Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 4 of 11 (Year 2017)

1,720 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles Open for Comments – Part 4 of 11 (Year 2017)”

1. @Charl & Barbara

   Actually this is at least the second, if not the third article that Helen has done on us. She is a gem. 😉

   http://www.internationalinvestment.net/products/tax/isaac-brock-society-blog-canadian-accidental-americans-becomes-global-info-resource/

2. @Barbara That was very skillful copy and paste.

3. Possible Changes on Taxation for U.S. Citizens in Mexico and Abroad

   By Federico Rojas Frias, 1 week ago.
   http://www.thenews.mx/business/possible-changes-on-taxation-for-u-s-citizens-abroad/

   This is an ACA RBT source. It sounds like RBT like any other nation, except for the 5 years part.

   U.S. citizens would also be free of having to pay back taxes after returning to the United States, as long as their time abroad under RBT and their return to their country is done in a period of more than five years. At least this is current thinking as the legislation begins to take final shape.

4. ‘Data is the new oil’: Your personal information is now the world’s most valuable commodity
   Huge amounts of data are controlled by just 5 global mega-corporations that are bigger than most governments
   By Ramona Pringle, CBC News Posted: Aug 25, 2017
   http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/data-is-the-new-oil-1.4259677

   And in addition, our personal and financial data is being surrendered by our home governments all over the globe to a foreign government – the US, via the FATCA IGAs.

   Related is that now our home government is also contemplating siting our personal data on servers in the US – and for ex. the financial sector, subjecting us even further to data theft and appropriation even if we are not FATCA IGA USextraterritorialCBT subjects directly;

   “….When Canada, the U.S. and Mexico kick off NAFTA renegotiations on Aug. 16, some of what they’ll be talking about is how to regulate what happens to personal data like your bank account information and SIN number.Washington wants few restrictions on cross-border data transfers and has taken aim at rules in other countries that require certain digital information to be stored on computers located within their national borders.

   U.S. President Donald Trump’s list of NAFTA negotiating objectives urges Canada and Mexico to “refrain from imposing measures in the financial services sector that restrict cross-border data flows or that require the use or installation of local computing facilities.”……..”……..
   “………..The U.S. is also unimpressed with Ottawa’s 2016 cloud-computing strategy, which mandates that certain data handled by the federal government be stored in Canada.
   Canadian concerns

   The stakes are high for Canada, according to Michael Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.

   Since well before the Trump administration, the U.S. has had, generally, a looser approach to data privacy than Canada, according to Geist.

   “There are far fewer privacy-related rules in the U.S. as compared to Canada and many other jurisdictions,” he told Global News.

   With a few exceptions, the U.S.’s approach to privacy law is, essentially, “tell people what you’re going to do and live by what you told them,” said Geist. But restrictions on what entities can do with the data “isn’t something you typically find in the U.S.”

   There are even fewer U.S. protections for data that belongs to non-U.S. citizens and residents.

   “Mounting concerns” over U.S. surveillance activities and the far-reaching powers granted to U.S. law enforcement under laws such as the USA Patriot Act have prompted a number of countries to adopt requirements that some data be held locally, Geist wrote in comments to the Canadian government about the upcoming NAFTA negotiations.

   “The combined effect of these U.S. laws is that many users fear that once their information is stored in the U.S., it will be accessible to U.S. authorities without suitable privacy protections or oversight. Since U.S. law provides less privacy protection to foreigners, there is indeed limited legal recourse for Canadian data held in the U.S.,” continued Geist…………”
   http://globalnews.ca/news/3660107/nafta-trump-the-cloud-data-privacy-canada/

   Given the scope of known and secret US laws, and the penchant of the US to spy on its residents and those abroad around the world, surrender to those NAFTA demands would be suicidal for Canadian rights and freedoms.

   There is already the threat of erosion of recent EU / US agreements;
   “…At present, the EU-US Privacy Shield sets out what data can be shared between businesses on both sides of the Atlantic ocean and how that data can be used. It is designed so data protection laws can be upheld between EU’s the member states and the US.

   However, one of Trump’s latest executive orders (Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States) has implications for the Privacy Shield.
   READ NEXT

   Take cybersecurity away from spies… for everyone’s sake
   Take cybersecurity away from spies… for everyone’s sake
   By Emily Taylor

   “Privacy Act,” the order reads. “Agencies shall, to the extent consistent with applicable law, ensure that their privacy policies exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents from the protections of the Privacy Act regarding personally identifiable information.”

   The agencies Trump refers to are law enforcement bodies and the FBI and NSA, although more than 1,500 companies have signed-up to the agreement. The Privacy Shield, combined with the EU-US Umbrella Agreement, extend the benefits of the US Privacy Act to those in the EU and allows access to US courts for data protection issues. The language of Trump’s executive order, critics say, could mean these provisions are removed.

