Author Archives: calgary411

CARP: Canadian Snowbirds Might Be Able to Extend Their Stay

Toronto Sun: Canadian snowbirds might get to extend their stay south of the border

WASHINGTON – HIDDEN in a sweeping new American immigration reform bill is one small provision aimed at Canadians — making it easier for grey-haired snowbirds to spend more time in the sun.

The short section — buried in 844 pages of legislation — would boost the consecutive amount of time Canadian retirees can spend south of the border from six months to eight.

Canadian Snowbirds might be able to extend their stay

Canadian retirees may soon be able to stay in the United States for an extra two months, up to a total of eight months per year. The US legislation called Jobs Originated through Launching Travel (JOLT) Act, known to many Canadian snowbirds as the “Canadian Retiree Visa” is currently under review by the US Senate. In addition to the extended stay in the US, legislation would expand access to visa services, improve out-dated visa processing systems, speed up visa processing, and expedite entry for priority visitors as well as establish a visa video conferencing pilot program, if the legislation is passed.

The eligibility requirements for the Canadian Retiree Visa are the following:

Have Canadian citizenship;
Be 55 years of age or older;
Maintain a residence in Canada;
Own a residence in the U.S. or have a rental agreement for the duration of stay;
Will not engage in employment while in the United States; and
Will not seek assistance or benefit.

The Act is part of the United States’ efforts to boost their economy via tourism, and it is attempting to capitalize on the increasing number of Canadian visitors and the business they bring when travelling.

According to Statistics Canada, Canadian residents took 20 million overnight trips to the U.S in 2010, an 11.1% jump from the previous year, and spent $18.2 billion. It is no surprise that the US sees this as an opportunity, but at what costs to Canada and Canadian residents is unknown yet.

While many are happy about this news, Canadians should keep in mind that this Act may affect them, especially with respect to provincial health plans and residency issues for income tax purposes. CARP will seek more information from provincial and federal government, but at the moment it is uncertain whether Canadians will be able to keep their provincial health coverage if they are out of the country for the additional time provided by the JOLT Act. CARP will continue to monitor and report on the JOLT Act and its potential effects on Canadians travellers.

2013 US JOLT Legislation Section – by – Section

As, rightly, suggested by badger for a dedicated post at Isaac Brock:

Jack Townsend’s OPTING OUT, Part 3

and latest comment,

anon5percent

Jack – Good news! I am an OVDI participant who asked to opt out into the Streamlined Program. I have been accepted into the Streamlined Program as a low risk for non-compliance. I have been issued Letter 5062 (acceptance into Streamlined Program) along with a 4549 (tax adjustments – no tax penalties, just interest) and my agent told me today that a Letter 3800 (FBAR Warning) will soon follow.

There is major news associated with this result. It is news that OVDI participants and many tax attorneys will want to know. The news is that the Streamlined Program policy is changing again. It is very much to the favor of OVDI participants. It seems that they are being given the chance to enter the Streamlined Program on the basis of the same years as new Streamlined Program participants. I am a prime example of that. I was a filer who amended returns in OVDI. I thought amending returns made me ineligible for the Streamlined Program. It no longer does. Even Letter 5062 says, “We’ve processed the returns or amended returns you submitted.”

Continue reading →

US Department of Justice News Release, April 30, 2013

Also, Globe and Mail: Justice Dept. targets U.S. accounts at CIBC’s Caribbean wing

It looks like US folks were opening a Wells Fargo account that would then be directed to one of CIBC’s offshore affiliates.

Could be very reasonable reasons for doing this. Perhaps not. All will be mixed in the same pot.

The Justice Department announced that late yesterday a federal court in San Francisco entered an order authorizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a John Doe summons seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who may hold offshore accounts at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB). The order was signed by Senior District Judge Thelton E. Henderson. The IRS summons seeks records of FCIB’s United States correspondent account at Wells Fargo N.A., which will allow the IRS to identify U.S. taxpayers who hold or held interests in financial accounts at FCIB and other financial institutions that used FCIB’s Wells Fargo correspondent account.
Continue reading →

Senator Paul stirs business ire over blocking of U.S. tax treaties

I had this in a comment to the FATCA thread but think more will see it as a post:

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) – Senator Rand Paul is coming under pressure from some multi-national businesses to drop his opposition to tax treaties between the United States and other nations.

Citing privacy concerns about Americans’ tax data, Paul, a Republican and libertarian, has single-handedly blocked Senate action on treaties with Hungary, Switzerland and Luxembourg that have been signed by authorities on both sides, but have been awaiting Senate review since 2011.

