Thanks, Lynne Swanson. Cross-posting from MapleSandbox.ca:
NDP Revenue Critic Writes to Minister of Revenue
The NDP’s Revenue Critic, Pierre-Luc Dusseault’s Assistant forwarded to me a copy of aletter Mr. Dusseault sent to Liberal Minister of National Revenue, Dianne LeBouthillier.
He says:
As NDP National Revenue Critic, I wish to draw your attention to a troubling situation involving your department.
Mr. Dusseault points out FATCA:
Raises a number of privacy concerns about the personal information of our fellow citizens who also hold U.S. citizenship.
Mr. Dusseault concludes with:
Today several concerned citizens are looking to your government for answers about their privacy and the information they provided to Canada Revenue Agency. I wonder what your intentions are with respect to FATCA and how you plan to protect the private and personal information of Canadians.
Mr. Dusseault’s Assistant advised they expect a response to Order Paper Questions by March 5. He will wait for a response to those questions and to this letter before raising this issue in Question Period.
Someone in the corner of expats! Yay!
The real question is: When will the U.S. Government wake up and say this is a wrong headed that complicates an already complicated tax law. The U.S. Tax Code has more pages and more words rhan the Christian bible. People spend a lifetime trying to understand the holy bible and even after death the tax code hounds you for more of your money, even though anyone else has to go to court to get anything anything from your estate, the IRS can, without a warrant, just take what they say they are entitled to.
Monsieur Pierre-Luc Dusseault deserves to be congratulated and thanked for his letter.
As always who is the onus on? Is the onus on the Canadian Government to ensure a level playing field amongst resident Canadian citizens in terms of rights and obligations?
Or is the onus on resident Canadian citizens to have to unload any unwanted citizenships because a foreign government is allowed to enforce its laws on Canadian territory with the permission of the Canadian Government?
It can only be one, not both.
What the fools in the Harper Government didn’t seem to appreciate was once you set the above precedent, what else will be demanded of the Canadian government in future by foreign governments?
The deterrence is if a foreign government realises that the Canadian Government is likely to say NO, it may not even asked in first instance avoiding the situation all together.
My suggestion to the NDP, “don’t waste your time”. The IRS is going to do what is good for Americans and America. If you don’t want a hassle from the CRA or IRS, do what I did, become compliant. I was one of 143 former Americans that renounced my citizenship in 2013. Why would you want to be part of another country when your adopted home – Canada is the best country in the world to live in. My solution to this whole mess is for Canada to adopt a “non – duel citizenship” policy. You cannot become a Canadian citizen until you renounce your previous citizenship.
@Calvin
There’s already no such thing as “dual citizenship” in law.
I believe what you are suggesting is that Canada require all new citizens prove that they’ve formally renounced any other citizenship before being granted Canadian citizenship.
@Calvin, how about the United States adopting the no “dual citizenship!!!”
Regardless your quick to say “become compliant.” How in hell are my teens going to renounce their unwanted USC? Do they start saving for it today? BTW thats absurd for my teens to get a prt time job to save to renounce!!
@Calvin, “You cannot become a Canadian citizen until you renounce your previous citizenship.”
So by your logic, a child born in Toronto to a Canadian Citizen who has US Taint, CAN NOT be a Canadian until they are 18 and then pay tribute to renounce?
Your thinking is far too simplistic.
@Don, @BB……we all know that these matters were resolved in 1930 with the Master Nationality Rule.
The devil’s always in the details, isn’t it, George?
Hope coming ?
https://americansabroad.org/issues/taxation/
Bubbles the solution was so simple that you can only have one nationality at any point in time.
Eighty years ago the dilemma was solved
In theory the Usa could have tweaked things so folks would not game the system but instead they took a sledgehammer
@Steven – Thank you for this link. Is this another voice ?
@Steven — Add to their list of current fixes — PFICs. Why should a mutual fund organised “overseas” which distributes all income currently (just like US funds), be treated as a PFIC???? Ditto for ETFs traded on “overseas” exchanges.