Author Archives: calgary411

At WhiteKat’s suggestion — and, she’s right, I should have posted instead of commented.

Thanks, John Richardson, author, and to Just Me for highlighting it. Another excellent, common sense explanation — no beating around the political bush.

We need a Canadian version of John Richardson’s additional submission to NZ Select Committee.

If every Canadian MP (or other country government representative) would read the document as it pertains to Mr. and Mrs. Middle-Class Countryman, they would understand what FATCA really means for Canada, New Zealand or any other country.

The emotional trauma of FATCA combined with US citizenship-based taxation law for a so-defined ‘US Person Abroad’, as described by Dr. Donald Young and understood by Mr. Richardson, is the missing link and not dealt with anywhere else.

The US tax compliance professionals assisting us in with US tax law or US accounting for our US tax returns OR the media person trying to tell the FATCA story so the general public can understand OR government representatives deciding what to best do for their country OR our family and friends really DON’T KNOW. The only ones who know that aspect are us — the persons living the horror of the US Person round-up.

It is as essential for others to know this aspect of FATCA as for us to somehow effectively deal with our never-ending up’s and down’s of the emotional trauma we experience. There is an IQ needed to understand all this and I think, more importantly, an EQ (the Emotional Quotient of Intelligence).

(Perhaps some of you don’t experience this aspect. I can’t imagine — if so, you are exceptional.)

Today’s CARP Newsletter: Federal Finance Minister’s Letter to CARP about Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Flaherty: Canada Won Privacy Protection, Exemptions and Other Relief from FATCA

Editor’s Note: Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced earlier this month that Canada and the United States have signed an intergovernmental agreement under the Canada-U.S. Tax Convention on US access to financial accounts held by dual US-Canada citizens. Since the announcement, CARP has heard from numerous members who are dual Canada-US citizens concerned with the financial and privacy implications regarding the new Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) agreement. CARP has shared with Finance Minister Flaherty’s office the views expressed by our members Minister Flaherty has responded in a formal letter to CARP members. Below you will find the full contents of the letter: – See more at: http://www.carp.ca/2014/02/22/federal-minister-finances-message-carp-members-canada-won-privacy-protection-exemptions-relief-fatca/#sthash.o374vF8J.dpuf

It is true, as Finance Minister Flaherty points out, the actual requirements for US Persons to file and report (paying ‘compliance industry professionals’ if they are not capable of dealing with the complexity in fear of penalties) and to remit to the IRS actual taxes owed that are not covered by the US / Canada Tax Treaty are not within the power of Canada to change — EXCEPT there should be immediate revisions to that US / Canada Tax Treaty to REALLY EXEMPT much of what we will continue to be faced with.

…
What We Won

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Comments on the legislative proposal can be submitted to the Department of Finance at IGA-AIG@fin.gc.ca

or to the address below. The closing date for comments is March 10, 2014.

Tax Policy Branch: Department of Finance
140 O’Connor Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0G5

My submission is below. Some will say it is too wordy. Some will say it does not cover everything. I know that and I could make it even more wordy, but I am addressing only one of the unjust aspects of allowing to stand as is the FATCA IGA signed by my Government of Canada.

I am more than weary from the one-way conversations I’ve had with most of my previous correspondence. I hope that this announcement means the Government of Canada really is going to listen to my, your, our concerns, the very US Persons in Canada who become the collateral damage of US FATCA combined with US citizenship-based taxation.

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I think I know what you want me and others to believe, with your “political-talk” statement. It is time for you now to be completely transparent with all, including MPs who may be giving their constituents dangerous information in saying things like “You have nothing to worry about.”

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Alex Atamanenko comments on FATCA in the Boundary Sentinel, Feb 11, 2014, (found and passed along by bubblebustin): “Alex Atamanenko . . .all Canadian citizens should be entitled to constitutional rights to privacy and fair taxation“.

His description is straight forward and easy to understand of what FATCA is, who in Canada would be tainted as ‘US Person’ and how that will affect them — and their country.

Consider the implications for those Canadians deemed “U.S. Persons” and for the Canadian economy of the following:

– savings and investments of more than $200,000 ($400,000 for couples) must be reported to the IRS
– homes valued at more than $250,000 are considered foreign investment and are liable for U.S. capital gains tax on the appreciated value when sold
– possible double taxation on wills and estates
– higher Canadian tax (financial planners advise clients to divest themselves of Canadian mutual funds and direct their investments to U.S. sources).
– annual reporting requirements are complex and expensive – even when no taxes are owed, legal and accounting fees can amount to thousands
– erosion of the tax base in Canada as investments and retirement security funds shrink

It’s another of the resources I’ll pass along to others.

See http://alexatamanenko.ndp.ca/ for other FATCA information on his “Issues Blog”.

