An online petition, aimed to make Toronto Mayor Rob Ford an honorary citizen of which country? MSN weekly news quiz http://t.co/earE8IRDwJ
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) January 19, 2014
For those who don’t know Rob Ford is the Mayor of Toronto. Toronto is Canada’s largest city and (apparently the sixth largest city in North America). Some of you may know, that he has been having his problems with Toronto City Council. But, he has become an International Celebrity (giving him a priceless amount of free advertising in his bid for re-election). He is clearly a media sensation. He has been the subject of numerous articles including this interesting contribution by Conrad Black.
Whether he is loved or hated in Canada, Mayor Ford is loved in the U.S. In fact he is so loved that according to MSN Canadian News Quiz :
An online petition if acted upon by the U.S. Government would make Rob Ford an Honary Citizen of – you guessed it – The United States of America.
If I were Rob Ford, right now I might be thinking:
Well, there’s good news and bad news!
The good news is that I am so loved in the United States that they want to make me a citizen!
The bad news is that the U.S. government might deem me to be a United States citizen!
I thought it might be interesting for Brockers to comment on what it might mean for Mayor Ford to be a U.S. citizen living in Canada.
Let’s help the Mayor. He has helped many residents of Toronto.
Whether you support the Mayor or not, surely he deserves to know exactly how it might affect his life to be a U.S. citizen living outside the United States.
Please put aside your political differences, and offer Mayor Ford some advice …
(Oh, by the way, for the purposes of your comments, let’s make the reasonable assumption that Mayor Ford has a net worth that exceeds two million U.S. dollars.)
I’d love to be able to somehow turn Ford into an anti-FATCA CBT mouthpiece! That guy doesn’t pull any punches.
As a US citizen by accident of birth location and one who has lived and worked in metro TO, I can say that one benefit to the mayor would be taxes. The States allow deductions for many expenses that the Dominion does not. After working in TO for a spell and filing tax returns in both fictional entities, I was rewarded with a $10,000+ tax refund from the States about a year after returning to the States for “excess taxes” withheld by the Dominion. This was about twenty years ago so I don’t know if past performance relates to the present.
Beyond that, a Slave Card is a Slave Card.
I think the warning of the perils of a Canadian acquiring US citizenship (or just US ‘taxable status via a US economic connection) should also be extended to Councillor Doug Ford because:
“…the councillor is an unabashed fan of Chicago, a city he visits frequently as head of the Ford family printing company. Deco Labels and Tags has a Chicago location…” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/ford-to-meet-his-match-in-chicago/article4468657/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Ford,_Jr.
Another article notes that: “… Deco Labels & Tags says it has grown to become one of North America’s leading label and tag manufacturing and sales companies in the industry. Sales in 2010 for the family business have been reported at $100 million.
After [Rob] Ford was elected mayor he left his position as Chief Financial Officer of the Deco printing company, but continues to make regular visits to the company in suburban Chicago…”…
Here is Ford and family friend Finance Minister Flaherty off to a Chicago visit http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/02/22/fords_flaherty_take_a_boys_weekend_in_chicago.html
I would be very wary of falling into the ‘US taxable persons’ trap with holdings such as those described here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/assessing-the-financial-affairs-of-average-guy-mayor-rob-ford/article15574327/
Surely friend and Finance Minister Flaherty has cautioned them about the ramped up extraterritorial tax aggression of the US government, FBAR and FATCA. Or perhaps Doug Ford knows the pitfalls as he used to live and work in Chicago – in relation to Deco Labels US operations.
In error, I left out the link/attribution to the quote above. It is
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?id=9332372
re; “… Deco Labels & Tags says it has grown to become one of North America’s leading label and tag manufacturing and sales companies in the industry. Sales in 2010 for the family business have been reported at $100 million.
After [Rob] Ford was elected mayor he left his position as Chief Financial Officer of the Deco printing company, but continues to make regular visits to the company in suburban Chicago…”…
The US arm and operations of the Ford family company Deco labels appears to be very important:
“…In 1999 Doug opened Deco’s first U.S. division in Chicago. In the first 5 years Deco’s Chicago business grew significantly and they moved four times to larger facilities. In 2008 Doug purchased a failing company in N.J. and successfully turned it into one of Deco’s most vibrant locations, where they are currently experiencing tremendous growth…. ”
http://dougford.ca/doug-ford/
What the heck, I’ll take a “crack” at it:
1. Once he is officially a US citizen, he will have to apply for and get a US passport to enter the US. But
before he can do that he will have to apply for and get a SS#. Even if he does all that, they still might not let him in because of his “moral turpitude”, i.e. drug adventures.
2. Once he’s a US citizen he can might as well get used to filing useless IRS paperwork for the rest of his life (even if they won’t let him into the country)
3. Once he’s a US citizen he will have to register with the “Financial Crimes Enforcement Network” and file an FBAR by June 30 of each year. Of course, since he’s also the major of Toronto, he’ll have to include all of the city’s accounts because, presumably, he’s got “signing authority”.
4. Once he figures out what a pain in the ass US citizenship is, he’ll decide to renounce it, but he’ll have to take a number and get in line just like everybody else. Naturally he’ll have to pay the $450 fee for this “service”.
5. As they hand him his CLN, the consulate will remind him that his renunciation will not absolve him of his tax obligations and he must contact the IRS to take care of that end of things.
6. Once he takes a look at a Form 8854, he’ll get pissed off and go on a drunken rampage. (This behavior will be totally justified considering he’s being asked to pay an “exit” tax on assets that were never in the US in the first place.
7. When he finally sobers up, he’ll decide to just blow off the whole US system and never set foot in the place again (which they probably won’t let him do anyway).
.
@ maz57
Well done! Need we say more? Well perhaps only to add that after going through the miserable, time-consuming, costly process of renouncing his US citizenship, Mr. Ford will finally have something that is worth his weight in gold — the coveted CLN.
When you think about it, if the US is really trying to raise some revenue, they should just start selling official CLNs for a hefty price. Forget the Consulate visits and endless paperwork; it could easily be done with an online application. Nah, bad idea, I forgot the US government can’t seem to get a website to work!
@maz57
GOOD GAWD don’t give them any more bad ideas!
@ maz57
LOL! I think Blaze at the Maple Sandbox has the USA pegged. She said FATCA is about “information and intimidation”. Control’s the goal or main dish but I’m sure Uncle Sam will take stolen unjust desserts (i.e. assets seized by punitive means) as a tasty entrée. Why is it when I think of Ford now, I think of food? My husband just thinks of cars. 😉
@ Em
While I was out walking the dog, I realized I forgot to mention Rob Ford would probably have to start paying for Obamacare when he becomes a USC. Which, of course, he doesn’t qualify for because he doesn’t live in the US. And God help him if he’s got mutual funds or trusts.
@ Deckard1138
Don’t worry, they’d never do it because that would be acknowledging that it was a valuable, much sought after document. It is, however, entertaining to wonder what kind of price people would actually be willing to pay for one.
DYI CLN:
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/81609.pdf
Toronto has edged ahead of Chicago to become North America’s fourth most populous city.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/03/05/largest-cities-north-america-toronto-chicago_n_2815578.html
I want to hear Ford sing and dance this song. He couldn’t make more of a fool of himself anyway