Media and Blog Articles – Part 1 of 11 (to 26 May 2015)

3,971 thoughts on “Media and Blog Articles – Part 1 of 11 (to 26 May 2015)”

1. In the first document on page 18 the table shows the breakdown of lost revenue to HMRC.
   Does that mean that 72% of the cases resulted in penalties of less than 5000 pounds. 83% less than 10k?
   Looks like peanuts. How does any plan generate real after expenses money.

2. And the wormWood turns …
   http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/08/19/ten-facts-about-fatca-americas-manifest-destiny-law-changing-banking-worldwide/
   This is why I don’t like to give his articles too many hits. (BTW, each hit is money in his account.) He says, “I actually did not intend to be cheering for FATCA.” Seriously? I don’t think so. I know people want to rebut this article and a few already have (well done rebuttals too) but Mr. Wood has already been given a doctorate level education by anti-FATCA commenters. He invariably appears to sympathize with the anti-FATCA side but perhaps he does this simply to induce more comments which then produce more hits. Anyway I read it, shook my head and now I’m moving on to where I can accentuate something positive somewhere. Like here …
   http://taxconnections.com/taxblog/mad-as-hell-and-not-going-to-take-it-anymore-two-brave-women-sue-canadian-government-over-controversial-fatca-deal/#.U_JxCWK9KSM

3. EmBee

   Wood plays the middle… he won’t take a hard stand because as u say… its money out of his pocket…. play the middle man… he makes money from both sides…

   One person I stopped reading is that Jack something or another… when i first found out this crap I was in… he seemed sympathetic to the situation… now he seems to be on the dark side… we are all criminals…. no excuse & he seems to like to gloat about it… Sick & tired of all the posts calling us tax evaders… how am I evading the taxes… I pay every dime to the gov’t where the money is… that is where I made it… that is where I should owe it to… All the ones who seem to say the nasty things don’t seem to understand at all… they think we are rich… living on a beach & living it up…. I don’t live near a beach… closest body of water near me is probably polluted from the sewage plant… Then to top it off… they don’t want to see or understand our point… just like to finger point & sprout off nasty words….

4. @Embee
   Boy, I couldn’t agree more re “The Woodie”. He is such a massively-annoyingly-cagily-passive aggressive opportunist it can make one insane. Yet I remain conflicted. He, though selfishly, keeps it in the news, it allows us to comment, Jatras sometimes shows up to nuke him, the ACA showed up, some of the comments are fabulous and I learn so much. Plus Forbes has such a wide US audience that it behooves us to, inch by inch if nothing else, expose the primal idiocy of the “locals”. All of those against this are so very eloquent, the opposition is just crude. Have you noticed not one commentor that I can think of anywhere has put forth a rational argument supporting this mess. And we don’t have to subscribe to comment…costs US nothing. I hate it but I always seem to take the bait. I’ve just given up trying to convince him of anything.

5. I like Robert Wood and Jack Townsend. I don’t always agree with what they say but they say a lot I agree with. I think they are very helpful to us.

6. In terms of Mr. Wood, those press people have in their DNA to present in an evocative manner. Perhaps he is feeling that the nea side to FATCA has become more popular thus the pro side more controversial. That is a positive indicator. I am not thinking that he will now have a series of articles praising FATCA.

   I was very impressed that he published that letter to the President. It appears for him a masterstroke as he got over 105,000 impressions. No doubt he noticed this and so in future there might be something similar.

7. I’ve had someone at the FP Melnitzer article basically tell me that the rights of Canadians don’t extend to me because I’m ‘half-Canadian’. Besides being no such thing under Canadian law, I had to tell this person that I was in fact both Canadian and American at birth and suggested that under his rationale I would then be a ‘double citizen’.

   Like George and many others, I detest the use of the term ‘dual citizen’, in that I’m 100% both, so I’ve decided that when forced to use this sort of descriptor, I’ll choose ‘double-citizen’. What do you think, George, others?