   Privacy experts said the impact of the executive order could have an impact on the Privacy Shield. Green MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht, who is also the European Parliament’s rapporteur on data protection regulation tweeted to say the plans from Trump may break agreements between the EU and US……..”
   http://www.wired.co.uk/article/trump-privacy-shield-data

5. Further to above re the threat to Canadian’s personal data under US NAFTA demands, and Canadian government’s exploration of options to store your data on US servers;
   “…no data-storage cloud system is impervious to the USA Patriot Act or other legal challenges to Canada’s data sovereignty.

   The document by Raj Thuppal, of the Cyber and IT Security unit of Shared Services Canada, says ” … no mechanism is able to entirely prevent foreign access to data should legal requests be invoked………” ”

   quoted from;
   ‘Secret Government of Canada data stored on U.S. servers? Memo raises possibility
   Document shows Ottawa’s IT department exploring options for sensitive data storage on U.S.-based servers’
   By Dean Beeby, CBC News Posted: Sep 08, 2017
   http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/storage-data-cloud-government-canadian-shared-services-microsoft-secret-1.4277836

   I believe that our FATCA issue is part of a bigger and related picture of the subjugation of Canadians and our rights and freedoms and ceding of our sovereignty and autonomy to the US – with our own governments’ active cooperation and collaboration. Our own government is considering actions that will increase our vulnerability and make all of us subjects of the US.

   Some provinces (BC and Nova Scotia) have enacted laws to try and prevent this http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/july-2017/privacy-rights-nafta-agenda/ but are in danger of being overridden by the US;

   “…..BC is one of two provinces in Canada that have a domestic data storage requirement in law (the other is Nova Scotia). In BC the law came about as a way out of a huge controversy during the first government of Liberal premier Gordon Campbell. In 2004, Campbell undertook a number of outsourcing initiatives, one of which involved the health ministry contracting out the administration of BC’s public health insurance program to Maximus, a US-controlled private service provider.

   The centre of the controversy was the prospect of the application of the USA Patriot Act to British Columbians’ personal health information. The USA Patriot Act contained a number of measures allowing American security and law enforcement agencies to gain access to personal information. This caused a huge uproar in BC.

   BC’s information and privacy commissioner demanded that protections be brought in, requiring that this data be stored in Canada (among other things), and Campbell agreed. As a result, BC’s law requires public bodies in the province to “ensure that personal information in its custody or under its control is stored only in Canada and accessed only in Canada,” subject to a few limited exceptions.

   The BC and Nova Scotia laws have been targeted by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). In the latest annual report on what it considers to be trade barriers around the world, the USTR claims these laws are barriers to digital trade:

   British Columbia and Nova Scotia each have laws that mandate that personal information in the custody of a public body must be stored and accessed only in Canada unless one of a few limited exceptions applies. These laws prevent public bodies, such as primary and secondary schools, universities, hospitals, government-owned utilities, and public agencies, from using U.S. services when there is a possibility that personal information would be stored in or accessed from the United States.

   Internal USTR documents we obtained through the American Freedom of Information Act show that major US companies (Rackspace/Salesforce) complained to the USTR about BC’s requirement that government and other public sector data be stored in Canada. The documents also show the USTR took those complaints seriously, and it made a point of calling the BC ministry responsible for the law in early 2012 to discuss the issue. We didn’t get a record of what precisely was said during the call, but the USTR officials’ e-mails we did receive indicated they were interested in what they heard from the BC Ministry of Citizens’ Services.

   When the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) tried to find out the Canadian version of events, our freedom of information request came up with nothing. The BC Ministry of Citizens’ Services claimed that although it received a call from the USTR to set up a later call, and although its officials actually talked on the phone with the USTR for at least a half hour on the day in question, it didn’t have any agenda, minutes, notes or anything else. The BC Ministry of International Trade was similarly bereft of documentation about this call, so we have no idea what BC government officials told the USTR, nor do we know what, if anything, they told their political masters about this.

   One thing we do know is that the Americans will want to open up opportunities to do business in BC’s public sector, which they are currently denied, and that they will probably be looking for language that will prevent other governments in this country from requiring that data collected from Canadians in this country be stored in this country.”

   We must keep fighting US extraterritorial FATCA as imposed on Canadians and other countries, but also see the connections to other areas of data and personal privacy rights which the US and corporations are actively attempting to erode.

   FATCA IS A NAFTA issue and so are the other US extraterritorial threats to our data and personal privacy with the collusion of our own home government.

