This post is from the RenounceUSCitizenship blog.
Earlier this year I wrote that “Peaceful resistance to FATCA will result in a new financial order“. An article by Geoffrey York of the Globe and Mail suggests this may be starting to happen.
China leader’s first trip highlights growing clout of BRICS nations soa.li/GBJC2iN – Anti #FATCA nations form political alliance
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) March 23, 2013
The article is well worth reading. Note the following commentary and excerpts:
For a glimpse of a potential new world order, take a look at the carefully chosen plans for the first overseas trip by China’s new President.
Fresh from his triumph in China’s leadership transition this month, Xi Jinping won’t be paying his respects in Washington or Europe on his debut foreign tour. Instead, on Friday, he flies to Russia – and then onward to three resource-rich African countries, in a trip laden with symbolic and political meaning.
What? He is not starting in Washington or Brussels? What is he up to? What could this mean?
Originally an economic bloc, BRICS – now comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – is venturing further into politics and security. The summit will feature an unexpectedly heavy agenda of global issues, from the Syrian war to the planned creation of a development bank to compete with the World Bank, with $50-billion in seed money.
Did you catch that? A group of nations, of which at least three are hostile to FATCA are meeting to create a bank to compete with the World Bank? But, this really could not be of any significance. These countries are of little substance (or so the U.S. might think), but the article goes on to note:
While it claims to have no political ambitions, BRICS is already a powerful economic bloc. Its leaders boast that it represents 45 per cent of the world’s population, 30 per cent of the world’s territory, 30 per cent of global output and 17 per cent of world trade. And despite a recent slowdown, it has been responsible for 50 per cent of global economic growth over the past decade, making it a key source of hope for Africa, where the BRICS nations have dramatically increased their trade and investment in recent years.
Fascinating. Could this possibly be the beginning of a “FATCA Free Zone?” On this note consider the following excerpt from a comment by Todundsteur:
The greatest threat to the effectiveness of both Charlie’s FATCAT and Carl’s STHA is the very real possibility that they will trigger a reaction that attempts nothing less than the establishment of an alternative world financial system parallel to that based on the Tokyo-NY-London-Frankfurt axis.
Johannesburg, Dubai, Mumbai, Jakarta, Singapore, Sao Paolo, Shanghai suggest themselves.
One highly-regulated, highly taxed, safe but stagnant and the other looser, lightly taxed, risky but freewheeling and dynamic.
We shall see.
Meanwhile back in the world of the West, we are still waiting to see whether Cyprus will (in the end) confiscate the savings of it bank depositors to pay for its debt problem. First, Cyprus is “Cyprused” – then the rest of the world. Funny, the U.S. owes China a lot of money. Will the debtor be able to impose FATCA on the creditor?
This may be the best news those opposing FATCA have had yet!
My sincere condolences for the loss of your mother, bubblebustin.
All you are going through with US over-reach across the border, and now you tell us of yet another method of grabbing. Any overpayment would have to be paid back. You’re right — it’s scary that US Treasury can just reach into that account and help themselves. Guess we should find out what the other specified circumstances are?
Bubblebustin;
Sorry to hear about losing your mom.
And am hoping that this doesn’t mean even more complexity and interactions with Form Nation.
Scary about Social Security and the ability to intrude into the bank account.
@ bubblebustin
I’m very sorry to hear about your mother’s passing. The direct deposit SS situation is indeed scary and I think I heard that in a year or two CPP and OAS payments will only be by direct deposit. This could be a problem if retired USPs in Canada get forced out of the banking system as is happening elsewhere. Will retired USPs eventually find themselves wandering the streets with “Kick me! I have an American connection.” signs on their backs?
@Em,
Oh crap, another trap to worry about in future. I wonder if one could have their CPP or OAS direct deposited into an account that is not there own.
Thank you everybody. She was 92 and lived a very fulfilling life. Thankfully, she never knew about the trouble that my US citizenship brought as she had vascular dementia. I am grateful that through her I am a Canadian at birth!
@WhiteKat
You can probably arrange for CPP and OAS to be sent by cheque.
@NorthernShrike,
@ NorthernShrike, Em
I just read this at http://www.carp.ca/tag/direct-deposit/. “The Government of Canada will increase the use of direct deposit by phasing out cheques, including all pension payments by April 2016.”
This means not just CPP, and OAS, but all government payments – EI, tax refunds, etc will no longer be made by cheques. So, unless you can direct deposit into an account that is not your own, you will need your own account to get these payments. 2016 is just in time for FATCA implementation – awesome!
I can’t find any info online to indicate whether a direct deposit into someone else’s account is allowed.
