Monthly Archives: March 2012

Help! I would like a second opinion on what this page on the HR Block Canada site is really saying. It appears to me that they are either directly saying (or at least implying) that U.S. citizens in Canada MUST enter the Voluntary Disclosure Initiative.  To me this sounds as though they are saying that people must enter the OVDI program that was reactivated in January 2012. VDI is certainly different from a general requirement to file U.S. tax returns. The page URL is here (it states a 2012 publication date):

http://www.hrblock.ca/canada-irs.asp

What follows is an excerpt from the page. (You may want to read it all.) Am I misreading this? Am I misinterpreting this? How would a U.S. citizen in Canada interpret this? Help! At the very least I think this is highly misleading.  I have highlighted certain parts. Your thoughts? Continue reading →

Following in the footsteps of James Fallows, who questioned the Brock identity, markpinetree has just registered his wish that the Isaac Brock Society morph into Americans Abroad Society.

One of the interesting aspects of this virtual watercooler, and of the technology that makes it possible, is that place does not matter. Off the top of my head, besides Canada, we have Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom … and USA.

Elsewheresers are welcome to make that listing fuller. No intent to omit. With Brockers thus far in March spitting out an average of over 17,000 words per day, keeping track is a stretch.

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I’m increasingly concerned about how FATCA is affecting people on a personal level.  I’ve again written to Jim Flaherty to try to appeal to him to act now because of the toll this is taking on Canadian citizens and residents.

Here’s my e-mail Subject:  FATCA:  Canadians Are Desperate.  We Need Your Help Now!

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In early February, Late Loyalist told his 2011 OVDI story, a harrowing tale: his 5% voluntary disclosure fine was $1589.00, with zero taxes owing to the United States, but his lawyer fees exceeded 20k.  He now reports that he has renounced his United States citizenship.

Hi All:

Wednesday March 7th at 3:45 pm Calgary time I renounced my US citizenship. What a relief! I can’t tell you how good that first step feels.

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Two prominent members of the European Parliament Sophie in’t Veld and Sylvia Goulard have recently raised concerns to the EU Commission over the FATCA five agreement the US signed with five EU nations. Link below to their written request to the EU Commission.

http://www.d66.nl/intveld/document/wpq_fatca/f=/vixnlqmqvwm5.pdf

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Hi everyone.

A number of people have written to the Isaac Brock Forum saying that they can’t get onto the forum.  Now I want to mention that I am absolutely ambivalent as to whether this forum even exists.  It was created out of a desire to serve people in a different format than what this WordPress blog.  That’s ok with me, but as adminstrator of this blog I definitely have my hands full, and therefore, I retreated from involvement there.

Now the person who kindly set up the forum has not accepted to be its on-going administrator.  So I wonder if someone that we know here would be willing to do it. This announcement has been up at the forum itself but no one has come forward.

In a consultation Tiger, Somerfugl and I had with a lawyer today, he assured us Canada’s Bank Act and privacy laws protect the rights of all Canadians.

Because Canadian laws have not been amended to accommodate FATCA, he advised us there is no basis for a lawsuit now, but there may be in the future if the government changes the laws or if banks don’t adhere to the current Bank Act or privacy laws.

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