cross posted from ADCSovereignty page
UPDATE September 28, 2015
CANADA
from Tricia Moon:
As we wait (and wait and wait) I thought I would tell you of a small thing that happened to me that might make a few people feel better…
I opened a (new) bank account last Friday with a different branch of BNS than the one where I still have quite a few accts. After about 3 mins, poof! Not asked “Are you or have you ever been an American citizen/U.S. “Person?” Not asked to fill out a W8 or W9.
I asked the gentleman why and he said as an existing customer, they already have done the KYC/AML procedures etc.I mentioned that I renounced, had a CLN etc and we had a very nice discussion.
However, it was interesting that he didn’t pick up that the bank could have been in error by not asking considering I very much was US for the majority of my time as their customer. Meaning lots of others who haven’t renounced/have no CLN may well not have to worry…
Many duals will obviously be able to evade detection -even with new accounts- if their banks have similar policies. He also told me that it is illegal for a bank to photocopy any identification documents. And never to let anyone take ID to do that.
So perhaps, way back when, even if one DID use a a non-US passport with a US birthplace, I can’t really imagine the birthplace being written down-just the passport number (of course, for years prior to FATCA).
September 27, 2015
from Dr. Stephen Kish:
Yesterday I attended a meeting of the Republican Overseas (RO), who are mounting their own lawsuit against FATCA and the IGAs. I met, for the first time in person, Dani Küttel, who has been posting on this site and who is one of the plaintiffs. The U.S. Government lawyers, as expected, are attempting to contest “standing” of all of the plaintiffs arguing that our wounds are self-inflicted. The decision on the RO injunction (September 28-29) will be made at about the same time as that for our request for a stay (September 28?) and their attorney will advise me as soon as the Federal Court has ruled in their case.
September 26, 2015
from Dr. Stephen Kish:
“LITIGATION UPDATE: We instructed the Arvay-Gruber team to take legal steps to prevent the handover and obtain a stay related to the summary trial appeal. It is likely now (but situation still fluid) that the Court will hear our motion for a stay. There will be no oral arguments and the court will consider our arguments based on the written submission only. The Government of Canada will also file written materials. I will release the motion when I am able to do so.
The “live feed” below will pick up every tweet that uses the hashtag#StopFatca. Please help get this message out-join our Tweet brigade (another version of Brock SWAT) now at 56! Canadians have 1 day to continue pressuring the government prior to transmission on Sept 29. Other Model 1 IGA countries have 2 days prior to transmission on Sept 30. Please advise of any countries who have received an extension from the September 30, 2015 deadline. Also please advise if you know of any governments who have notified the IRS that they want the extension.
Every US Person abroad needs to put the same pressure on their own governments TO STOP THE EXCHANGES FROM TAKING PLACE as all Model 1 IGA’s require turnover of information by September 30. Each government has TO ACTUALLY REQUEST THIS EXTENSION FROM THE IRS, so members need to take responsibility for making sure their respective tax authority/government does so.
WORLD
The Treasury Department is up to something. new CAAs signed
The titles of both agreements include the words “to improve International Tax Compliance and to Implement FATCA. I am afraid to imagine what that actually means.
A competent authority arrangement is a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and its treaty partners to clarify or interpret provisions of an existing tax treaty, such as the ones used to justify the intergovernmental agreements, or IGAs, under FATCA
“The signing of these Competent Authority Arrangements marks another significant milestone in the international effort to gain proper reporting of offshore accounts and income,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in a statement. “Together in partnership with other tax authorities, we are demonstrating how far we have come in the fight against offshore tax evasion.”
ATO hands over bank details to US Internal Revenue Service
THE AUSTRALIAN SEPTEMBER 24, 2015 12:00AM
The Australian Taxation Office has handed the US Internal Revenue Service details of more than 30,000 bank accounts containing more than $5 billion in the first transfer of information under America’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.The ATO said that in return for supplying the FATCA data, the IRS will give it information about Australians with US accounts that will be used to root out undeclared offshore income.Its figures imply the accounts, revealed to the IRS in the first tranche of data, have an average balance of more than $160,000.