Read More at Reuters

Canadians, the ones paying attention including US Persons in Canada worried about compromise of all financial information of their and those related to them being turned over to the US:

Bank fraud, computer security top survey of Canadians’ privacy concerns

The poll suggests two-thirds of Canadians are concerned about the protection of their privacy — with a quarter of respondents saying they are “extremely concerned.”

“There is a growing sense amongst Canadians that their ability to protect their personal information is diminishing,” the report says.

Many Canadians feel a growing sense of helplessness when it comes to protecting their privacy. Seven of every 10 people think their personal information has less protection today than it did a decade ago, the report suggests.

…
The survey also suggests most Canadians are concerned about bank fraud, credit-card fraud, computer security and identity theft.

Despite these concerns, the poll found most Canadians remain largely unaware of their privacy rights. Some 63 per cent rated their knowledge of privacy laws either low or in the neutral range. That said, Canadians’ knowledge of their privacy rights is higher now than in previous years, the survey suggests.

Canada Privacy Breaches: More Than A Million Canadians May Have Had Data Compromised

Prompted by a question from NDP MP Charlie Angus, the government was forced to acknowledge this week that at the very least, there were 1,072,999 instances where a Canadian’s private information held by various departments and agencies was lost, stolen or accessed by an unauthorized third party.

In a stack of documents tabled in the House of Commons Monday, the government admitted it has recorded more than 3,134 data and privacy breaches between 2002 and 2012 across all departments — although many departments only counted data breaches within the last two to five years. Of the total breaches, only 399 were reported to Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart.
…
The Conservative government said Tuesday that it takes the privacy of Canadians seriously.

G-20 Pushes for Measures to End Tax Evasion — NYT’s David Jolly

NY Times journalist, David Jolly (as well as NYT’s Brian Knowlton on related stories) — ahead of the pack on reporting the FATCA, DATCA, GATCA scenario. Can’t other journalists see it?

The Group of 20 countries called on Friday for a coordinated effort to stop international tax evasion, urging governments to systematically share bank data.

Finance ministers and central bankers of the G-20, meeting in Washington, said in a communiqué that automatic exchange of tax-relevant bank information should be adopted as the global standard.
…
Under an automatic exchange, governments would routinely transfer all foreign taxpayers’ data to their home governments, making it far more difficult to hide assets from the tax collector.

The impetus for the new approach is an American law, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, called Fatca, requiring Americans with overseas accounts and non-American financial firms to meet tough financial disclosure requirements. In practice, Fatca conflicts with privacy laws in many countries, so Washington has been working out bilateral deals in which overseas financial institutions share that data first with their own governments for transmission to the Internal Revenue Service in Washington.

The Bitcoin: Bubble or Bank — CBC The Current, April 11, 2013

If the Bitcoin becomes sometime in the near future the new “virtual?” currency as some think, will FATCA keep up?  Will any of us keep up?  Or, will it fail?  I’m trying to understand it all.

Americans in Canada face complex situation

Just Me suggested a separate post of this Star Phoenix (Saskatoon) article that badger highlighted.

I was happy to see the acknowledgement of the problem with account and asset reporting:
…”The problem is not in-come tax. The problems are the punitive IRS penalties and criminal prosecution threats for failure to complete the many required annual information returns.”…

Form 8957 – FATCA Registration Process (DRAFT for public review and comment)

A DRAFT of the FATCA registration form for financial institutions is available by clicking on the following link: Draft Form

Registration Process: The draft form is released here for public review and comment and should not be printed and submitted by a financial institution in an attempt to register for FATCA. FATCA registration can be accomplished most efficiently and effectively through an electronic online process that will avoid the need to print, complete, and mail paper forms. The online registration portal will be available in July 2013. The questions that will be presented in the online process will look very similar to the questions shown on the draft form released here, but they will be presented differently to make electronic completion of the process as simple as possible. Financial institutions registering through the online process will receive notice of registration acceptance and obtain the Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN) needed to demonstrate FATCA compliance on an expedited basis.

Paper alternative: The IRS will also accept registrations that are made on paper forms. Financial institutions should not, however, use the DRAFT form released here to submit a paper registration. A final paper registration form that can be used for registration will be made available in July 2013. Financial institutions, however, are strongly encouraged to use the online registration process after it becomes available in July 2013. Paper registration forms will not be processed until October 2013 and financial institutions may experience a delay in receiving notice of registration acceptance and obtaining the GIIN needed to demonstrate FATCA compliance.
Page Last Reviewed or Updated: 05-Apr-2013