Monthly Archives: March 2014

According to The Times of Israel, American ex-pats in that country are now facing dual threats from the IRS:

The US is gearing up to reach out to American citizens abroad that it believes have not paid their fair share in taxes. Israel is set to begin enforcing new US rules on reporting the existence and activities of accounts in Israeli banks held by American citizens or dual-citizens. That is in addition to a marked increase in audits and investigations of American ex-pats in Israel by the US — to the extent that a rumor has surfaced that the Internal Revenue Service has opened a “branch office” in Israel to handle the volume of audits.

Read more: Americans in Israel to face FATCA, IRS collectors | The Times of Israel

Judging by the comments so far, Brockers should find a receptive audience.  A good outreach opportunity.

I’ve been saying for about three years now that US citizens abroad and all foreign investors should liquidate their US assets and expatriate them.  It now looks like it is too late for a few of Putin’s best friends:

Obama Issues Executive Order Freezing Assets Of Seven Putin Aides

I’m not sure about the legality of seizing private property without due process of law (cf. Fifth Amendment). But rule of law has never been Barack Obama’s strong point.

Antidote:
An antidote is a substance which can counteract a form of poisoning.

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“Sometimes life knocks you on your ass… get up, get up, get up!!! Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

This is hereby our Gratitude Journal. All expressions of gratitude (I know I have many, including the blue sky outside my window) welcome. It’s worth a try! Thanks for the idea, OMG!

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I am posting this thread on behalf of Charl who is wondering if anyone would be interested in protesting at the US consulates. Her mission is to educate the public, and get much needed media attention.

Charl says:

Most Canadians fortunate enough not to have a US branding, if  they’ve even heard of FATCA amd FBAR, likely think it does not apply to them.  They don’t readily see that legislation to implement a FATCA IGA will allow the US government to rob Canada of a significant portion of its assets, and that the Canadian government is actually paying to allow the US to steal from the tax base of Canada.

We need to expose the real numbers of dollars that the US is attempting to extract from Canadians. For example, there are estimated to be over one million Canadians with ‘clinging US nationality’ (WhiteKat loves this term, but forgets who came up with it).  Even if only half of these unfortunate Canadians are exposed, and each has an average of 3 accounts never previously revealed to the USA on FBARs, the penalties owed would be at minimum $90 billion dollars (3 accounts * $10K per account * 6 years * 500,000 Canadians). In addition to this siphoning off of wholly Canadian earned, already taxed in Canada savings,  Canadian tax payers will be on the hook for the welfare support that will be required by financially devastated Canadians, deemed ‘US persons’ and thus US taxpayers by the USA.  In addition, the Canadian banks are spending billions to become FATCA compliant; guess who will be paying  the banks’ FATCA compliance costs?

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Let’s meet at L’espresso Bar Mercurio, 321 Bloor Street W Toronto, ON M5S 1S5, southeast corner, Bloor St. West and St. George. Event is 6:00 PM nearby. So meet at 4:15-4:30 PM. I will ask for a space at Mercurio. May still be spaces still available at conference. I made a reservation for 15 people.  The food is lunch-type sandwiches menu, casual and they are definitely open. Reservation made under Isaac Brock Society and/or “Dennis”  See you then!!!
http://ccla.org/pathways2privacy/

Cross-post from Blaze at Maple Sandbox:

Another significant submission for our side. After I sent him our news release about retaining Joe Arvay, privacy lawyer Michael Power (who was a law school classmate of Elizabeth May) forwarded me a link to an announcement and submission to Finance Canada from the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association on FATCA.

I just posted it at Sandbox and tweeted it.

http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/b-c-freedom-of-information-and-privacy-association-speaks-out-against-fatca-iga/

It’s strongly against the IGA.

Now, I want to know why Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has been quiet since the IGA was announced. I have e-mailed a contact there three times and my messages have been ignored.

Please feel free to cross post at Brock.

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“We oppose (the FATCA IGA) on a number of grounds, but we will restrict our comments to the large scale infringement of privacy rights.”

That is the beginning of a four page Submission by the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association to Finance Canada.

They challenge several aspects of the IGA as well as challenge the authority of the federal government to regulate credit unions.

They also state clearly their agreement with Peter Hogg.

BCFIPA Concludes:

There are considerable difficulties involved in any attempt to implement a FATCA IGA in this country and those will almost certainly result in extensive litigation and damage to people and institutions which are in no way connected to tax evasion in this country or in the United States.

Therefore, we urge you not to proceed with this wholesale infringement of the constitutionally guaranteed privacy rights of Canadians.

Thanks to privacy lawyer Michael Power who e-mailed me the BCFIPA Announcement with the link to the actual submission.

Thanks to Maple Sandbox and privacy lawyer, Michael Power, for the sharing of this submission!

From PLAN (Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network) a membership-based non-profit organization, established by and for families committed to ensuring the safety, security and well-being of our relatives with disabilities.

RDSPs and FATCA: Warning to People With Disabilities With Any Connection to the U.S.

My comment and my sincere thanks to this incredible organization:

My friends at PLAN, I thank you so much for providing the WARNING STICKER that all Canadian Registered Accounts, including the RDSP, should have for anyone deemed to be a ‘US Person’ in Canada. It is negligent that this has not been accomplished before now by those who offer these products. (I have paid over $2,000 in US taxes for the Canadian government’s contribution of bonds and grants to my son’s RDSP, for which I am the Holder. There is no other way to say it — these are $$$$ stolen from Canada’s taxpayers who provided the funds for those grants and bonds — and also from the Canada’s treasury to go to the US.)