6. IRS Medic: Help End Citizenship Based Taxation

7. Yet another tax survey, this time the Republicans asking you to “Tell Congress what you want from Tax Reform”. It’s kind of limited, but heck, why not add our voices? You’ll have to choose the option “other”, since there’s nothing about CBT:

   https://fairandsimple.gop/tell-congress-survey

8. Solomon Yue places territorial points on a post card to Trump.

   Sign a Petition on Territorial Taxation

   https://twitter.com/SolomonYue/status/908585673153683456

9. Next – your insurance.

   Insurance firm Swiss Life has announced that it has been approached by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding its cross-border business with US clients.

   After going after Swiss banks with a vengeance for abetting tax evasion, it appears that it is now the turn of the Swiss insurance industry to attract unfavourable attention from the DOJ. Products called “insurance wrappers” – offered by Swiss Life affiliates – could potentially have aroused suspicion. These are life insurance policies which are “wrapped” around an investment portfolio selected by a client. The portfolio is thus not tied to the client but to the policy and accumulates income at a favourable or even zero tax rate until payout time.

   “All insurance contracts have been categorized and been reported pursuant to the FATCA [Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act] legislation,” said Swiss Life in a statement released on Thursday.

   https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/insurance-wrappers_swiss-life-under-scrutiny-of-us-authorities-for-tax-evasion/43519134

10. @plaxy,

    Insurance contracts are pretty well protected from the IRS. They have their tax on foreign insurance premiums that likely is under paid and of course their penalties if they are not tax compliant. Unless they have withdrawn or payed into the contracts without paying the tax then there won’t be any penalties.
    Unlike my pensions the IRS didn’t even try anything funny with our insurance contract (that’s also and investment account behind the scenes, part of the big push way back to have mortgages paid by stock market gains that didn’t work). You get these in the US as well. Typically called variable annuities. Fidelity tries to push me to them but their costs are high.

11. Next as a means of hunting down the assets of US citizens living outside the US.

12. @Neill

    I don’t know for sure but wonder if this is not a bit different…??

    .

    Products called “insurance wrappers” – offered by Swiss Life affiliates – could potentially have aroused suspicion. These are life insurance policies which are “wrapped” around an investment portfolio selected by a client. The portfolio is thus not tied to the client but to the policy and accumulates income at a favourable or even zero tax rate until payout time.
    “All insurance contracts have been categorized and been reported pursuant to the FATCA [Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act] legislation,” said Swiss Life in a statement released on Thursday.
    In 2016, the DOJ found Swiss bank Union Bancaire Privée guilty of maintaining undeclared bank accounts for US clients by using insurance wrappers provided by non-US insurance firms. It was made to pay a fine of over $187 million for this and other tax evasion abetting offences.

    https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/insurance-wrappers_swiss-life-under-scrutiny-of-us-authorities-for-tax-evasion/43519134?&ns_mchannel=rss&srg_evsource=rss

13. File under *Read the Small Print – A Myth of US Citizenship Benefits*

    http://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-dept-forces-stranded-u-s-citizens-foot-bill-hurricane-rescue/

    https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/emergencies/crisis-support.html

14. Thanks for that good find @calgary. Now if only I could have had that in hand to counter the consular official in Toronto who tried to counter my intent to relinquish with the warning that I’d lose US assistance and cited emergency evacuation by the US as an example of the ‘benefits’ I would be losing if I gave up US citizenship. I asked him “in Canada” my home? He paused a bit, and perhaps saw how ridiculous I found that as his opening and apparently most compelling example of the benefits of keeping US status. And of course he would know that it was a ‘benefit’ that was contingent.

    I’d love to have been able to shove that form http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/scan.pdf under the noses of consular officials and those greedy UShomeland CBT defenders and FATCAnatics like Elise Bean and those that posit and promulgate the ‘benefits’ theory of US extraterritorialCBT.

    I note that unless and until the full costs of evacuation are paid, the citizens’ passports will be limited – so much for the supposedly unalloyed ‘right’ and ‘benefit’ of a US passport;
    “….If the loan is not repaid in full, those listed on the forms can face penalties, such as a limitedly valid U.S. passport, according to the form.

    The loan also is subject to “interest, penalties, and other charges for late payment,” according to the form.

    This is not a new policy. The State Department has required such promissory notes be signed in these situations since 1956, according to U.S. officials familiar with the policy. There are only limited situations in which this form is waived.

    The State Department is not permitted to spend government funds on these types of evacuations, which necessitates that U.S. citizens seeking State Department help in their evacuation from disaster-struck areas sign the form before getting on a flight…..”
    http://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-dept-forces-stranded-u-s-citizens-foot-bill-hurricane-rescue/

    Evidence for the ‘club membership’ theory of US citizenship based extraterritorial taxation. No benefits to you unless you can afford to pay to maintain your Club USA annual dues, whether that be in paying US tax lawyers and accountants (if you can find any locally) even if you owe the US not a dime, paying high priced professionals to help ensure perfect ‘compliance’ with the myriad of ever changing, complex and incomprehensible forms and rules, translate any non-English documents into English, try to avoid falling afoul of layers of penalty jeopardy quicksand deliberately created to apply to just about anything we might do in our ordinary legal local lives outside the US, or to ensure not falling accidently afoul of US tax and penalties on things that are not taxable or reportable in the country where you live, or fall prey to US tax and penalties on things that US homelanders don’t pay tax or penalties to do inside the US, or accept restrictions on your local legal banking, infringement on your local laws and rights and constitution, barriers to being signatories on local non-personal accounts, etc.

