Strong language from the Globe and Mail’s Barrie McKenna:
It’s the first bit of goods news in a while for a large group of Canadians who until now have felt targeted by their country of birth and abandoned by their country of choice.
Strong language from the Globe and Mail’s Barrie McKenna:
It’s the first bit of goods news in a while for a large group of Canadians who until now have felt targeted by their country of birth and abandoned by their country of choice.
Barrie McKenna tweeted a rather defensive response when I asked him which side of history he wanted to be on when it comes to FATCA. It might be he’s chosen the right side.
The IRS Commissioner is just a pawn vis-a-vis the US Congress. Once the ‘carve outs’ start coming from foreign courts, what’s the USG really going to do about it?
This whole FATCA debate has turned into the first country’s courts (and I do not mean any spineless politicians that have decided this course at some dinner during the G20 conference), to say NO to FATCA and send the issue back to a country’s parliament for debate.
At that point it’ll be difficult for any country to pull a ‘Harper’ and stuff it in another 500 page Bill.
The real enduring problem is that we have elected from a group of candidates a congress of Marxists who are such egomaniacs they think the world owes them a living and they want the money to give those who vote for a living instead of working for a living.
Most of us want to stay as unknowns to the USG, but them knowing even our bowl habits equal control and control is all they want. Control to extract taxes from those who work and control to give their daily bread to those who don’t work and the threat to withdraw it if they don’t vote right. The whole bunch are a disgusting bunch of blood suckers.
Send to your MPs – particularly the Conservatives.
With the crucial clarification that many of those affected by FATCA, FBARs and CBT were BORN IN CANADA, or BORN CANADIANS – and NEVER CHOSE US status – like Calgary411’s son, they had NO CHOICE in the matter – it was foisted on them by US citizenship rules regarding status via parentage. So, the Harper government is ready to even abandon those BORN CANADIAN citizens. Canadian birthplace, parentage, naturalization, residency – none of that means anything to him – he is willing to sell ALL out to a foreign power at the behest of Canadian banks – and in exchange for what? Inquiring Canadian demand to know.
Do they want to go down in history as having abandoned Canadians as this Globe article says?
Canadians dual by birth – born in Canada, or in the US of Canadian parents, or Canadians who chose Canada via immigration and naturalization? And Canadian citizens who live permanently in Canada, but who had a limited US sojourn? And all the Canadian taxpayers and accountholders?
The IRS Ray of Hope:
@Deckard1138
“I don’t care who ya are, that’s funny right there.” Thanks, I needed a good laugh!
Even better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltmMJntSfQI
This is no ray of hope in my mind. Amnesty is offered to criminals; I refuse to admit to a crime.
@Canadian Cop
Happy to git-r-done.
Ray of hope the U.S. probably thinks shines out of its posterior upon us.
I don’t need any more “come clean” programs for innocent people. If they are innocent let them GO. Stop making innocent people justify themselves.
Who knows what this announcement will be? Tell everyone who owes nothing to just do QD’s and go forth in peace? Instead of announcing they are redefining off shore to mean an account where you do not live as ought to be done short of going to RBT. Anything else is just more silliness. I am really insulted the U.S. wants my KID to prove he’s compliant and give up something he never knew he had, didn’t ask for and doesn’t want.
Entire families are being put through the ringer and meanwhile back in the U.S. the vast majority think this is about high dollar tax cheats. Gah!! This just keeps getting more and more convoluted all because the U.S. will not adopt RBT or redefine “off shore”
@ Deckard: Me too. Thanks for the laugh. Very fitting for these times.
@Deckard1138
Nothing makes me laugh before my morning coffee, but that did. Thanks.
Bubblebustin: I am not sure what that means that you checked Brock before having your morning coffee. Dedication?
In high school science we were taught to ignore any statement with more than 2 degrees of uncertainty. This overture from the commish can safely be ignored. Must have been a slow news day for Barrie.
@ Barrie McKenna and all the other journalists out there: Let me know when the IRS comes up with a program for those who DON’T wish to be compliant.
@ Sid: Right you are. I didn’t go for Carter’s “amnesty” either.
maz57 and Sid,
Yes, the U.S. criminalization of innocent people is criminal!
I don’t know where to put this, but hehe posted the link to a german language clip on a swiss author who said that the reason for the fall of Saddam Hussein was not his stash of mass destruction weapons and not his harbouring of terrorists and not even his cruel and despotic regime. it was because he had dared to try to sell his oil for euros and not dollars. Has anybody else heard this?