UPDATE #3, February 12, 2014, CORRESPONDENCE TO CARP / ZOOMER:

From: caroltapanila
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 3:01 PM
To: Michael Nicin
Subject: Re: Your announcement of your “advocacy” for FATCA (which is combined with US citizenship-based taxation)

Mr. Nicin,

If CARP / Zoomer is true to its word that they will follow the FATCA issue, you might want to keep up to date on how FATCA, combined with US citizenship-taxation law, can affect unaware Canadian snowbirds and their time spent away from the US when they spend winter months in the US, how they handle their US property when are in Canada, etc. Some of them have commented in news stories that they’ve been told the US will change their laws to accommodate them and the time they can stay in the US for no tax consequences. They shouldn’t be so sure. Canadian snowbirds, if they are not careful and now that their comings and goings will be recorded at the border, may want to take a page from the FATCA IGA give-away that Canada just negotiated with the US. It only proves their trust should not be given so easily to the governments of either country. It is oh so easy for Canadian snowbirds to be another group that the US will define ‘US Persons in Canada’. They can protect themselves and their interests if they do their homework to be in the know and are not careless. It is your job to advise them. I wrote to Zoomer on this subject when there was a misleading article in their “advertising” for snowbirds. Again, I never got a response.

Consider:

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From: caroltapanila
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:33 PM
To: Prime Minister Stephen Harper ; Minister James Flaherty ; Kevin.Shoom@fin.gc.ca ; Michelle.Rempel@parl.gc.ca
Cc: Murray.Rankin@parl.gc.ca ; thomas.mulcair@parl.gc.ca ; Elizabeth.May@parl.gc.ca ; scott.brison@parl.gc.ca ; Ted.Hsu@parl.gc.ca ; Abby Deshman, CCLA ; J. Paul Dube ; peggy.nash@parl.gc.ca ; Justin Trudeau ; James Fitz-Morris ; Patrick Cain ; Amber Hildebrandt, CBC ; Mike.Sullivan.P9@parl.gc.ca
Subject: If you have time, does this seem paranoia to you? How many US Persons in Canada do you know?

My Canadian Government Representatives,

We have a whole lot of stories to tell. That we are afraid to come forward and tell them in fear for ourselves and our families (fear which I still, or even more so now have that I have come forward) is a story in itself.

Every Canadian MP, our government representatives, must intimately know ALL aspects of FATCA and must know their US Person constituents stories. Blowing us off with no discussion, no answers to our questions is not appropriate. They are to represent me and my family. Their knowledge of FATCA, US citizenship-based taxation, how it wreaks collateral damage to so many of Canada’s population, the complicity of the Canadian government in draining the resources from Canada’s treasury, the cost to every single Canadian. If I don’t know that plus have their full support that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will continue to protect ALL Canadians, then my vote will not have been earned.
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As MPs tell their constituents what a good deal Canada’s IGA signing with the USA is, I am posting this so others can consider.

I will have to read this a few more dozen times to get my head around it.

“In FATCA-Land, a Canadian Trust is a Bank” Published on February 10, 2014 at 10:03, by Roy A Berg JD, LLM

Roy Berg’s conclusion is:

Conclusion

“I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Non-US trusts occupy an unenviable position in FATCA-Land. Most will be classified as Financial Institutions and therefore will have to carefully navigate the vagaries of domestic and international law in order to avoid the consequences of inadvertent non-compliance. The Canada-United States IGA goes a long way to mitigate the compliance cost and consequences of non-compliance but, as noted, some clarifications are required.

Just as Alice couldn’t go back to the person she once was, neither can we go back. FATCA has changed the global banking, business and tax landscape – and more changes will follow.

February 17, 2014 UPDATE – my email regarding this: Help, I Want to Expatriate But They Won’t Let Me, Part 2

AngloInfo, Virginia La Torre Jeker J.D.: “Help! I Want to Expatriate, but They Won’t Let Me…..Part I”

My comment on this tax blog post regarding what will be discussed in Part 2:

calgary411 says:
February 10th, 2014 at 21:07

As a comment to me at isaacbrock some time ago: (https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/06/29/accidental-americans-born-abroad-to-us-parents-and-not-registered-with-the-us-are-they-automatic-us-citizens-or-do-they-have-a-right-to-claim-us-citizenship-when-they-can-make-that-decision-as-an/comment-page-2/#comment-412753)
quote:
This is what is so disappointing and disturbing about this posting and string: My late friend, Andy Sundberg, founder of American Citizens Abroad, worked tirelessly during the 70s and 80s to change US law to be much more inclusive than it had been. One of the reasons was his daughters were born effectively “stateless”; he, an American, his wife, a Frenchwoman, gave birth to their daughters while living in Switzerland. He found that there were quite literally tens of thousands of people in similar circumstances.

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Again, cross-posting from Maple Sandbox this relevant information:

http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/canadian-government-proposing-changes-to-citizenship-act/

According to several sources this morning, our government is going to be announcing changes to our citizenship act today. I think we will all be anxiously waiting to see how this affects us.

( links at Maple Sandbox article )

Conservatives set to announce ‘comprehensive’ changes to Citizenship Act

“Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander will detail the changes at a Toronto news conference. The government is calling the overhaul the first comprehensive reform to the Citizenship Act in more than a generation. Alexander recently said the government planned to implement new rules that will ensure Canadian citizenship “has value.” Among the reported changes is one that would allow Ottawa to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals in “extreme cases,” such as in cases of treason or acts of terrorism.Alexander also suggested recently the government will try to give citizenship to those who have been wrongfully denied it in the past, such as the children of war brides.”

Don’t know about anyone else, but I am very afraid, considering how they caved so absolutely yesterday.