@bubblebustin,
I’m glad too that your mom passed on to you Canadian citizenship. Rest in peace, bubblebusin’s mom. And, thanks — you raised a fighter, a daughter of whom you can be proud.
@bubblebustin.
I’m sorry to hear about your mom’s passing.
@Bubblebustin, Sorry to hear about your mom’s passing, may she rest in peace.
@bubblebustin,
I thought I read in your story that you became a Canadian after your move here, not at birth.
@bubblebustin, sorry to hear about your mom. My mom passed away last year too and she was the one responsible for me having US citizenship since birth. Yet, she didn’t live long enough to seem me get rid of it. I don’t know how she would have reacted. She lived her life fighting against the US government, but was more American than anyone I’ve ever known.
I’m sorry to hear about your mom, Bubblebustin. It’s good to hear that she had a long and very fulfilling life and didn’t have to deal with this, though. You have a lot to deal with these past two years, I really hope things turn around for the better soon.
My sincere condolences, bubblebustin.
@Bubblebustin, I’m so sorry about your mother’s passing but at least she wasn’t yet affected by all this stuff.
@bubblebustin
I would also like to send out my sincere condolences.
@Em I have had to change jobs – to move to a job that is part time instead of full time in order to have the time to cope with the form-filling expectations of two countries’ conflicting tax systems. It is no exaggeration to say I have two parallel careers – one is my real job for which I am paid, the other is keeping tax compliant.
@ star
We all relate to the fact that US tax compliance can become a full time job. My husband and I have 4 sets of returns to do this year (ours and his mother’s). We are almost 20 hours into the process and have only got his mother’s completed (mailed today). However, I will admit that 7 of those hours were spent driving down to the USA to pick up forms and instruction manuals. What those hours don’t include are the countless hours we have spent discussing the whole mess. My husband’s inheritance of US stocks from his mother has been a challenge for both of us since we had never dealt with such things before. We think we have it worked out in our heads but it will be nerve-wracking filing our tax forms this year (except for my Canadian taxes which are pretty much the same as always). We really can’t wait to rid ourselves of all this and become a normal Canadian couple, with normal joint accounts and have just two T1s to do each year.
Thanks again everyone for your condolences and please accept mine in return for those who’ve also lost a parent. The difficulty is adjusting to losing someone who’s always been there.
I must say, it would be a wonderful thing to one day meet some of these faces behind the Brock names.
@WhiteKat
You are correct in recalling that I became a naturalized Canadian. I did so in 1996, but 2009 Canada changed its laws allowing many of the children of its Canadian born citizens to also become Canadians a birth, so essentially I was first a Canadian citizen through naturalization and then a Canadian at birth as bizarre as that sounds!
@Bubblebustin
As a Canadian by birth you you avoid the exit tax.
It would be wonderful for the Government of Canada to allow all naturalized Canadian citizens to be defined as Canadians by birth. This would exempt them from the exit tax and would most certainly be in the interest of Canada.
Perhaps this is something that Canada should do to protect its citizens and itself from the predatory nature of Form Nation.
@Bubblebustin
I’m in the same boat as you. I’m now trying to get an updated citizenship certificate that’ll show my date of citizenship as being my birthday.
Did you also do this? If so, have you yet used it for renunciation purposes? Any issues?
TIA
@tdott
I’m really glad you asked me that.
By ‘birthday’ do you mean date of birth?
I am a little confused by the application I was given by CIC, as it appears they sent me one that you would only use to replace a citizenship certificate. It asks nothing about my mother. What I don’t need is a duplicate of my naturalization record that shows I became a citizen in 1996. Did you use this one:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/search.asp
I have not yet started the renunciation process. I have half a mind just tell them that I am a Canadian from birth and let them prove otherwise, but when it comes to that time I don’t suppose I’ll want anything to act as a roadblock.
@tdott
I think I found the correct application. Is this the one you used?
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/citizen/CIT0001E.pdf
@Bubblebustin
Yes, CIT0001E.pdf is the one I’m using (not yet sent in). I’ll have an accompanying letter explaining that I want an updated one that shows my date of citizenship as my date of birth. I’ll also make a plea for expediency based on pending tax issues depending on getting this, since there’s a multi-month wait for a new one. And my case is a little more complicated due to lack of some documentation, so my letter will go into that as well.
BTW, I feel your frustration – I want to get this all over with ASAP, but there’s a number of roadblocks that have to be navigated first – sigh.
http://investmentwatchblog.com/a-dollar-crisis-brics-nations-are-negotiating-towards-a-common-currency/
“China and Brazil plan to sign a deal to do up to $30 billion of trade in their local currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers work to lessen dependence on the U.S. dollar and euro.”
Let us hope that FATCA goes down like a ton of bricks in the BRICS. Sure doesn’t look like Canada will do the right thing.