Although both the US government and the Canadian government seem to believe that little can go wrong if and when Canadian financial institutions begin reporting on the banking and investment accounts of all deemed “US Persons for taxable purposes” in Canada. The draconian penalties assessed by the United States for even the smallest mistake is reason enough to believe that Canadian financial institutions are likely to err on the side of extreme, and even paranoid, caution.
A good example of what could happen can be found in a recent report Canada’s Privacy Commissioner issued about another agency in Canada tasked with the job of keeping an eye on suspicious activity in the banking sector.
According to a post in The National Post:
The federal agency responsible for monitoring financial institutions for evidence of nefarious activity is still collecting and keeping personal information it should not have, even though it was warned to stop gathering such data four years ago, the federal privacy commissioner says.
A new audit of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) — the department responsible for monitoring consumer bank accounts across Canada for signs of terrorist fundraising or fraud — has found information is collected and kept seemingly without reason.
