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THANKS for Saturday donations from first- and long-time supporters — $24,612 donated so far in this funding round, more donations needed to pay legal costs of Canadian FATCA lawsuit: With your help this lawsuit will be moving to trial

Posted on by Posted in FATCA, Freedom, Law & Morality, Tax Treaties 106 Comments

CANADIAN FATCA LITIGATION UPDATE December 7, 2019:

You are contributing to raising the money needed to pay the legal costs to litigate with the Government of Canada — to prevent Canada from imposing the U.S. FATCA law directly on Canada and Canadians.

The Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty and Gwen and Kazia have raised $24,612 in this funding round. We ask you for $20,388 in EIGHT DAYS to make $45,000 December 15 payment for appeal of FATCA Federal Court decisions.

You can DONATE by cheque, cash, PayPal (easiest) and transfers.

CBC says that, for 2018 tax year, information on 900,000 financial records of Canadian residents was turned over by Canada to U.S. IRS because of the Canadian FATCA law.

Gwen and Kazia, two brave Canadian citizens having no meaningful relationship with the U.S., are appealing on your behalf two Federal Court decisions to the Canadian Court of Appeal.

The grounds for appeal will include violations against their autonomy (Charter section 7), privacy (8) and equality (15) as well as arguments that the ruling was improperly based on the finding that the Income Tax Act is primarily regulatory in nature, and that factors such as the relationship between Canada and United States were not properly dealt with. Fleshed out details of appeal grounds will be provided in the Factum, likely early next year.

Gwen and Kazia ask for your help in paying for the legal costs of the appeal. If you feel that FATCA IGA laws harm you or someone that you know, PLEASE DONATE.


Appellants need to raise three installments of $45,000 on December 15, February 15, and April 15, and will apply for approximately $50,000 funding from the Canadian Court Challenges Program. Appellants and the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty — SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS (ADCS-ADSC).

Justice Mactavish in ruling against us said that it is “important” to avoid consequences threatened by the U.S. But we say not at the expense of our Charter rights.Canadians and International supporters: Please help end one of the FATCA compliance laws that impact on all of our countries.

You can SEND DONATIONS by cheque, cash, PayPal (easiest), and transfers.

For more details see: Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty

Our four Board members are John Richardson (co-chair and legal counsel), Patricia Moon (Treasurer), Carol Tapanila, and Stephen Kish (Chair).

106 thoughts on “THANKS for Saturday donations from first- and long-time supporters — $24,612 donated so far in this funding round, more donations needed to pay legal costs of Canadian FATCA lawsuit: With your help this lawsuit will be moving to trial”

  1. Tom. I agree. Is the appeal just wishful thinking or are there serious grounds? I would like more information before committing. E.g. what is the track record of our new lawyer? Is this just a speed bump on the way to the Supreme Court? What are the odds? Who wins besides the lawyers?

  2. @ Tom
    Your comment would best be directed to someone who has a good understanding of the legal aspects of the appeal. However, I do realize Canada cannot reverse a US law (neither should the US ever attempt to reverse a Canadian law) but I don’t see why Canada can’t reverse its acceptance of the IGA on the grounds that Canada is (or should be) beyond US jurisdiction and that FATCA goes contrary to individual privacy rights and Canadian sovereignty. Furthermore, that IGA was signed and given legislative approval under duress.

  3. The personal stories of damage caused by FATCA continue … the comments complaining about FATCA continue … the articles, interviews and videos explaining the injustice of FATCA continue … and yet FATCA continues to march onward, stomping all over the objections being raised. Here, thanks to the ADCS team, we have a vailiant attempt to eventually get FATCA into the consideration of the Supreme Court of Canada but unfortunately the contributions needed to get it there are not keeping up a pace which could ensure this fight will continue.

    I just watched a gofundme raise around $60,000 in only 3 days which made it possible for a kind, decent, charitable, very worthy man who had lost his home to fire 2 years ago to buy a fixer-upper in his small town. It took nearly 3,000 people, donating an average of $20 each to make this possible. The only publicity for this gofundme came from a youtube channel which is fast approaching 300,000 subscribers. It was quite amazing and inspiring to see that there are so many people who will respond to a good cause.

    Only a tiny fraction of the 7-9 million people worldwide who knowingly or unknowingly are affected by FATCA are aware of this court challenge in Canada which in its own way is very worthy too. Does anyone have any idea how more people could be informed and encouraged to consider contributing a small amount to the ADCS fund? I thought it might help for some of those who do Twitter to frequently mention the court challenge and include a link to where donations can be made. That’s about all I can think of, not having any expertise in this area.

  4. Yes, the personal stories of damage caused by FATCA continue. I just managed to make a small donation to the cause. There is an elderly relative of mine in hospice in the United States. On top of my stress with the situation and travel expense to visit, there is the stress of travelling to a country where I’ve had to renounce citizenship. I hope to be able to make a larger contribution down the road.

    This appeal should go forward as the U.S. FATCA threatens the sovereignty of Canada and many other countries around the world. The U.S. acts as a bully in overstepping its borders with financial blackmail and imposing its laws extraterritorially.

