ADMISSION FEE $20 UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED (to cover costs)
- Toronto, ON U.S. Citizenship & Young Adults: Navigating The Special Rules Imposed On U.S.Citizens Abroad Sat, June 7, 10 am to 12 noon, Univ of Toronto, St. Michael’s College, Carr Hall, 100 St. Joseph St, MAP NB: $20 individual or $40 for a family of up to four people
Vancouver notes (Feb 22) Updated on March 28 here
Toronto group Saturday, January 25, 2014, Carr Hall
I received the following announcement about information sessions, provided by Toronto based lawyer, for people affected by the USA’s extra-territorial tax overreach which violates Canada’s sovereignty. I think it is a good idea. If you are an alleged US person and you have become aware that the US claims that you should be filing your taxes, please do nothing, do not enter the OVDI program, and above all, do not call a US cross border tax specialist (neither a lawyer nor an accountant), but educate yourself first. The paid experts will scare the hell out of you. There are many options besides allowing a cross border specialist lead you as a lamb to the slaughter.
If you are a Canadian citizen or resident of Canada, you have specific rights and protections that even FATCA cannot revoke. This is why these informational sessions will be useful to you. They will lay out and explore all your options.
Sincerely, Petros
Please note that the speaker would like help finding venues that are inexpensive or free. Perhaps those living in the various cities could ask if a Church or other may be able to offer space. Please keep returning for updates.
Here is the announcement:
Recent CBC Coverage of FATCA and Citizenship-based taxation:
The recent CBC coverage of FATCA and U.S. extraterritorial taxation has raised awareness/concern over the plight of Canadian citizens of U.S. origin. Those who are learning about this for the first time (the OMG moment) will be experiencing a combination of shock, fear, betrayal and more. There will be lots of people interested in understanding the situation and determining whether and/or how to respond.
The following comment appeared on the blog:
Looks like the recent media coverage is creating mass panic in Canada. This might force the Canadian government to issue a statement sooner rather than later. This is good. But I feel bad for the people who are just having their OMG moment. They need some sound advice as to not to make bad decisions which would devastate them financially. While each situation is different, the Canadian government owes it to affected Canadians to provide some guidance and advice and fast. It needs to be official cannot just come from web sites like IBS or Maple Sandbox. Maybe the administrators should add some notes like they can’t be held responsible for actions that people take by following advice on these blogs. This is common sense, but might protect you from lawsuits.
We agree! The important thing it to stay calm! Do NOT panic! Do not react to this situation! Take your time to make the decisions that are appropriate to your situation! Above all else, do NOT even consider entering the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program or any other kind of disclosure program unless you are certain that it is right for you (which it almost certainly is NOT)!
Obviously NO blog or web site can provide reliable legal advice. No seminar for the general public can provide reliable legal advice! Your job is simply to begin gathering information and beginning to understand the new reality of U.S. citizenship.
What follows are a list of “Solving The Problems of U.S. Citizenship” information sessions that you can attend, for a nominal fee and anonymously! The sessions are NOT intended to provide legal advice. But, they are intended to help you identify the issues that may apply to your situation.
Do NOT engage the services of an accountant or lawyer before equipping yourself with some basic knowledge!
Solving The Problems of U.S. Citizenship – Exploratory Sessions
The topics covered are designed to alert you to issues and are NOT offered as legal or accounting advice specific to your situation.
They include:
Citizenship Issues:
– Are you STILL a U.S. citizen?
– Are your children U.S. citizens?
– What might FATCA mean for me?
Tax Issues
– Filing U.S. tax returns – what’s involved?
– Filing information returns (FBAR, Form 3520, 5471, etc.)
– Reasonable cause (avoiding penalties)
Financial Planning Issues
– investment products that are cancerous for U.S. citizens
Does it make sense to renounce U.S. citizenship?
– Renouncing U.S. citizenship
____________________________________________________________________
How To Attend …
Once a session has been marked “CONFIRMED” you are free to attend. Each session will have a $20 admission fee (to offset the cost of the room) which is payable in cash at the door. Neither taping nor video of any kind will be permitted.
first published 14 January 2014
Whoa, that is nasty. I am on it with regard to the FB page below and the twitter accounts I do and so on. Please join our MeetupGroup, and our FB page. Just as a resource for building the community, doesn’t matter if you are too far away to attend. We hope to unite as many expats under our umbrella groups. I also joined your forum in Belgium. #PASS THE WORD #UniteToFight #FatcaAttack #Americansabroad
http://www.meetup.com/American-Expats-Abroad/
https://www.facebook.com/Americansabroadandtaxes
How much should I invest in gold?
http://www.usagold.com/cpm/goldhelp.html
“Q. When should I buy?
