Tim just provided to me these Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) documents (some last modified 3/22/2017) on implementation of the new Common Reporting Standard (CRS). You can imagine how the Government will use this in FATCA litigation.
Please look through these documents and their links. Anything unexpected?:
“…The automatic exchange of financial account information with the United States (U.S.) exists under the Canada-U.S. intergovernmental agreement for the Enhanced Exchange of Financial Account Information with respect to taxes signed on February 5, 2014.
Canada’s automatic exchange of financial account information arrangements with jurisdictions other than the U.S. has been implemented in accordance with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). The implementation of the CRS legislation is effective July 1, 2017.” See link.
“…Under the CRS, financial institutions must take steps to identify certain accounts held by, or for the benefit of, non-residents and to report such accounts to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The information would then be available for sharing with the jurisdiction in which the account holder resides for tax purposes under the provisions and safeguards of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters or the relevant bilateral tax treaty.
On December 15, 2016, Part XIX was added to the Income Tax Act, implementing the CRS due diligence and reporting obligations in Canada. This legislation together with the administration by the CRA will allow the CRA to exchange financial account information with participating jurisdictions beginning in 2018…” Link
THE DECLARATION:
“Declaration of Tax Residence for Individuals – Part XVIII and Part XIX of the Income Tax Act If you are an individual and you are planning to open a financial account or if you already have a financial account with a Canadian financial institution, it may ask you to fill out this or a similar form.
Canadian financial institutions are required under Part XVIII and Part XIX of the Income Tax Act to collect the information you provide on this form to determine if they have to report your financial account to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The CRA may share this information with the government of a foreign jurisdiction that you are resident of for tax purposes. In the case of the United States, the CRA may also share the information with that country’s government if you are a U.S. citizen…
Section 2 – Declaration of tax residence
Tick all of the options that apply to you.
— I am a tax resident of Canada. If you ticked this box, give your social insurance number.
— I am a tax resident or a citizen of the United States.
If you ticked this box, give your taxpayer identification number (TIN) from the United States. If you do not have a TIN from the United States, have you applied for one? Yes No— I am a tax resident of a jurisdiction other than Canada or the United States.
If you ticked this box, give your jurisdictions of tax residence and taxpayer identification numbers…”
Thanks @Tricia. Of course. No point in them talking to those who have been confronting the FATCA threat already for years – and are thus now a kind of ‘expert’ in the EU and elsewhere – ex. the actual victims…
On another note, interesting is what one of the Big Five Banksters in Canada are extruding as ‘advice’ for their accountholders;
ex.
‘ I was born in the U.S. but lived in Canada all my life, why am I considered a U.S. Person? ‘
” A person born in the U.S. is generally a U.S. Person due to citizenship, regardless of their residence outside the U.S. It is however possible to relinquish your U.S. citizenship by applying for a Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States. A copy of this certificate must be presented to your financial institution to remove your U.S. Persons status.”
from https://www.cibc.com/en/legal/common-reporting-standard.html
The CBA is extruding stuff like;
“.3. How does the CRS compare to U.S. FATCA?
The CRS was developed based on FATCA (the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), a U.S. tax law intended to improve tax compliance. In 2014, the Canadian government entered into an agreement with the U.S. to implement FATCA. As of July 1, 2014, Canadian financial institutions are required to identify account holders who are U.S. persons for U.S. tax purposes (both U.S. residents and U.S. citizens) and to report certain information about those accounts to the CRA which then exchanges this information with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Further information about FATCA is available on the CRA’s website at: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/nhncdrprtng/fq-eng.html.
The CRS expands upon FATCA by requiring Canadian financial institutions to identify and report to the CRA information about accounts held by persons who are resident for tax purposes in any country other than Canada or the U.S. The CRA will then exchange this information with tax authorities of the countries with which Canada has entered into an agreement. Reportable accounts held by U.S. persons will continue to be reported to the CRA under FATCA, not the CRS. One important difference between the CRS and FATCA is that FATCA provides exemptions for certain small accounts (below a U.S. $50,000 threshold) held by individuals while the CRS does not.”
http://www.cba.ca/understanding-the-common-reporting-standard
When I fill in the tax forms for my wife and for myself. I will decline to go past box #1. I don’t care what they try to do to me.
@ The_Animal
You won’t be alone.
I posted this also on the EU and FATCA thread here.
Interesting comment in this report on the EU delegation trip to the US re FATCA and other tax/information reporting/’transparency’ issues;
“…On FATCA, reciprocity is not going to be a winning argument with this administration. In my opinion if FATCA was reopened at this stage to include the extra elements of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), it would result in the repeal of FATCA.”…”
The quote above appears to be coming from Elise Bean;
“Elise Bean, former chief counsel of the US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, in Washington on March 21 as part of the committee’s fact-finding mission to the US. Bean, now a member of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation, previously visited Brussels to address the PANA committee in October last year.”
from;
’30 Mar PANA committee meets Elise Bean in Washington’
http://guengl-panamapapers.eu/pana-committee-meets-with-elise-bean-in-washington/
A bit of extra background on Elise Bean the speaker quoted above;
“Elise Bean
Interim Co-Director, Levin Center, Wayne State University
Elise Bean was first hired by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) in 1985, to serve as an attorney on the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In 2003, Senator Levin appointed her staff director and chief counsel of the Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which he chaired. Ms. Bean handled a variety of complex investigations, hearings, and legislation, including matters involving money laundering, offshore tax abuse, foreign corruption, unfair credit card practices, corporate misconduct involving derivatives or structured finance, health care fraud, and shell companies with hidden owners. Investigations headed by Ms. Bean included inquiries into offshore tax avoidance by Apple, Microsoft, and Caterpillar; undeclared UBS, LGT, and Credit Suisse accounts for wealthy U.S. clients; and tax shelter sales by professional firms, including KPMG. Ms. Bean is now co-director of the new Levin Center at Wayne Law School in Detroit. In 2013 and 2011, the Washingtonian magazine named her one of Washington’s 100 most powerful women. In 2015, she was included in the Global Tax 50, a list compiled by the International Tax Review of the year’s top 50 individuals and organizations influencing tax policy and practice.”
http://live.worldbank.org/node/9619
and
https://law.wayne.edu/profile/fy5438/
Carl Levin was the one who introduce FATCA to Congress as all these FATCA legislations were written with the help of Ms Bean and others.
For more on the Australian implementation of CRS: CRS – Coming soon to a bank near you….
See latest ‘AEOI: STATUS OF COMMITMENTS’ June 2017
See footnote 1 (same as earlier versions);
“As at June 2017
AEOI: STATUS OF COMMITMENTS”
“1
The United States has indicated that it is undertaking automatic information exchanges pursuant to FATCA from 2015 and has entered into intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) with other jurisdictions to do so. The Model 1A IGAs entered into by the United States acknowledge the need for the United States to achieve equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic information exchange with partner jurisdictions. They also include a political commitment to pursue the adoption of regulations and to advocate and support relevant legislation to achieve such equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic exchange”
https://www.oecd.org/tax/transparency/AEOI-commitments.pdf.
The US gives itself a footnote. The only country that can issue itself a free pass. Continuing to underscore how totally disingenous it continues to be re ;”…equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic information exchange with partner jurisdictions….”….
Fraude fiscale : l’échange automatique d’informations bancaires a débuté, http://information.tv5monde.com/info/fraude-fiscale-l-echange-automatique-d-informations-bancaires-debute-194675
Journalist Pascal Hérard understands that FATCA is not reciprocal.