Note: Link not guaranteed due to paywall
Jamaica reportedly will not take advantage of the delay in transmitting information to the IRS. (Waiting for source)
A Liechtenstein court that ordered a temporary injunction was to give a decision on September 18 (last Friday). We are looking for information on the decision. (hattip to Mary Margreiter)
CANADA
Making this a political issue in Canada & linking to October 19, 2015 election
Important Swing Ridings – Strategic Voting Necessary to Prevent CPC being elected
Riding: DELTA
The Honorable Kerry-Lynne Findlay
Minister of National Revenue (CRA) & defendant in Summary Trial
If you are voting strategically & your riding is Delta, pls vote Liberal
All Candidates Meeting
Wednesday, September 30, 7-9 pm North Delta Secondary School
11447 82nd Avenue Delta, BC V4C 5J6 MAP
This page has contact numbers, links to riding boundaries, other candidates running etc.
Riding: EGLINTON LAWRENCE
The Honorable Joe Oliver
Minister of Finance
If you are voting strategically & your riding is Eglinton Lawrence, pls vote Liberal
Get your T-Shirt HERE.
RESOURCES TO USE/SHARE
STRATEGIC VOTING:
Strategic Voting.com
AND Vote Together
FOR EMAIL:
ADCS PR pdf file: ADCS PR 19SEP15 pdf
ADCS PR png file: ADCS PR 19SEP15 png
ADCS letter to Minister Findlay: adcs_reqminfind_b_sep_21_2015-1
Elizabeth May GPC letter to PMSH pdf:fatca-lettertoprimeminister_0
Nathan Cullen NDP letter to Ministers Findlay & Oliver: 2015-09-21 Letter – Cullen to CRA-Fin re FATCA-1
John Weston CPC to Minister Findlay:Weston to MNR
For TWITTER:
Please use this hashtag: #StopFatca.
Please use RT on every Tweet
NB: If you RT someone, please put #StopFatca in the reply space above the tweet you’re retweeting. Otherwise, your RTs won’t show up in the feed and we want to see every single Tweet!
You can use this shortened link in order to get more info, hastags, etc into the tweet: http://bit.ly/1WaBY1i
Since it is a Twitter assault, may I suggest that you manageflitter.com use to identify your followers with the highest influence, and contact them to RT. Let the assault begin!
CRA
@KerryLynneFindl Minister of National Revenue
@AndrewTreusch Commissioner of Revenue
@JohnOssowski Deputy Commissioner of the CRA
@OTO_Canada Office of the Taxpayers Ombudsman
Ministry of Finance & Standing Committee
@MinJoeOliver Minister joe.oliver@parl.gc.ca 613-369-3710 TO office:Tel 416-781-5583 Fax: 416-781-5586
@AndrewSaxton1 Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance andrew.saxtion@parl.gc.ca
@KevinASorenson K.Sorenson@fin.gc.ca Minister of State (Finance)
@TimSargent Associate Deputy Minister
Members of Standing Committee for Finance are HERE .
If you already have followers who are not expats but may be sympathetic, share other political issues, please send them the tweet directly with the RT; don’t assume they will see it in their feed just because they follow you. Creating a network with other users is important in order to utilyze social media to the max.
