Monthly Archives: February 2014

Bloomberg is reporting today that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will be holding a hearing on a crackdown on offshore tax evasion. According to Sen.Carl Levin, offshore tax avoidance costs more than $100 billion a year. The hearing will focus on the status of ongoing investigations into Swiss banks and their US clients which include Credit Suisse Group AG and 14 other banks.

Since 2009, over 70 taxpayers and nearly three dozen bankers, lawyers and advisors have been charged with cheating the IRS through hidden accounts. Through the OVDP and OVDI programs, more than 43,000 Americans have avoided jail time and have paid $6 billion in penalties, fines and back taxes. Many leads from these participants have resulted in the building of criminal cases that previously, would have avoided detection due to Swiss privacy laws. Lawyers indicate that these leads are generating examination of tax havens outside of Switzerland.

Lawrence Horn, a tax attorney at Sills Cummis & Gross in Newark, New Jersey said “If I were Senator Levin, I’d ask the Justice Department, ‘You did this program with the Swiss and 106 banks signed up for non-prosecution, so will you take that prototype to other countries with a history of unreported bank accounts, such as Israel, India, Singapore and Hong Kong?”

The schedule for CSpan is not yet up for February 26. If you’ve got the February blues, maybe you can cheer yourself up watching Uncle Carl in action!

Offshore Tax Evasion: The Effort to Collect Unpaid Taxes on Billions in Hidden Offshore Accounts
Dirksen Senate Office Building
February 26. 2014
09:30AM – 05:13PM

Attorney General Eric Holder is calling for states to amend their laws to allow felons to vote once their debt to society is paid. Among his assertions is the idea that those who are permitted to vote after they have served their sentences are less likely to reoffend.

The article makes strong arguments for fairly assessing the issue of race given the disproportionate number of African Americans caught up in the penal system. I am not sure this relates well to comparing the plight of felons to ours, other than many people are simply prejudiced. Given the fact that states have jurisdiction over voting privileges and statutes vary considerably, one can imagine the long protracted process entailed in such amending. The state of Delaware, that domestic haven of tax abuse, also changed its law to permit some felons to vote once they’re out of jail, but not if the felon is a murderer, a sex offender, or guilty of felony bribery. Seems ironic that such a state would equate felony bribery with murder or sex offences. However, one can hardly imagine a legitimate reason that would deny these individuals their rights once they have paid their debt to society. Alexander Keyssar, author of The Right to Vote (2009) states “[d]isenfranchisement for [serious] crimes had a long history in English, European, and even Roman law, and it was hardly surprising that the principle of attaching civil disabilities to the commission of crimes appeared in American law as well.” He also alleges that “disenfranchisement, whether permanent or for an extended period, served as retribution for committing a crime and as a deterrent to future criminal behavior.”

I see some basic comparisons to the unfair situation expats experience if they wish to exercise their constitutional right to vote. According to AARO those rights have often been “thwarted by inconsistent state regulations governing voter registration, by late arrival of ballot applications and the ballots themselves, and by lack of clear and timely information on how to vote.”  AARO has been working for more than three decades to make the system easier and more efficient, and to ensure that overseas voters are aware of their rights.” The current situation results in nothing less than taxation without representation. None of our elected representatives seem to grasp this inequity. Certainly the Homelanders, along with all their other misperceptions, wrongly assume that this right is exercised and undeserved by those “tax cheats living abroad, not paying their fair share.”

This makes me wonder if expats should ask AG Holder to challenge the system that limits their ability to vote effectively. After all, if they want to penalize us to high heavens, the least they could do with all that undeserved money, is to count us!

The venue and time for the “Solving US Citizenship Problems” Information Session have changed. This program will take place at:

The Westin Grand Hotel – Symphony Room (banquet hall)
433 Robson St. (between Richards and Homer – 2 Blocks NORTH of original location)
Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 6L9
Time: 1:30 – 4:30 pm
Donation $20 (to cover costs) payable at the door

In order to keep as much information as possible accessible in one place, it makes sense to expand this thread to include new information here rather than create a new post. Please feel free to share your thoughts, ideas and comments here. If you need any help, please email me as discussed previously. (Trishia)

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This summer, major portions of the controversial US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act come into effect. What will it mean for Canada? We met with Professor Allison Christians of McGill University to talk international tax, individual privacy, and national sovereignty.