A. The short answer is ‘When you need it.’ Gold, first and foremost, is wealth insurance. You cannot approach it the way you approach stock or real estate investments. Timing is not the real issue. The first question you need to ask yourself is whether or not you believe you need to own gold. If you answer that question in the affirmative, there is no point in delaying your actual purchase, or waiting for a more favorable price which may or may not appear. Cost averaging can be a good strategy. The real goal is to diversify so that your overall wealth is not compromised by economic dangers and uncertainties like the kind generated by the 2008 financial crisis, or those now unfolding in Europe and Japan.”
http://www.silverdoctors.com/forums/topic/how-much-should-i-invest-in-gold/
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-17/guest-post-so-how-many-ounces-gold-or-silver-should-you-own
http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/how-much-gold-do-you-need
Comment, we are the persecuted Jews of this generation and need to realize that after WW2 was over the USA gave safe haven to scores of high level Nazis as confirmed by this New York Times article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/us/14nazis.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Many also don’t realize that George Bush’s grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
Bottom line, we are being persecuted by ex-Nazis and other experts and I’m sorry for those who wish to deny the FACTS. Act accordingly.
We should stick to FATCA.
This nazi jewish talk turns off new members and I’ve had people tell me so. People who have every need as much as we do to be involved. There’s no need to provide these links. Many people know of the Bush’s back ground already. I am sure that it not the intent of the previous post but, very large groups of people want information and may wish to join us.
What is the point of this? We are a very diverse group and need to stick to the problems of FATCA and not insert individual political back grounders and rants. Sorry but, I don’t do that here for a reason.
@Atticus,
Your comment deserves a post of its own! 🙂
I don’t like censorship or even alluding to it. If you don’t like it, don’t give it legs – even by disapproving of it.
Please.
I’ve lost track of all the newbies arriving here since the CBC blitz but I can well imagine how overwhelming this site must be to them. It is chock-a-block full of information. Hard to be in an OMG (Oh My God!) moment and then find more information than you can handle. I hope they all hang in there. And to all the newbies — WELCOME! 🙂
@Bubblebustin,
Sometimes ignoring it, makes it take center stage, and we need FATCA to remain the focus.
In addition newbies who read here get turned off by some of the political digs, never to return. Some of these people may have become helpful anti-FATCA advocates; we cannot afford to turn anyone away if we are going to have any hope in hell of winning this battle.
It is always tricky finding the balance while wading through truth and fiction. Who is right or wrong? Which view has greater relevance? How can information be best used to best promote justice? I generally attempt to be open with information while twisting it to my advantage. It can be politically better to drop one argument in favor of another, yet to unconditionally oppose a view is generally not good. The best idea might be the most controversial one.
@bubblebustin, I agree with what you said and I tried that approach many times but felt it needed to be said that we are so diverse we have to be careful to remain cohesive. I understand the pull to want to inform why people believe as they do and how FATCA is related to those belief systems.
Yet sometimes this is detrimental to everyone. I don’t go there and really think it’s best if we don’t as a group do so. There ARE reasons. Some are turned off and turned away. This is too important for me or anyone else to go into back grounders on their own agendas on other topics.
I don’t think it’s censorship to try and stay on the main topic for the over all good of getting critical mass and inclusiveness on this issue. That is one TALL order in these circumstances.
Em, you are such a dear!!
Whitekat, I appreciate your input so much too and you too SwissPinoy.
Another look as this comes up once again. I agree that we cannot turn away anyone that looks to us for information and support and who will join us in this important fight against FATCA, combined with citizenship-based taxation.
Has the Liberal MP received a reply to his question?
Atticus did your friend send you a e-mail saying who she/he thought was the neoNazi. It seem to me she was even more offended by that than by the NAZI analogy.
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/01/14/solving-the-problems-of-u-s-citizenship-information-sessions/comment-page-7/#comments
“DM56 says
January 21, 2014 at 12:28 am
@Atticus – I am not able to check my e-mail because I have forgotten it as it was created just for this board. I am not in Ontario so won’t be at the meetings.
My point was that it seemed that initially there seemed to be some mystery about who would be presenting the sessions. If, going immediately to the Nazi example as as some on this board are wont to do, it was a known neoNazi giving the info session, then I would unlikely want to attend said session nor would the person I know who needs info about FATCA.