The guy went on to explain that money transfers to different countries were difficult and sending euros to Cuba was hard- but sending dollars to Cuba was impossible. And that the future of money transactions would be under the jurisdiction and regulation of America through FATCA. There would be no dollar ( or other currency?) worldwide that could be transferred without the approval of America. He said that FATCA was not aimed at tax evaders- it was aimed at keeping the dollar the number one currency in the world. If what he says is true- then is it any wonder that homelanders WANT Fatca? Their dollars would be worthless if the petrodollar is lost. The thing that I question is why would the rest of the world want to play along? The author goes on to explain that the only solution would be to find a second currency to rival the dollar. He said the euro would not do because it is going to be short-lived. He said the chinese have the only viable rival currency to the dollar, and they are seemingly not in a rush to make their dollars in debt worthless. But one day they will make the yuan exchangeable on the markets (it isn’t yet) and maybe in 5 years, the yuan might be a serious rival to the dollar as a world currency. In the meantime? Total capitulation.
I am just saying: if the world does not act now- then America will have its fingers in every money transaction in the world. It will allow for or disallow for trading/transfers in different currencies. He said that FATCA is not invented for tax evasion- it was invented to keep the dollar the worlds number one currency. He even called it a stroke of genius. But what does this mean for the rest of the world? Do other countries know this and just not care? What is a 30% withholding tax if in the future everything a bank wants to do will be instructed by the USA?
I`m confused. I just think that for Americans- this is important. But for the rest of the world? What will this mean for the rest of the world? And if China one day implements the yuan as a rival world currency- will there be a war?
Thanks for your translation on what that clip was about, Polly. I have no comment on the Swiss author’s opinion. Maybe others will. Re:
it seems to me that very few “homelanders” even know there is anything called FATCA and neither would they understand the concepts that this author presents.
@Calgary441
I sure didn’t know! This is all new to me.
Koskinen quote from Barrie McKenna’s article:
“Our goal is to ensure we have struck the right balance between emphasis on aggressive enforcement and focus on the law-abiding instincts of most U.S. citizens who, given the proper chance, will voluntarily come into compliance and willingly remedy past mistakes.”
And just what might those mistakes be, Mr. Koskinen? Despite my American birthplace I have been a law-abiding citizen of Canada for 41 years and resident of Canada for well over half a century! I have made no mistakes. The “mistakes” are those of your country, Mr. Koskinen. The only remedy for the current tragic nonsense is for the United States of America to get her head up out of the sand, to actually look at the rest of the world around her, and to acknowledge that her citizenship-based tax system belongs on the scrapheap of history.
I’m somewhat amused that Kevyn Nightingale pointed out the staff cutbacks at the IRS.
In a conversation I had with Kevyn almost 3 years ago, I suggested that the then looming IRS cutbacks would have a negative effect on extraterritorial enforcement. He dismissed my suggestion out of hand.
Hazy, Keyvn posts on a Canada expat FB page and he was, not long ago, quite dismissive but not anymore. I think he is beginning to realize the magnitude. He still advises compliance but he isn’t rah-rah. More pragmatic. And has been critical even. People evolve. Sometimes.
Until this is an actual offer on the table, it’s just words and words are wind.
@YogaGirl
Even if it was on the table… do u really trust them to do the right thing.. they are getting all this info free & money will follow… without even getting a court order… I will never ever trust them…
US_Person_Foreigner,
I don’t think it’s wise to ever completely trust one’s govt. No, I don’t trust them but I grew up there and know who they are.
I was merely saying that this is just talk – which govts are good at – and that nothing actually exists at this point other than a vague acknowledgement of facts that they knew about all along anyway.
Even if they were to come up with a way to painlessly help people they’d previously been content let suffer, it would be like allowing yourself and your family to be tagged and monitored forever like endangered wildlife. Why would a person do that?
The USG is never benevolent unless it is serving its own needs by being so, but it hardly matters because they aren’t offering anything at this point and when they do, it will be with an eye to lure people out into the open and save themselves a bit more legwork.
@YogaGirl
Tagged is the correct term I would use… Plus we do not know how or who they will share this info with. My biggest fear is getting nabbed at customs or whatever & getting stuck in legal heck… I use to have the naive belief that the gov’t was their to protect us… this experience has really shown me otherwise… No one but a few will listen or care… The Cons have forever changed the way I view the gov’t