  5. @ Pat Canadian
    Hear! Here!
    I want to contribute to the next segments of this fundraiser too, so I hope this first segment reaches its target soon. There’s close to only one third of the time left with more than two thirds of that thermometer still empty though. A totally red thermometer would be a wonderful Christmas gift.

  6. Finally into the twenties today, thanks to an inspired long time supporter. 🙂 Long ways to go in a short time though. 🙁 Hope others will be inspired by perhaps that surge of bank data the CRA passed along to the IRS. That’s a lot of Canadian privacy ceded to our “exceptional” Nosey Parker neighbour to the south and for no good reason at all.

  7. I have no faith in these lawyers to win the appeal. I watched the court proceedings. The lawyers had no heart or energy. They failed to make the most obvious and persuasive arguments against FATCA.
    This case was a slam dunk. How could they lose. It’s pathetic

  8. @ sam
    Maybe if you listen to the John, Keith, Jenny and Suzanne youtube conversation I posted on Media and Blog Articles you’ll understand why it’s important to keep pushing this case towards the Canadian Supreme Court. I think “heart and energy” in a courtroom is a made for TV concept and in the actual system, especially when it’s trial by judge not jury, that isn’t how it works.

  10. Good question Rocky Martin. I never thought about it because we didn’t need a tax deduction. The following URL might provide an answer, otherwise an ADCS board member might confirm or not the information provided.
    http://www.pattersonlaw.ca/NewsArticleView/tabid/179/ArticleId/136/Charitable-and-Non-Profit-Organizations-and-Canada-s-Income-Tax-Act.aspx
    Key paragraph:

    Finally, it must be noted that the finer details under the ITA are different for each organization, even though both are tax exempt. For example, whether a non-profit must file tax and information returns depends on its source of income and value of its assets – a registered charity, however, must always file annual returns and statements. A non-profit organization may pay tax on certain property income, but none of a registered charity’s income is taxable. A registered charity can issue tax receipts to donors, but non-profit organizations cannot. Given this different tax treatment, it is important that close attention is paid to the different tax rules and requirements that apply to these organizations.

    ADCS is a non-profit organization so I’d say the donations are not tax deductible. From the ADCS website:

    ADCS is a non-profit organization (Corporation # 882779-6). The ADCS board members and the appellants take not a penny for their services.

  11. Claim the deduction and if CRA asks questions, negotiate and be prepared to pay it back. Odds are they won’t notice.

  12. Rocky,

    As EmBee says, ADCS is a non-profit corporation registered with Corporations Canada, but we are not, and did not request, charitable organization status. On the FAQ page of our ADCS website we say: “However, please remember that we are not a charitable organization and that donations will not be tax deductible.”

    Since a donation to ADCS would not be eligible for the charitable tax credit, please don’t try to claim it with Canada Revenue Agency.

  13. From today’s update …
    “We are astonished but pleased to have received a Tuesday morning donation from someone who has strongly opposed our FATCA lawsuit …”

    Really? I’m not looking for a name (or even a hint), of course, but do you know what might have brought about this change of heart? It’s not just my curiosity. It could be helpful for us to know how to encourage other possible changes of heart.

  17. Stephen,

    This group was an indispensable resource when I was first going through my crisis. And provided me with much of the information that I needed to get my USA Citizenship issues resolved.

    Thanks again for all of the support.

    Cheers,

    Rocky

  18. @ Rocky Martin
    Are you formerly known as Krackerjack? If so … 🙂 … anyway I echo Stephen’s thanks, even though I’m just an observer (donor too though) who sees every contribution as a kick at the FATCA monster my Canadian government allowed to cross the border.

  19. EmBee,

    The poster formerly known as krackerjack121 is most definitely me. The same one who went to Tijuana to get rid of his citizenship the day before the now infamous price increase from $450 to $2300. And saved money doing it. I think I might have been the first to go to Mexico to lose my citizenship. The embassy there certainly didn’t know how to deal with that.

    Cheers,
    krackerjack121, Rocky

  20. Just sent a donation of $25USD. I wish I could do more– that’s a lot for me.

    I want everyone who reads this to donate– ANYTHING– just donate.

    xx

  21. @ Jane,

    I totally agree!   No amount is too small to be effective. Donate, everyone! You’ll get a sense of “I did something concrete to fight this outrageous FATCA!” No matter what happens, you’ll always have that.  And with a win? Then you’ll not only beam with pleasure, you’ll crow with victory!

    There’s been a lot of movement in the thermometer this week. And as Stephen has daily updated the “thanks-yous” in this post’s headline, it’s clear that a lot of that “filling up” is from the combined effect of small donations.

  23. Hi JapanT,

    The (long) address for donations has changed slightly over the years, because the postal office moved two blocks away from its original site, and is on our donate link:

    http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/DonateADCS.html

    Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty
    Attn: Stephen Kish
    105-340 College Street
    P.O. Box 67678
    Toronto, Ontario
    Canada M5T 3M1

    Thanks for your support!

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