Tweet to individuals
If you don’t want to write your own, you can copy/paste these (already tweeted so 140 characters or less)
CDN govt 2 turn over 1million+ of ur fellow CDNs 2 IRS
Let them know u won’t tolerate this #StopFatca RT
#StopFatca Stop PMSH from allowing IRS 2 manage
CDN banks! Protect CDNs’ privacy! Tell CDN govt NO!Pls RT
Financial info of 1million fellow CDNs 2 b given 2 IRS
bc PMSH wants 2! Violates sovereignty & privacy RT #StopFatca
Tweet to Govt/Mp’s etc:
No need 4 CDN govt 2 transfer CDNs’info due 2 IRS delay
Protect CDN sovereignty & privacy rights #StopFatca RT
Govt of CAD:IRS delays transfer of financial info-don’t betray 1million+ CDNS
Will remember on 10/19 #StopFatca RT
Govt of CAD:IRS delays transfer of financial info-don’t betray 1million+ CDNS
Will remember on 10/19 #StopFatca RT
Experienced users who can add a 2nd hashtag as well as using #StopFatca and RT
please also use the following #s as they will link to the network of other CDNs involved in the anti-harper govt re-election
#elxn42 #elxn2015 #ABC2015 #cdnpoli #GoHarperGo #harperman #StopHarper #Heavesteve2015
For FACEBOOK:
You can share from any of these groups:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/citizenshiptaxation/
https://www.facebook.com/ADCSovereignty/
https://www.facebook.com/ADSCanadienne/
https://www.facebook.com/The-Isaac-Brock-Society-341446319218930/timeline/
https://www.facebook.com/USExpatsCanada/
Or from these pages:
“https://www.facebook.com/CitizenshipTaxation/
https://www.facebook.com/AccidentalAmericans/
Other pages that also have this post/information:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmericanExpatriates/permalink/516231728542904/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AARO.Open.Forum/permalink/10150558700159950/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/accidental.americans/permalink/121884294833336/
Along with a copy of my email from earlier this morning, https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/09/19/time-to-begin-the-twitter-and-facebook-assault-to-prevent-the-government-from-turning-the-info-of-canadians-over-to-the-irs/comment-page-1/#comment-6573824
I am now hand-delivering this to my local NDP Party candidate’s office.
Thank you!!!!
Thank you, Tricia
Suggestion- include #elxn42 in tweets. That hashtag is being used in many tweets about the election. i assume it is being monitored by all the parties.
thanks Hazy a number of such hastags is already included – see bottom of post will add more after I connect with my non-expat friends later……:-P
Delivered personally to Kirk Heuser, my Calgary Confederation NDP candidate. He was in his NDP candidate office, read everything I gave him (my email and the press release as well as my previous NDP Party hand-out on Tuesday to George Smith, Tom Mulciar’s Press Secretary). He listened to what I had to say for about 10 – 15 minutes before one of his people there tried to rush him out of the door to another commitment. I did say that I took the time to deliver this personally and I want to finish what I have to say — Mr. Heuser heard me out and I think that (finally) he understands better what this is and what is happening.
Thank you, my fellow ADCS-ADSC crew for all you have put out in record time.
Guess it’s too late to amend the press release? I noticed “…the handover of private banking of some Canadian citizens…” which probably was meant to be “…the handover of private banking information of some Canadian citizens…”. Anyway the meaning is clear enough. What a crazy rush! Shame on the IRS for delaying the notice of the delay until action can barely be taken in time to obtain the extension of the deadline.
EmBee,
Thanks for finding the mistake. GwEvil will fix this. Sorry, we were rushed…..
@ Stephen Kish
Rushed? I think that’s an understatement. I blame the IRS for this 3 minutes to execution possible deadline delay — IF you notice their notice and IF you act REALLY fast and IF they approve your extension request. It bugs me that FATCA was inacted on Canada Day 2014 and now they pick Canadian Election Time to do something which could have been done a month ago.
2nd-class Canadian citizenship
From this NDP Ontario Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/NDP-Grassroots-Ontario-Region-581496741992152/timeline/
The person who sent this to me said…
Over to you, Mr. Mulcair.
Anyone have a link to list of countries that have model 1 IGAs? Thanks
@star,
One place is Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Account_Tax_Compliance_Act
@ Star
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/treaties/Pages/FATCA-Archive.aspx
updated to 9/8/2015
@ EmBee Brilliant, thank you!
