Monthly Archives: October 2012

Check it out – Canada has determined that many US nationals are going to try and attempt to move illegally to Canada  after the US election. One Canadian police officer joked that there weren’t enough places for 47% of the US in Canada, but has Canada also possibly considered this decision based on financial consequences of allowing so many bound by citizenship-based taxation to migrate? Closing the flood gates before the FATCA deadline perhaps?

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/10/canada-tightens-border.html

Unfortionately, it has nothing with FATCA or non resident filing. I just thought some would to like see and hear who his is.

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000100085

Here it is:

http://www.mondaq.com/canada/x/200116/tax+authorities/Do+Not+Get+Out+Of+IRSs+Tax+Amnesty+Programs+Without+Knowing+The+Facts

Canada: Do Not Get Out Of IRS’s Tax Amnesty Programs Without Knowing The Facts

OR

Direct Link: Roy Berg’s Entire ” Do not get out of IRS’s tax amnesty programs without knowing the facts”

A couple of initial comments I have:

1. My understanding is once you enter OVDI Criminal penalties are off the table opt out or no opt out. Can someone clarify this further?

2. Roy makes a point that himself and others have made before which are that the new super minnow “program” is rather narrowily defined AND as currently exists does not allow for people currently in the OVDI program to enter the new minnow program. (Roy makes a point in the article is this “might” change “someday” in the future).

3. As discussed previously the new minnow “program” really doesn’t solve that many problems despite the fact it has been under development for almost eight months.

4. Roy’s article pours cold water to some degree over the claims of some that you can enter OVDI and opt-out with relative ease.

Banks Deny US Student an Account

October 7th 2012

From T. Hirsekorn – No account for pocket change: Out of fear from lawsuits, Swiss banks turned a 16 year old US student away.

The 16 year old was rejected by many banks and doesn’t want her face to be shown (image: 20 Minutes)

The tax dispute with America released a strong defensive response from several Swiss banks.  Some banks are following a compromise-free path to avoid any conflict with the IRS, such as with the case of Christina (16).  The exchange student, who lives in Zurich, wanted to open up an account so that her parents could give her an allowance of 60 CHF per month.  But Raiffeisen abruptly turned her away by stating that no Swiss banks accept US persons anymore.  “Unbelievable! Given that I’m not even taxable in the US” stated Cristina annoyed.

Raiffeisen justified itself by stating that it is currently not accepting US citizens as new customers.  “We cannot come to the conclusion if kids are taxed in the US or not”, explained speaker Jens Wiesenhütter.   After the Wegelin affair, banks are avoiding any possible risk that could derive from US business relations, assumes the economic professor, Walter Wittmann.

The Zurich cantonal bank, Coop bank  and Clientis also refused to open an account for Cristina.  Credit Suisse didn’t even want to reveal its business policy.  “Every bank can, according to their policy and contract flexibility, decide with whom they are willing to do business”, explained Rebeca Garcia from the Swiss Bankers Association.  More liberal are UBS, Postfinance and Migrosbank.  “Christina may have an account with us as an exchange student”, confirmed the UBS spokesperson.

————————————————————————————————-

I quickly translated this during my lunch break, so please excuse any mistakes

Source: 20 Minuten Online

And there is appears to be some activity with the US. As shown at the links below Brian Ernewein who is the General Director of the Tax Policy Branch at Finance Canada traveled to the US twice over the summer once in June and once in August.

http://www.fin.gc.ca/expenses-frais/reports-rapports-eng.asp?eventID=5262&empID=209&year=2012&q=3&empType=4&r=t

http://www.fin.gc.ca/expenses-frais/reports-rapports-eng.asp?eventID=5332&empID=209&year=2012&q=3&empType=4&r=t

The first meeting was with generic US Government officials(which I take to include both Treasury and IRS and possibly FINCEN) and the second was with US Treasury Staff. About a week after Ernewein’s June meeting the new expat super minnow program was announced. I don’t know whether or nor this was a coincidence. Ernewein also June went to a big OECD conference in Paris as did one of the Assistant Commissioner’s at CRA. I will try to find a picture or video of Ernewein so you can put a picture to the name. I will note while he is high up he is not at the level of Deputy Minister or Assistant Deputy Minister which are filled by Michael Horgan and Louise Levonian respectively. Links below:

http://www.fin.gc.ca/comment/adm-2-eng.asp

http://www.fin.gc.ca/comment/dm-eng.asp

My personal opinion is truly serious negotiations need to involve either Levonian or Michael Horgan. By definition Brian Ernewein I doubt met anyone higher than Manal Corwin, Emily McMahon, Michael Plowgian etc.

READERS WHO LIVE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THIS.

This piece of information is contributed through a person wishing to maintain one-remove anonymity (no direct posting to Brock). I have received this information third-hand, but from a source I consider very reliable. (So this is at least two-remove posting. I haven’t personally spoken with the individual reporting this conversation with a Vancouver consulate official or employee.

In a telephone conversation with the Vancouver consulate in August 2012, a person at the consulate said that there is deliberate “batching” in the processing of renunciations. When the current batch is completed, priority will be given to other – presumably deferred – tasks for an unspecified period of time. (This perspective may help to explain the recent considerable lengthening of wait for first appointment in Vancouver.)

My advice to anyone in BC is, if it’s at all feasible and you want to get a CLN, go to Calgary or maybe Toronto, not Vancouver. They aren’t doing this, as far as we know, and certainly the appointment timings and CLN release information, starkly contrasted with what is going on in Vancouver, supports that assumption.

The information isn’t clear on whether this batching occurs with relinquishments as well as renunciations, but as Vancouver (unlike the rest of the planet except the Ottawa embassy) doesn’t seem to make any procedural distinctions in terms of processing the two very different forms of CLN, I suspect they probably also are batching relinquishments.

So, I would assume that if you go to Vancouver consulate, your application for either type of CLN could sit in a black hole for a rather long time. Bear that in mind when planning your course of action. I believe if you’ve already made a first appointment or even have had that first meeting, you can still proceed with your process at another consulate, but I don’t know whether that might adversely affect processing in Washington. It shouldn’t, and I do know one person who got the application switched from the embassy to a consulate, but that person hasn’t received the CLN yet so we don’t know for certain that it has no adverse consequences.

http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/personal-finance/us-tax-laws-long-arm-uncle-sam

One thing that continually shocks me is just how many people are effected by the US’ Citizenship Based Taxation of all political stripes Doug Ford, David Alward, Elizabeth May, former Toronto Mayor David Miller, and now the children of long time and prominent Quebec Seperatist leader and founder of the Bloc Quebecois Lucien Bouchard. Here is wikipedia:

Bouchard separated from his second wife^[8][9], Audrey Best (1960–2011), a Côte d’Azur-born California-reared airline stewardess, who later became a lawyer, whom he met on an international flight.^[10] She was the daughter of James Best, a U.S. Navy officer, and his French wife, Marie-Josée Massay.

Bouchard is the father of two sons with Best, Alexandre and Simon, who hold dual Canadian-United States citizenship. Best held dual United States-France citizenship. She died on January 25, 2011, aged 50, from breast cancer.

I am curious what Bouchard thinks about current Bloc Quebecois leader Danielle Paille strong support of FATCA to root out “tax cheats” and other “scum.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Bouchard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Paill%C3%A9

Other Canadians can probably describe to our non Canadian readers who Lucien Bouchard was. Sometimes something called Meech Lake is mentioned here all I will say is Bouchard was an a key player in it.