    It isn’t a right if you have to pay to access it or keep it.

15. @BAdger
    “It isn’t right if you have to pay to access or keep it”
    It also isn’t right if you are TRAPPED into paying for it, cannot cancel your subscription, and in the end are getting nothing in return.

16. Badger and Polly: “It isn’t a right if you have to pay to access it or keep it.” Amen. Rights are free.

17. A Democrat Abroad condor soliciting clients by waving the DA RBT proposal:

    “Our most well-known project is advocacy for residency-based taxation. Our proposal has gotten a lot of traction in the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation for its professionalism and even-keeled approach.”

    https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/us-swiss-double-taxation_-i-prefer-to-fight-to-change-the-system-/43511864

18. I made a mistake in my post above. The writer of the article is associated with American Citizens Abroad, not Democrats Abroad.

19. Recent arguments ( ex. http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/morneau-chides-ndp-for-opposing-end-to-unfair-tax-advantages-for-wealthy open for comment) about the current benefits and opposition to proposed changes to Canadian tax rules re incorporation for Canadian doctors, dentists, and others etc. The articles and debate reminded me that incorporation can potentially create additional US extraterritorial reporting and penalty compliance quicksand for Canadians living in Canada who the US extraterritorially deems UStaxablepersons/citizens.

    Ex. potential Form 5471 pitfalls;
    http://www.advisor.ca/tax/tax-news/case-study-montreal-based-doctor-in-trouble-with-the-irs-181640

    (I also found this recently which might be helpful in part for someone mired Form 5471 and certain other ‘form crime’ compliance quicksand (ex. Form 3520/A) – usual caveat this is not an endorsement or advice; https://taxlitigator.me/2017/08/23/lbi-audit-practice-when-is-an-international-informational-return-substantially-complete-by-cory-stigile/ )

    I remember that the CMA generated this https://www.cma.ca/Assets/assets-library/document/en/advocacy/CMA-letter-Flaherty-Nov21.pdf https://www.cma.ca/Assets/assets-library/document/en/advocacy and received this reply /FinanceMinister-reply-Jan2012.pdf re FATCA’s impact on Canadian physicians, but don’t know if they are actively advising Canadian doctors of the incorporation jeopardy for those with the US extraterritorial status burden residing in Canada.

20. The National Post article was open for comment. Might be an opportunity to raise inequities of US extraterritorial taxation and FATCA in commentary to articles re the debate over recent Canadian tax proposals?

    Some others are still open for comment as well.
    ex. https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/thunder-bay-hospital-er-doctors-threaten-to-leave-720918

21. I want to be clear that in flagging the article above about the proposed Canadian tax rule changes in recent articles, I’m not expressing my personal position on those changes, just looking for places to raise US extraterritorial tax system impacts on Canadian taxpayers.

    Here is another potential comment opportunity to flag the deficits in the current Canada US tax treaty;

    Trudeau can benefit from having his “family fortune” in an estate trust http://archive.fo/LZFKS but fellow Canadians born with the US taint of citizenship are faced with USextraterritorial tax burden and would be FATCA’d and faced with costly incomprehensible US information reporting, potential penalties, etc. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/international-non-residents/enhanced-financial-account-information-reporting/information-entities-holding-accounts-canadian-financial-institutions.html .

22. Just heard Trudeau talking his pro-human rights talk at his post-speech UN press conference. When asked about Canada’s centuries-old mistreatment of its aboriginal population he said (paraphrased) that no one should face discrimination based on their origins. I can’t wait til his government is faced with defending its more recent adoption, and continued support, of that very type of discrimination against another group of people.

23. “Big Win for Taxpayer/Filer in FBAR Willful Penalty Case (9/21/17)”
    http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/big-win-for-taxpayerfiler-in-fbar.html

24. At TaxConnections:

    https://www.taxconnections.com/legislative-process

    and introduction of a new term (to me), but which would be a lot of cross-border US resident employees who come from Canada: https://www.taxconnections.com/taxblog/irs-taxes-for-u-s-inpats-what-you-need-to-know/?#.WcU32ch97IV

25. Here’s yet another tax reform survey, from the Republican National Committee. Not a word about CBT, of course. But we can all select “other” to every question and voice our opinions about what should be included in tax reform.

    https://gop.com/official-tax-reform-survey/

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