I once suggested that the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty could consider evolving into a global organisation to assist affected individuals with technical, legal and financial matters (by way of fundraising). If every US persons worldwide could somehow be convinced to contribute $20 annually into a pot, there would be ample money to fund litigations in a plethora of countries. Perhaps I am being too ambitious here?…
I am hoping someone will start a petition on Change.org, I do not have the skills needed to properly explain what is happening but do feel this would get to thousands of people by email. Almost everyday I receive a petition about many things and thousands of people sign them, they are then sent to Goverment or who ever they hope to change.It has helped a lot of different causes, Thank you
Time to recall this utterly relevant exchange (at 2:05) between John Turner and Brian Mulroney:
https://youtu.be/ZlBiGylBzLo?t=2m5s
Should Stephen Harper claim that he “had no option”, now that the IRS has given him one, every single one of our Opposition leaders should forcefully remind him of Brian Mulroney’s devastating response to John Turner’s feeble attempt to excuse his patronage appointments record during the 1984 federal election debate:
Mulroney: “You had an option, sir. You could have said, ‘I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada, and I am not going to ask Canadians to pay the price.’
Turner: “I had no option…”
Mulroney: “That is an avowal of failure. That is a confession of non-leadership. And this country needs leadership. You had an option, sir. You could have done better.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_had_an_option,_sir
https://youtu.be/ZlBiGylBzLo
Please include these links as you see fit in the Twitter and Facebook campaign.
How does one contact the IGA itself ?
PARLIAMENT has been DISSOLVED as per Harper’s request made and effectuated by Governor General David Johnston on August 2nd. This begs the following question: shouldn’t we be APPEALING DIRECTLY TO THE CRA and/or the IGA @THIS JUNCTURE? Leaders MPs and wannabe MPs are all very busy campaigning. Parliament will stay in a state of DISSOLUTION UNTIL OCTOBER 19TH, so it’s rather confusing as to which Powers That Be will be directing CRA and/or the IGA to consider the FATCA/IRS extension just announced and cease/desist from doing anything.
That should read the CRA, not IGA.
@Jane Maw
There have been several attempts at petitions but they seem to go nowhere, esp the ones to the White House.
@CBT not to worry, been tweeting CRA folks this evening……plus there are a few MPs who were involved in the IGA hearings and don’t think they like being reminded that we won’t forget how they betrayed us-it just might be worth it for one of them to pick up the phone……….
I have been asked what I would say to a Canadian politician if I had the chance to speak to one before September 23. Because this is election time, and because votes are more important than anything else to all politicians at ALL times (i.e., what does the politician get out of it?), I would personally focus on, in my request for a handover delay, something like this:
“Listen — There are 1,000,000 Canada citizens in Canada deemed by the U.S. to be U.S persons, and the ones that actually know about FATCA are mad as hell. They WILL VOTE for the party that best helps them get out of this FATCA mess — but the letter requesting the delay has to be sent Monday — Tuesday latest. NDP/Liberal/Tory Liberal person, get your boss to send that letter to Mr. Harper and the CRA now! There is no downside to this and the voters will reward you for trying.”
Yes I know that many will say that those Canadians are not single issue voters like me, but the above is what I personally would say.
Thank you for the press release. Great work so quickly.
I noticed a typo in the headline; prime “minster”.
Elizabeth May should be all over this like white on rice (no offence to new stock rice). Has anyone brought this to her personal attention?
Bubblebustin, this typo is being fixed…….Minster…
@Bubbles
thnx wahhhhh
I don’t use Twitter but wonder are you tweeting the news media as well?
From the IRS Notice 2015-66:
Would it be possible for someone from the ADCS legal team to phone this person to get confirmation whether or not Canada is eligible to apply for this extension and if so what is Canada’s deadline to do this — September 23, 2015 or September 30, 2015? I don’t find the pertinent section of the IRS Notice (page 17) to be perfectly clear. (However, I’m pretty hopeless at understanding IRSpeak.)