Author Archives: calgary411

John Rafferty MP Thunder Bay Rainy River, Ottawa Leaders Ledger: Harper Government stuffing more garbage legislation – See more at: http://www.netnewsledger.com/2014/05/02/rafferty-harper-government-stuffing-more-garbage-legislation

Added, May 3rd: from Professor Allison Christians’ Tax, Society & Culture blog: Tax, Society & Culture, Allison Christians, Marco G.: “FATCA non-delay delay”

The below notice will require some very close reading by a great number of people.
-Notice 2014-33; 2014-21 IRB 1

Originally announced, AGAIN, on a Friday, when it will get lost in the weekend news.

Reuters, May 2, 2014: Foreign banks get transition period on U.S. tax evasion law

From “innocente” and George:

US Treasury and the mythical Bob Stack blinked today, “U.S. Treasury gives relief to banks for anti-tax evasion law”…

from Jim Jatras:

Interesting news today!

Treasury seems to want to have its cake and eat it too: delay FATCA yet again (since it clearly would be a mess on July1) without appearing to do so. It’s a transparent sign of weakness, stalling for time to get more unconstitutional pseudo-treaties signed. It might actually make things worse. Who knows.

from Just Me:

This is akin to declaring all the IGAs non complete as being a done deal, and so added to the count.

and reply back …

I think this is aimed more an individual FFIs being able to take more time to comply, so as to drive more countries into IGAs – which is the only way they can really enforce this. That’s the paradox: foreign governments (like Canada’s) sign IGAs because their banks are terrified of FATCA, but if they didn’t sign them, FATCA would collapse and there’d be nothing to be scared of.

There’s one born every minute . . .

Marc Garneau, “Tabling of Treaty” Points of Order, Routine Proceedings, April 28, 2014

…This agreement is indeed a treaty, and is even housed in the “treaty” section of the Department of Finance’s website.

With a treaty before us, our attention turns to the Government of Canada’s “Policy on Tabling of Treaties in Parliament”. I turn the attention of the House to part 6.2 of that policy, which states in part (b):

For treaties that require implementing legislation before the Government can proceed to ratification, acceptance, approval or accession…the Government will:

Observe a waiting period of at least twenty-one sitting days before the introduction of the necessary implementing legislation in Parliament…

I have made a search of the Journals and I am unable to find any notice of this treaty being tabled before this body prior to 21 days before the introduction of Bill C-31. This leads me to believe that the government may have sought to use the exception to this part of the tabling policy, but that stipulates:

If an exception is granted, the Minister of Foreign Affairs will inform the House of Commons that Canada has agreed to be bound by the instrument at the earliest opportunity following the ratification.

That is from 6.3, part (b), of the government’s “Policy on Tabling of Treaties in Parliament”.

This story is now live.

************
Among them, me.

“We the people….” declared the script inside her U.S. passport — now with four holes punched through it from cover to cover. Her departure from life as an American was stamped final on the same page: “Bearer Expatriated Self.”

In our several discussions, I had asked Adam if he learned about U.S. citizenship-based taxation in his U.S. schooling. His answer, once again: “No”. I appreciate the care and time Adam Geller took to illustrate that most who renounce U.S. citizenship do not fit the stereotype of FATCAT / tax evader / traitor. Ours should be the real story of renunciations.

This is a U.S. journalist who spent a lot of time talking with me, making sure he understood my story and, I’m sure, the same with the others in this AP article. You even get to see a pretty scruffy 70 year old me and my 73 year old husband who now has this strange woman for his wife.

From Ann:

I have a contact for The Standing Senate Committee on National Finance.

Letters or emails should be directed to these people regarding FACTA and IGA.

Clerk: Jodi Turner 613 990 4995

Assistant: Louise Martel 613 990 5285

General Information: 613 990 0088 or 1-800-267-7362

Fax: 613 947 2104

email: nffn@sen.parl.gc.ca

Senate Committee on National Finance
The Senate of Canada
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A4

*********************

From Tim:

I think it will be the Senate National Finance Committee instead. Luckily that committee doesn’t look it is moving as fast on Bill C-31 as the Banking Committee so we have some more time. Additionally the chairman of the National Finance Committee is NOT a Conservative so that might be to our advantage.
********

You may send your submission in either Official Language to the Clerk of the Committee.