8. He’s back. Julius Melnitzer just posted another FP article.

   http://business.financialpost.com/2014/08/20/cra-will-not-assist-irs-in-collecting-penalties-against-dual-citizens-subject-to-fatca/

   The Canada Revenue Agency has confirmed that it will not help the U.S. Internal Revenue Service collect penalties imposed against dual citizens (or any Canadian citizens) for failing to meet financial information filing requirements under U.S. tax laws.

   We are aware of this but Julius’ friend Roy will certainly assist.

9. There is a new Melnitzer article in Financial Post. Seems the CRA is confirming that it will not collect taxes and fines for the IRS against Canadians. No mention of legal Permanent Residents who also need protection but get few mentions on this site. Some of us have been paying taxes in Canada for decades…have raised families…and sing the National Anthem with gusto. But for family reasons we never took out citizenship (as in we have no family here). Please don’t forget about us…we bleed maple syrup too!

10. @Bubbles….. “I had to tell this person that I was in fact both Canadian and American at birth.”

    I sound like the old school teacher……………….

    Words are extremely important and we have to be careful what we call ourselves and it must be exactly what the law is for the place you are physically located in.

    Yourself……………

    You were born in the USA, so at the moment of your birth it was impossible for you to be anything other than a US Citizen.

    US Law said you were instantly a citizen and you were in the territory of the USA. You could not be Canadian becuase you were a US Citizen in the territoty of the USA.

    In the infant car seat up to the border you were 100% USofA.

    Once you crossed the Canadian border, because you had Canadian parents, and you entered the territory of Canada, you became 100% Canadian.

    Your US Citizenship STOPPED at the Canadian Border and could not cross the border because it is NOT recognized under any law in Canada!!

    Any Canadian Citizen in Canada, if asked if they are a US Citizen, can only answer NO. It is IMPOSSIBLE for a Canadian Citizen in Canada to be anything other Canadian.

11. @George

    Actually I entered Canada in 1968 and remained solely a US citizen until I naturalized as a Canadian in 1996. In 2009, Canada changed it’s Citizenship Act making people like me Canadians at birth.

    I completely understand how my US citizenship is irrelevant to the banks here and to the Canadian government, and as a double citizen (as opposed to a dual), how I choose to exercise either citizenship’s rights and responsibilities is my decision, not that of the opposing government’s. It’s none of their business, really. In other words, Canada cannot force me to obey any other country’s laws while in Canada without compromising their sovereignty. Otherwise, what’s the value in having Canadian citizenship?

12. RE: http://business.financialpost.com/2014/08/20/cra-will-not-assist-irs-in-collecting-penalties-against-dual-citizens-subject-to-fatca/ Here’s a James Jatras comment:

    Repeal FATCA wrote

    There’s not much comfort in Mr. Melnitzer’s observation that the recent CRA ruling on FATCA “means that dual citizens who do not enter the U.S. (or U.S. airspace) and have no assets in the U.S. will be shielded from these penalties.” That negative assurance could just as easily be expressed as a positive: Dual citizens who do enter the U.S. (or just U.S. airspace – which even some Canadian domestic flights cross) or have assets in the U.S. will be subject to penalties.

    Or put yet another way, as long as so-called “dual citizens” (which evades the question of “accidental Americans” and other Canadians who in no way regard themselves as Americans) maintain a fugitive existence with respect to the long arm of U.S. law enforcement, they might not be hit with practical consequences right away. But they will indeed be considered tax criminals by the U.S. authorities, who have many ways to skin cats. For example, you can bet that once they’re identified by Canadian banks to the CRA, and their information is then passed to the IRS and relevant U.S. intelligence agencies, these Canadians will be entered onto numerous, non-public data bases as tax fugitives, comparable to those kept for terror threats. The reference to “airspace” is particularly ominous. It means that covered Canadians would effectively be placed under an international “no-fly” ban unless they wanted to risk “apprehension” by U.S. authorities.