Thanks for your reassurance about the info session in Kingston here on IBS – since I can no longer access that e-mail this is helpful to pass on to the person who does live near Kingston”
“DM56 says
January 20, 2014 at 8:01 pm
I was probably one of the ones who expressed concerns about right leaningness. My concerns were not about FATCA being a partisan issue but more about wanting to know who was providing the information sessions, as that appeared to be a bit of a mystery.
No matter how much I hate FATCA, no matter how horrible the effects on my life, I am not prepared to go sit in an information session if it’s given by someone whose politics I find abhorrent.
Bubblestin I used your story in my reason why we should not allow link to scumbag scaremongering US tax attorneys.”
I am missing closing quote on DM second item.
@ Atticus
Well said.
The curse of being in a different time zone, Brockers start brocking when my day is over.
New term for you to describe that US Citizenship which we want nothing to do with in living in our home countries.
The term and its one I found in a publication is “Clinging Citizenship.”
This takes away all the romance and glory that non-duals have about duals.
We need to refer to our other citizenship as “Clinging Citizenship.”
http://www.ejil.org/pdfs/17/2/79.pdf
Hopefully Petros will take the lead in using that term.
… like gum on the bottom of a shoe.
@calgary411 Thinking about your son and clinging nationality, because that is what it is.
You may want to add the following to his folder.
The Expatriation Act 1868 as mentioned by Petros remains in effect which means no barriers can be put in place by US officials. We all know that if we use the US Supreme Court standard for allowing voting at the polls, then there are substantial and significant barriers to expatriation at all levels of the government.
http://home.earthlink.net/~walterk1/Patr/US/ExpatriationAct.html
Then if you download the other link on clinging nationality. Do a pdf search of clinging and then print that page.
What your son clearly has is clinging nationality and it needs to be explained to his Government in Ottawa that is what it is.
I am sure that many think he has a great benefit being a dual citizen!! Problem is we know better.
I appreciate this, George. This is on my list “to do list” for today.
The meeting in Kingston at the Central Branch of the library @ 130 Johnson st. in the Delahaye room is on the third floor of the library. Just take the elevator up. The elevator is to your right as you enter the building. I was there today to look over the room. It is warmish up there so don’t dress exceedingly hot. No need.
I am in suspenders wondering how many people will show up! I am glad to hear it will be warm in that venue because we were frozen chunks of ice in ours! lol
@AtticusinCanada
I hope all goes well and there is a good turnout.
I want to say that the welcome mat is rolled out for the Kingston meeting to all who are interested. You will all get what you are looking for there, I promise. The information is unbiased and will help you immensely. We are all working on trying to give each other positive direction with all support given to the idea that justice will prevail, as we all know, Fatca is unjust to innocent people. My family now has a positive feeling about this whole situation since our “OMG” moment. Thanks all!
For anyone considering attending one of the sessions, I urge you to go. I attended the one in Toronto last week. There are so many hidden tax traps with US taxation. When I first learned about US taxation in 2012, I kept hearing things like,
-we pay higher taxes in Canada so it won’t impact us
-we have a tax treaty, you won’t owe tax
-you can save money and do it yourself
What I’ve learned since then is that even though you may have no financial connection to the US, their taxation will impact just about every aspect of your financial life, from owning RESP’s for your kids, Canadian mutual funds or operating your own business in Canada.
We need to raise awareness so that we can throw this back to our governments telling them this is not acceptable.
For anyone living in the West Kootenays of BC:
“Local MP (NDP) Alex Atamanenko is sponsoring a public tax information session for Canadians considered to be “US persons”. A panel of immigration and cross-border tax experts will address issues related to US tax and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act on Tuesday, Feb. 11 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Fireside Conference Centre (1810 8th Ave., Castlegar). This is a free session.”
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@edelweiss When I checked out U.K. mass-market providers of ETFs in December, I was struck that many of them offer no U.S.-domiciled ETFs at all. There are firms that sell thousands of funds, not one of which is suitable for the ‘U.S. person.’ The U.K. rules on providing advice have also changed and this may affect U.K. firm strategies.
@georgeIII Everything has to be reported, of course. The IGAs are helpful mainly in that they make it less likely for British banks to dump “U.S. persons” as clients.
I am still working on my project looking into how things got so bad. It’s a long story, but explicable. It will take a good 12,000 words to explain it all!.