A fellow ‘US Person’ in Canada sent the following to the Fraser Institute:

Re: The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act

I find it hard to fathom that your group has not commented on the deleterious nature of this US imposed law soon to be enforced in Canada. The enabling legislation for this is labeled as an Inter Government Agreement and is buried in the omnibus bill C-31. An agreement “negotiated” under threat of economic sanctions by the United States. Regardless of how it is presented it is about gathering data, taxing and penalizing Canadian citizens, on money earned in Canada and taxed in Canada. These Canadian citizens will be identified by one distinguishing characteristic, place of origin or other indicia that the US Treasury department will unilaterally decide with a laundry list of characteristics to identify a new class of person, including spouses and children of such “persons”. A US Person For Tax Purposes, not a citizen, rather a person or property of the US. There is no benefit to Canada. I am aware of the pressure exerted by the Canadian Bankers Association on this file, however their own very limited response was the litmus test that precipitated this un-defendable extortion by the US. As the late Jim Flaherty stated, this is not how partners negotiate agreements…by threat of sanctions, if you do not do as we tell you. (paraphrased).

It is estimated that upwards of one million Canadian citizens of US origin will be thrown under the FATCA bus. I suspect the number is much larger due to the aforementioned kin of these “persons”.

It’s astonishing that the main stream press has not reported on this issue. Perhaps because the issue is seen as a tax issue relating to Americans in Canada only? This is not the case. It is an affront to Canadian sovereignty and likely offends our privacy legislation, our electronic reporting protections and most importantly the Charter Of Rights and Freedoms. It most certainly will impact the Canadian treasury, potentially on a massive scale. This issue will be tested with a Charter challenge.

Where is your group on this file?

Thank you for your time.

I followed up on that with:

Members of the Fraser Institute:

I understand that you have replied to another affected ‘US Person’ who has brought the FATCA IGA implementation to your attention that you will flag this subject for future consideration. ‘US Persons’, who are CANADIANS and now referred to by the Harper Government as “Americans who happen to live in Canada” or “US taxpayers resident in Canada”, request your prompt consideration of this subject. The July 1, 2014 implementation in the process of approval by legislation HIDDEN in Bill C-31 is almost upon us. May I encourage you to move this to the top of your agenda as it will set a dangerous precedent of discrimination by national origin and loss of human rights by a segment of Canadians who will no longer have the same protection of all other Canadians under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

Many of these Canadians chose to become naturalized Canadian citizens, for myself in 1975 — they are Canadians.

Many of these Canadians were born and raised in this country, never registered with the US, never lived or worked in the US, never had any benefit from the US — only Canada. One of those (and many just like him) Canadians born in Canada to US citizen parents is my 40 year old son. My son happens to have a developmental disability and as he would not understand the concept of “citizenship” (as in US citizenship-based taxation), he cannot renounce his so-called automatically acquired US citizenship and must not have the influence of anyone else to do so. The U.S. Department of State / US Consulate regulation is also that for a person with a ‘mental incapacity’ (which would also include someone with age-related dementia), a parent, a guardian or a trustee for that person does not have the RIGHT to renounce U.S. citizenship on that person’s behalf, even with a court order. This segment of Canadians is ENTRAPPED into U.S. citizenship and the responsibilities and cost of administration for U.S. tax returns and account reporting each year at great U.S. professional tax accounting (and often law) expense.

Many of these Canadians were born in the U.S. to Canadian parents, returning to Canada with their parents days later, infants, or as children and they have always been what should be only – Canadians.

That the government of Canada will not stand up to protect these fellow Canadians is deplorable. Canada is saying they are second-class to any other Canadians, discrimination by “U.S.” national origin. They are saying Canada is no longer a SOVEREIGN country that makes its own law and does not allow the law of a foreign country to come in to take precedence over Canadian law.

https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments/comment-page-15/#comment-1511471 poses a serious question:

Will the Harper government agree to similar “lawful requests” for financial information on “Chinese-Canadians” by Bejing?

ties in nicely with https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/04/21/report-on-alberta-information-session-edmonton/
…

This will set a precedent that the rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms be waived for a segment of Canadian society. They will be second-class Canadians to any other, no matter the first-class Canadian’s national origin or the national origin of their parents / grandparents. Who will then be the next country able to bring their law into Canada to search for Canadians of another national origin?

My hope is that this gets in front of every Canadian person who will decide such action is absurd and wrong and join us in the Canadian Charter Challenge to either stop or reverse implementation of the US FATCA IGA law in Canada. I hope that others will agree that implementation of the FATCA IGA could be buried in Bill C-31 omnibus bill without debating on its own merits and with the citizens of Canada is appalling.

Should Canada remain a SOVEREIGN nation with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that mean the same for all Canadians?

Another comment at http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/new-information-sessions/comment-page-3/#comment-23459

The article in the Edmonton Journal is just a rehash of information we have heard before. There is nothing new there.

The media in general seems to fear taking any editorial stance that would make the American government, and therefore its head, look bad. The Canadian media was not shy about editorializing against Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and either of the Bushes, but so far Obama appears to be a protected species.

Apparently our editorial writers dare not criticize the anointed one. Where are the likes of the CBC and the Fraser Institute on all of this?