    This “assurance” means only that the CRA will not (for now) take direct action to apply penalties in Canada, but they will cooperate in every other way to help the U.S. authorities apply whatever they have in their deep bag of tricks. Even at that, it’s only good until the IRS decides to put the squeeze on the CRA, which no doubt will then amend their ruling to suit.

    There is no way to sugar-coat it: FATCA compliance means Ottawa’s complicity in stripping a class of Canadian citizens of the protection of the Charter and other legal guarantees in order to appease a foreign state threatening sanctions. This is not just a threat to Canadians with American ties; it’s a surrender of Canada’s sovereignty, the subordination of the CRA to Washington, and a debasement of the value of all Canadians’ citizenship.

13. Here your chance to write about CBT:

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/08/20/call-for-guest-posts-about-hot-tax-issues/

14. @EMbee
    Yeah- what Jatras wrote is what I have been saying. If their sanctions worked once, they can get them to work again. When America is holding countries by the balls – who says they are going to let go until they have gotten everything they want and then some more? Thats why I think it is actually better to not negotiate with blackmailers from the beginning. Because their demands will only increase when it works the first time around.

15. @ Polly
    So much for my “fugitive existence”. I didn’t mind never going to or flying over the USA ever again but that’s not an option for most people. The Canadian government has made it clear that protecting its citizens ranks way below its devotion to the USA.

16. @Embee
    Yeah but maybe Canada and the rest of the world will realise ( before it is too late) that they will be robbed blind if they don’t stand up to the blackmail and risk the consequences? Because one day – it will get to that breaking point. Blackmailers don’t stop when they see that it is working. Only when it no longer gets people to comply, does it stop. So in my mind – why wait until then? It is at the bottom of the reasoning of Ron Paul too when he says “FATCA will contribute to the sinking of the dollar as the world reserve currency.” FATCA is blackmail- and one day- people will find ways to skip the blackmail- alternatives to the dollar so they can’t be blackmailed anymore. I just sometimes think : Why not do it now because we are heading to that crossroads/climax anyway?

17. For the life of me, I can’t determine how I got this article that is up on my screen — so I don’t know who to attribute it to.

    Obama administration and IRS now able to spy, track, tax and confiscate US dollars across the world

18. I made a little JPEG offering for our Brocker friends “Down Under”. Calgary411 has volunteered to post it here for me. The title is “Wombat Woes”. I couldn’t resist doing a little captioning on this photo I found today of a rescued baby wombat.

    

19. @calgary411

    I posted that link last nite on the fatca section… but maybe someone else did also somewhere else on this site…

20. Thanks, then that’s where I read it and thought it should be posted. I’ll leave it in both places now. Thanks, USFP!

21. Oh My!!!

    Quick, donate: http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/

22. @Calgary
    Just did again yesterday. 🙂
    One can’t just sit back and let this happen. Without any opposition, its done.

23. @EmBee Thanks for your considerate post thinking of those “Down Under.”

24. I see a pattern on Twitter posts over the past two days. There has been tweets calling out the 10 Facts of FATCA article, all have the same text, all with tweeters around 30 tweets, 1 following, and 0 followers. It appears a paid effort. I don’t know that it is really having an impact, the article has about 5,000 reads compared to 100,000 for the Letter to the President article.

25. You’re absolutely right, Polly.

    All *US Persons in Canada* (or any other country) have a CHOICE, as you point out:

    1) Sit back and let this all happen — because we feel that if we are US-defined deemed *US Persons* we *deserve* to have our Canadian rights waived and be required to hand over (among other things, including our dignity and self-worth — and that of our children) our financial information, part of our Canadian earned and taxed income and tax-breaks that all other Canadians are entitled to the US IRS, usually by way of even more cost to us by having to go through US professionals in the US tax compliance industry.

    OR

    2) Contribute to the http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/ Canadian legal challenge so we are not, without a fight, reverting to
    Option 1.

    Another way to put it: 1) GIVE UP (because we are criminals),

    OR

    2) FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS (because we are being criminalized).

    I never believed no matter the situation that I should give up without trying.

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