force them to transfer their retirement savings to the IRS”.
@ calgary411
Beg to differ just a little … FATCA in full force will indeed transfer retirement savings to the IRS and it’s important to point that out. However, you are correct about the compliance aspect and that needs to be mentioned too. FATCA means that savings will be sucked up by the ravenous compliance condors too. Anyway it’s great to see ADCS getting some attention … ’bout time! High fives to Stephen Kish and Daniel Flynn.
@calgary411
*force them to transfer their retirement savings to the IRS*
I see it a different way then u do… Canadians would then think… hey… if they have no retirement funds… I will have to support them with my tax dollars… But if u say…. using their retirement funds for compliance… then Canadians will just say… not my problem… If u hit Canadians in their pockets… they will take note…. But instead of just saying Canadian citizens… they should have also mentioned US person… even if they are not American… u get sucked up into this mess… There are tons of people in Canada who have/had a Green Card or worked in the US with a visa… Some still say it has nothing to do with them but I point out… they are sucked into it also… they still don’t believe me
My attention span is small…. articles need to be less technical & more every day so others will identify with… They keep saying American Citizen & not US persons… also that ending paragraph about CRA…. it maybe true today but it may not be true tomorrow… People need to arrange their funds to protect themselves… I know my mattress nor my Maxwell House Coffeee is not going to rat me out nor will it try to steal from me… With all these behind the door new laws or laws that are pushed through no matter how we protest is going… I have no trust in the Gov’t…. Remember come this yr… time to kick the closet dweller out of his office & into the street…. we can’t go on like this….
A tip of the hat to GwEvil’s tweet which certainly helped to motivate Daniel Flynn to weave parts of the Stephen Kish e-mail into his International Adviser article. It’s a pretty good article I think, all told. I would have left out the Kerry-Lynne Findley quote but I suppose the author felt the need to include a little “balance”.
@Calgary411, you know how I have been preaching that Dual/Multi Citienship does not exist in domestic law because its defined?
We need T Shirts, “Dual Citizenship is a Myth, I am Canadian.”
“To me” as my $42,000 straight from my retirement savings went to US tax lawyers, US tax accountants in Canada (as well, I *fired* a firm in the US but they retained my *retainer*) and a US immigration/nationality lawyer in Washington, DC. The *only* of my retirement savings that went to the IRS was US$3,661 — which I would not have owed at all had I not been the Holder of my son’s fully-Canadian Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP). I read the article as we are being forced to transfer our retirement savings to the IRS and immediately thought “All” not “Part Of”. That was not my experience but I realize this is a huge fear of all of us. I renounced a US citizenship I thought I had lost in 1975 and want the same for my son so there are not yearly US tax and reporting compliance costs as I absolutely could not do what was required to carry out the compliance myself and can most absolutely not afford the ongoing compliance costs to prove to the IRS that I, myself, owe them nothing. Not a penny went willingly. What I did pay the IRS was pure theft from Canadian taxpayers that helped contribute, in bonds and grants, my son’s RDSP.
Excellent headline and tee-shirt message, George. I’ll mention it at the next *Calgary Against Harper Dictatorship* meeting next Sunday. I may be the only (former) US Person there, but there will be one other so designated Brocker and those who will have come from other countries so some of them called *dual*.
If anyone has attended any of John Richardson’s information sessions and really absorbed what he is saying, I think the phrase “force them to transfer their retirement savings to the IRS” is true but perhaps in a different way than is generally pictured.
It does not mean that at only one point in time and all of whatever you have, at once. It means:
many will pay tax on the sale of their principal residence (for many, the #1 source of retirement funds)
many will lose their Mutual Funds
many will pay the 3.8% Obamacare tax
many will pay AMT
then add the compliance fees, the unseen effects of counseling, medication and other health costs as nobody comes out of this without peripheral problems
I would think that constitutes “taking someone’s retirement.” It’s not just the money…………
As a reminder… John Richardson will be a presenter at TaxConnections Internet Tax Summit September 21-25, 2015. John is one of 25 Tax Experts that will be spotlighted in this first ever Internet Tax Summit Event. Get your Free VIP Ticket today. You will be part of history tuning in to listen to all 25 tax experts online. If you do not have time to hear them all, recordings are available to make certain you benefit from all the tax expertise. https://www.taxconnections.com/internet_tax_summit
Yes, indeed, it is taking someone’s (and my own) retirement for all of those other things that need to be delineated. But, For Me and Me Alone, My Experience, there wasn’t a transfer from my retirement savings to the IRS. I realize I am very small potatoes, that it may turn out differently for many and their retirement savings may be transferred to the IRS. I think for most? / or many of us? it may be the same situation as mine was — nothing actually owed to the IRS itself, which made it, for me, even more astounding.
Our litigation is needed and the only way (we have tried the other ways) to stem the flow of our $$$ whether directly to the IRS or siphoned off before it ever gets there — to rid this control and absurdity from our lives. Besides our retirement savings (and $$$ for our daily living needs) earned and taxed in our own countries, this has and is continuing to ruin retirement plans and normal life itself for most of us.
Hi Calgary,
I am not necessarily thinking of those of us on Brock. There are many, many who are non-compliant, will be outed by FATCA and will get hit much harder than you or I. Or below:
https://vimeo.com/124157402
Every time I hear, again, Linda’s or anyone else’s story, I go back to square one with my anger for what all this is doing to people.
I don’t understand so much about what people like Linda are to do. Heck, I don’t understand what I am to do for my family’s situation.
I don’t understand what the US is doing after all these years of turning a blind eye. I don’t understand why the US cannot / will not change to CBT as the rest of the world. I don’t understand their exceptionality! And, I don’t understand Canada’s or any other countries not standing up for their own.
I don’t understand being labelled a tax evader, a traitor or a *US citizen who happens to reside in Canada* — from whichever country it comes from.
I don’t understand how in Canada something like the IGA / FATCA portion of Bill C-31 was implemented without any but our outcry. I don’t understand how Bill C-24 is now law — nor, of course, Bill C-51, which I protested against the best I could.
What I most don’t understand is just why our litigation is not funded many times over — by *US Persons in Canada* and many other Canadians who really care about the health of this country (as always, my humble thanks goes out to all outside of Canada who know the importance and are helping with their donations).
Onward — because we must!
@Calgary
absolutely. the whole thing is completely incomprehensible
Good on you for going to the C-51 demonstration! I was really amazed at watching various videos of the many demonstrations that day…
calgary411 –
A terse antithesis to your “I don’t understand … ” litany.
I do understand that the people in and of the United States are true believers in the exceptional nature of their unspeakable empire.
I do understand that extraterritorial US persons must therefore become dual objects of loathing wherever they happen to reside.
This contradiction is the cornerstone. Nothing stands under it.
I dont understand the hypocrisy. Go after tax evasion in Delaware.