Can ‘US Persons’ in Canada count on the Fraser Institute to give priority to this important matter that criminalizes a large segment of the Canadian population, as well as Canadian spouses, their children, their Canadian business partners, etc.?

I sincerely thank you for your attention to this.

Carol Tapanila
Calgary, AB, Canada

U.S. tax law could ensnare unsuspecting Canadians

American expats (CANADIANS who are now referred to by the Harper government as “Americans who happen to reside in Canada” / “US taxpayers in Canada”) are planning a charter challenge of an agreement that takes effect in July, requiring Canada’s tax department to forward information from banks about their clients’ U.S. connections to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

I cannot comment as I do not “do” Facebook. I will send my Letter to the Editor. It will go something like this:

Gwen, thank you for being interviewed and reporting Edmonton’s information session on the problem of US citizenship-based taxation law for Canadians who are deemed US Persons in Canada.

The intergovernmental agreement that Canada has negotiated and signed with the US to bring this foreign law into our formerly sovereign country has been hidden and is now in the process of approval of legislation to implement starting July 1, 2014. This is a result of US citizenship-based taxation law — the rest of the world, including Canada, taxes on residence — that taxes and account reporting is for the country in which a person lives, works, receives benefits. The US is searching for US Persons the world over — and it is not about taxes owed but rather about the horrendous penalties for not having known. Those deemed US Persons are being criminalized by the US coming into every country in the world. The tax evaders the US looks for reside, for the most part, in the US and send their untaxed money offshore. Canada is considered offshore and Canadians deemed US Persons are deemed to have foreign (offshore) accounts even though they are to us local Canadian accounts in our banks, credit unions and insurance companies. Spouses, children and business partners can be as affected as the deemed US Person. And, so can the many Canadian snowbirds if they snowbird outside the US rules and required yearly compliance forms.

This will set a precedent that the rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms be waived for a segment of Canadian society. They will be second-class Canadians to any other, no matter the first-class Canadian’s national origin or the national origin of their parents / grandparents. Who will then be the next country able to bring their law into Canada to search for Canadians of another national origin?

My hope is that this gets in front of every Canadian person who will decide such action is absurd and wrong and join us in the Canadian Charter Challenge to either stop or reverse implementation of the US FATCA IGA law in Canada. I hope that others will agree that implementation of the FATCA IGA could be buried in Bill C-31 omnibus bill without debating on its own merits and with the citizens of Canada is appalling.

Should Canada remain a SOVEREIGN nation with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that mean the same for all Canadians?

John Richardson presented a similar information session in Calgary on Saturday. We thank him very much for coming to Alberta to foster more awareness and encourage those affected, rather than to react, to pause, determine whether or not they REALLY CAN BE DEEMED a US PERSON.

Do a lot of research and only then, work in whatever way you can best protect yourself and your Canadian family.

To help you judge if,

your experience with your local bank, credit union or insurance company (or as the US defines them: “foreign financial institutions”) will be a comfortable one, as some advertise,

shared here are excerpts of notes from a meeting set up with a “US Person” and Canadian husband by a Vice-President of the wealth management branch of one of the Big Five Canadian banks: Continue reading →

Presenter for this session: John Richardson, Citizenshipsolutions.ca

($20 to offset costs – payable at the door)

CALGARY, AB – Saturday, APRIL 19, 2014, 2:30 – 5:30 p.m.

http://www.kensingtonlegion.ca/ (free parking /Legion restaurant will be open)

Map: North Calgary Kensington Royal Canadian Legion No. 264, 1910 Kensington Road NW, Calgary, AB

This session comes with the “No one But Someone Who Is Going Through This Can Really Understand” element. John Richardson, like us who need information and SUPPORT, is a US Person in Canada.

A lot of grass-roots volunteerism by generous persons committed to this goes into these sessions. We don’t offer polish; we do offer information and support to help you come to the right decision for you and your family.

(John will be leaving for the airport right after the session as he will present at the Edmonton Information Session, Sunday, April 20, 2014, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.)

I hope to meet MANY Calgary and Southern Alberta persons on April 19th — this is your Alberta opportunity to attend ours in the series of Canadian and European information sessions.

I asked in a comment,

What will be discussed? Can anyone from here be there?

AnonAnon answered:

@calgary411 –

I’m planning to show up at Joe Oliver’s luncheon on Monday with a protest sign. I hope others can join me.

Opportunity? for conversation or at least protest to the new Finance Minister, Joe Oliver

April 4, 2014

Minister of Finance to Address the Canadian Club of Toronto

Minister of Finance Joe Oliver will deliver remarks at a luncheon hosted by the Canadian Club of Toronto, on Monday, April 7, 2014. The Minister is scheduled to speak at approximately 1:00 p.m.

The event will take place at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, 100 Front Street West, in Toronto, Ontario.