While we’re at it, everyone should go and download Allison Christian’s law articles and put her on the scholarly map (her ranking increases with more downloads):

Allison Christians’ Scholarly Papers

In the early 1900’s, the Black Hand was a type of extortion racket that involved sending a threatening letter to a victim and demanding a specified amount of money to prevent the threats from being carried out.  According to an article published in the New York Times on March 26, 1910, famous tenor Enrico Caruso paid $1500 – $2000 to the Black Hand to “purchase peace for himself”.  Despite the payment, Caruso continued to receive letters in which he was threatened with every conceivable kind of bodily harm unless he promptly paid more.  That is the problem with acquiescing to the demands of an extortionist, you are identified as an “easy mark” and leave yourself susceptible to future acts of extortion. 

The Criminal Code of Canada states in section 346(1): Every one commits extortion who, without reasonable justification or excuse and with intent to obtain anything, by threats, accusations, menaces or violence induces or attempts to induce any person, whether or not he is the person threatened, accused or menaced or to whom violence is shown, to do anything or cause anything to be done. 

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Dear xxx:
You keep sending me the same message. I am not sure why since the answer to your rhetorical question is obvious – FATCA does affect all people living in Canada who were born in the USA and retain their citizenship or never had it taken away.

Regards,

Jim
James Turk
David Robinson

James Turk <turk@caut.ca>

David Robinson <robinson@caut.ca>
———————————–

Date: 02/05/2014 02:42PM

Subject: This CAUT member wants an answer.

Under the agreement, financial institutions in Canada will not report any information directly to the IRS. Rather, relevant information on accounts held by U.S. residents and U.S. citizens (including U.S. citizens who are residents or citizens of Canada) will be reported to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The CRA will then exchange the information with the IRS through the existing provisions and safeguards of the Canada-U.S. Tax Convention. This is consistent with Canada’s privacy laws.

http://www.fin.gc.ca/n14/14-018-eng.asp

Jim, tell me again how FATCA doesn’t affect the hundreds (thousands) of CAUT members that were born in the USA?

UPDATE: Well, crap.  I think Pacifica just blew this post out of the water with her comment below.

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Saturday evening we enjoyed the annual fund raising dinner of the Georgetown Rotary Club of which my father-in-law is a member.  Before the meal, we sang the Canadian national anthem.  I found myself fighting back tears.  The Harper’s government signed an Inter-governmental agreement to betray banking information to the IRS of US citizens living in Canada, thus enforcing FATCA, an extraterritorial law made in Washington–a law which claims global jurisdiction over bank account information.  Since many of these so-called “US citizens” are Canadians living on Canadian soil, they are part of that collective nation we call “Canada”. “True patriot love in all thy sons command!” Yet clearly, the current elected leaders have cynical intentions: money is more important to them than protecting Canada as “the True North strong and free”.  I sang with a heavy not a “glowing heart” as I see Canada’s sovereignty weaken and her freedom diminish.

“From far and wide”, means that Canada consists of every citizen who lives within the borders of this country, from Atlantic to Pacific.

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In response to her being mentioned in an article in the Globe & Mail (major Canadian newspaper), Green Party leader Elizabeth May submitted the following letter, published February 14:

Acts of renunciation

Re Citizenship For Sale (letters – Feb. 12):

I am not a dual citizen. I am a Canadian citizen and have been since 1978. Any doubt about citizenship is resolved in swearing the oath to Her Majesty the Queen in becoming a Member of Parliament. The U.S. accepts such acts as renunciation, lest there be any doubt.

Elizabeth May, O.C., M.P., Sidney, B.C.

I have no idea why she cites the oath she made on taking her seat as an MP. The wording of that oath is substantially the same as the citizenship oath.

Oath on taking office as MP:

I, [name], do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors. So help me God.

Citizenship oath:

I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.

I think I know what you want me and others to believe, with your “political-talk” statement. It is time for you now to be completely transparent with all, including MPs who may be giving their constituents dangerous information in saying things like “You have nothing to worry about.”

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