I object to my Canadian-born son (born to me in Canada before I became a Canadian citizen in 1975) now being being referred to by the Canadian government and the Canadian Bankers Association, respectively, as “a U.S. citizen resident in Canada” and “a U.S. taxpayer resident in Canada”. He has never been registered with the US, never lived in the US, never got any benefit from the US – only from Canada and for those benefits I am forever thankful.

Hopefully, I am no longer described that way as I have officially renounced my US citizenship and now have a Certificate of Loss of Nationality that I can show my local CANADIAN “foreign financial institution” when I am asked if there is any reason the US would consider me a ‘US person’ in order to turn over account information to the CRA to then turn over to the US IRS. I cannot renounce on behalf of my son, even with a court order.

I can’t thank you enough, PLAN, for the needed warning to Canadian families who would not have an ounce of extra strength left over after caring for family members who have some type of disability to deal with US tax and financial account reporting to the US on top of that. In addition they most likely do not have any extra money to fork out to US tax law and accounting professionals year after year after year for compliance of US tax and reporting for which there would likely be no taxes owed. I was “lucky enough” to have retirement savings to pay for coming into compliance. Some families may be like my family and have a son or daughter who would be entrapped into US citizenship and this year-after-year-after-year absurdity and stress for no (or very little) actual tax owed to the US.

Bless you for saving other families what mine has experienced in the past several years. This is just the awareness I’ve been working for.

US Persons in Canada are now deemed 2nd class citizens — and this should not happen to Canada’s most vulnerable.

This, my friends at Isaac Brock, is the awareness to the right families that I have been working for. I will sleep a little better tonight KNOWING that this information will now better get to the ones I want it to reach.

From an email that I sent to some politicians who attended last evening’s (March 12) Liberal MP Ralph Goodale Calgary reception:

“disgusted”, one of my ‘US Person’ friends, spoke with you this evening at the Ralph Goodale reception and sent me your email contact information. I hope it is OK if I take the liberty to pass on to you an email that I sent to Honourable Ralph Goodale (below). Note that in that email I ask Mr. Goodale what his vote will be on the IGA implementation. He, this evening, said that MPs will not get to vote on the IGA but it will go to the Executive Committee. How is this possible in a “democracy”? If one of you could elaborate on that process, I’d be very grateful.

I also found a 2011 piece from Mr. Goodale, “Fighting The “Long Arm” Of The U.S. Tax-Man”: http://www.ralphgoodale.ca/blog/fighting-the-long-arm-of-the-u-s-tax-man/.

I believe Mr. Goodale could and should educate Justin Trudeau on the realities of FATCA for Canada and its ‘US Person’ CANADIAN citizens and residents. Mr. Trudeau’s answers to my questions re FATCA at the recent Okotoks meet and greet were not encouraging. There will be an approximate one million Canadians (or as we are now being referred to by the Government of Canada and Canadian Bankers Association, ‘US citizens resident in Canada’ and ‘US taxpayers resident in Canada – how insulting – we are CANADIANS!) and their families and business partners and friends for whom there will be one issue come voting time: extra-territorial FATCA law in Canada.

etc.

Thanks very much for your interest. I encourage you to pass this information on to anyone who might have an interest. This WILL affect and be a cost to every Canadian.

Regards,
Carol Tapanila

From: caroltapanila
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:39 AM
To: ralph.goodale@parl.gc.ca
Subject: Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Law in Canada

Honourable Member of Parliament Goodale,

I will be attending your Liberal reception tomorrow, Wednesday, March 12th, in Calgary. FATCA and the signing of the IGA with the US will have a bearing on any federal Canadian budget. I would appreciate your views and what your vote as a Canadian MP will be for the intergovernmental agreement.

etc.

NOTE: Mr. Goodale supports our fight for this and still feels as he did in his 2011 statement (in link above)
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Sent this morning to MP Irwin Cotler in an attempt to get clarification on whether or not MPs will be able to vote on the IGA (not yet answered, of course):

Dear Mr. Cotler,

Yesterday one of us was advised by an MP that there will be no vote in Parliament on the pending FATCA IGA legislation, but that the “decision” will be made by “executive committee.”

Questions: Is this statement correct? Can the IGA bill come into law without approval of Parliament? If this is the case, is Senate approval also not required?

We would appreciate an answer, if at all possible, by the end of the week.

Thank you for your help.

“IRSCompliantForever”

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Subsequently, NativeCanadian’s report on this morning’s attempt for clarification:

Just got off the phone with Flaherty’s office. I was told this draft proposal for Fatca has passed consultations. This is the process where our letters recently sent for feedback will be considered and the IGA may be “tweaked”. Once the tweaking is done, the IGA will be tabled and be voted on by our MP’s. The “tweaked” IGA will be made public. …

UPDATE:
We HAD information on a vote by MPs on a “tweaked” IGA.

But, as we are now getting further conflicting information from different sources, we still don’t know and are back to –

Yet to determine:

A Free Vote

OR

A Party Vote

OR

No Vote at All

by all Canadian MPs

on the FATCA intergovernmental agreement (IGA) as negotiated with the US?

What might be the case is that the IGA does not need Parliament so the actual MP vote on the IGA won’t matter that much,

BUT

the ACT TO IMPLEMENT THE IGA will matter, and that is what we SHOULD care about.

Shadow Raider made the following comment:

Due to the extreme difficulty in having a decent discussion about CBT with Congress, I decided to start a plan B. I’m not abandoning the RBT proposal, but I see that it’s going to take a long time, so I came up with an alternative that may work in the meantime. I’ll explain it below.

In US law, nationality and citizenship are not exactly the same thing. Citizenship is actually a subset of nationality, so all US citizens are also US nationals, but it is possible to be a US national without citizenship. Such status was historically created for people in US territories, and today it only applies to American Samoa.

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