Author Archives: Deckard1138

Any questions for Mr. Carter?

Dear Member of Democrats Abroad Canada,

Join us for Breakfast with President Jimmy Carter, Honorary Chair of Democrats Abroad, Rosalynn Carter, and their grandson, Jason.

 A great event is happening in Sydney, Australia on Friday, July 18 – (TOMORROW).  A Web Ex Call-In with the Carter Family to support Jason Carter, grandson of Jimmy and Rosslyn, who is running for governor of Georgia.

-Taking back Georgia and other red states would send TREMORS through the national political landscape – mainly in the Republican Party.  Let us do our part and have the added bonus of an incredible opportunity to be in the virtual breakfast chat with the Carters.

One of the great U.S. presidents, President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, will be having a special Conversation via Webex with Democrats Abroad members from Australia. And we’ve all been invited to join in! 

In Canada, it will be like -breakfast with the Carters-, bright and early at 7:30 am EDT: 6:30 am in Central, 5:30 am Mountain and 4 am Pacific time zones!  Really early breakfast! Or if you are a late owl, a late night snack!  But well worth it!

 Here’s the link to donate to the Jason Carter for Governor Campaign, and to sign-up:   http://j.mp/DAcallForJasonCarter         

There’s a special $25 WebEx Guest call-in ticket, but feel free to give more. Once you register, you will be receiving an email with the Webex instructions and also invited to submit a question for the Carters.

Yours in democracy,

Adrienne Jones, Vice Chair, DA Canada / RVC, Americas

Julie Buchanan
Co-Vice Chair-Toronto / Treasurer- DA Canada

This message is paid for by the Democratic Party Committee Abroad

Democrats Abroad

PO Box 15130
Washington, DC 20003
United States

Telephone: +1-202-621-2085

http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/07/17/fatca-remains-vulnerable-despite-implementation/

A hard-hitting new Forbes article by Andrew F. Quinlan.  An excerpt:

FATCA Remains Vulnerable Despite Implementation

Even if by some miracle FATCA survives its current challenges, in several years time Congress will be forced to take it up again as recognition sets in that it simply is not capable of accomplishing its intended goals. For all the acrimony and international financial upheaval it has caused, FATCA is a poor excuse for a solution to tax evasion.

There’s a direct correlation between the severity of a tax code and the level of effort individuals are willing to put into avoiding or evading taxes. Attempting to address the latter while ignoring the former is a fool’s errand. It’s the fiscal equivalent of the war on drugs – a costly enforcement-minded solution in which government agencies are always two steps behind their targets. And like the drug war, FATCA will produce considerable collateral damage and invasions on innocent Americans.

Comments encouraged, including a gentle reminder that Canadians have also mounted a domestic legal challenge to FATCA and we that we welcome more such actions around the world.

http://riafan.ru/2014/07/15/27874-briks-vmesto-g7-rossiya-delaet-pravilnyiy-vyibor/

A timely Russian report by Vladimir Vinnikov on the BRICS summit in Brazil, presenting further evidence of the undeniable relationship between FATCA and the accelerating worldwide abandonment of the US dollar.  Or, as the Google-translated article so quaintly puts it, “Cinderella carriage turn into a pumpkin.”

BRICS instead of G7: Russia makes the right choice

Today, in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza in the north-east of the country “in a narrow composition” started VI BRICS summit, which then moves to the capital Brasilia. The main event of the summit, many observers recognize participation in the work of Russian President Vladimir Putin, before he has visited Cuba, Nicaragua and Argentina, and in Brazil spent the eve of the summit, a series of bilateral negotiations – including President Xi Jinping and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

These meetings confirmed that Russia’s position in the international arena, including – and Ukrainian problem – find understanding and support all over the world except the United States and a narrow circle of their closest allies, united in the G7. Therefore we can say that the attempt by the West to isolate Russia and turn it into a pariah state, accusing him of aggression against Ukraine, failed completely.

Moreover, apparently, “expulsion” of the Russian “Big Eight” and return to the U.S. format G7 go down in history of world diplomacy as a classic example of what irreversible error literally doomed recent superpower, are in the decline of its power.

Moreover, irreversibility, and not a coincidence these errors once again proved by the efforts that the United States is applied to force the banks to participate in the world system of financial control FATCA, the introduction of which is estimated to most experts, lead to a massive failure of holders of dollar-denominated assets in U.S. currency.

Continue reading →

http://www.banktech.com/hey-regulators-how-about-more-carrot-and-less-stick–/a/d-id/1297320

UPDATE:  The original article was mysteriously removed today so the link above no longer works.  George, however, located a copy via Google Cache and it is available here for now.  A .pdf text version is also available here.

UPDATE #2 – mystery of the disappearance of original article solved — “there was a problem”.  Lucky for us — George found a copy via Google Cache (see above):

From: Katherine Burger
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2014 8:36 AM
To: caroltapanila
Subject: RE: Article July 16, 2014

Dear Carol – thank you for the note and feedback. However, the article no longer is available – there was a problem and we had to pull it from the site. However, Fred Cook is one of our regular contributors so hopefully there will be new content from him soon.

Kathy

 

Kathy Burger

Editorial Director

Insurance & Technology

Bank Systems & Technology

UBM Tech

O: 212-600-3062 I E: katherine.burger@ubm.com

 

From: caroltapanila
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 6:35 PM
To: Katherine Burger
Subject: Article July 16, 2014

 

Ms. Burger,
Information Week’s Bank Systems and Technology journal had online briefly this morning a very good, very honest article on the Foreign Bank Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) by Fred Cook. The title was:
“Hey, Regulators: How About More Carrot & Less Stick?”

Can I get a copy of that article or can you let me know how I can get in contact with the author, Fred Cook?

 

 

Thanks very much for your assistance in obtaining a copy of the above article.

 

 

Carol Tapanila

Calgary, AB, Canada

*****

Looks like the financial industry is finally realizing that FATCA is no one night stand but rather a shotgun wedding from hell – and the honeymoon is over.

We hear a lot about how the FATCA compliance industry is gleefully raking-in wheelbarrows full of consulting fees to design and commission new data management systems for banks and other financial institutions, but rarely have we heard from those on the inside who have to manage a growing plethora of complex and costly compliance programs.  A scant couple of weeks after FATCA’s inauguration, there are already signs of “FATCA fatigue” setting-in and, perhaps, a belated realization that something is just not ethically or legally right about FATCA.

Here are excerpts from an article by Fred Cook in Information Week’s Bank Systems and Technology journal:

Hey, Regulators: How About More Carrot & Less Stick?

For banks to afford the resources needed to handle today’s regulatory demands, it may be time to discuss changes in compliance enforcement with the regulators.

I do appreciate the need to provide information related to potential criminal activity for the benefit of society at large, but the recent Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) still has me shaking my head. This new regulation requires institutions to report taxable information on US citizens (living in Canada) via the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) to the US government. This means that, when we open accounts in Canada, we’re now required to collect customers’ citizenship details. We also have to ascertain the citizenship of all our current clients, even though citizenship is not a requirement for opening or servicing a financial account. We are also required to report, through the CRA, details of any US citizen living in Canada with account balances of more [than] $50,000. Ironically, until now asking for personal information such as citizenship was in direct violation of Canada’s privacy laws.

How is implementing the overhead of FATCA regulations a benefit to the institution’s business? Is it not just doing the US Internal Revenue Service’s work for it? I would make the same case for tracking deposits larger than $10,000, reporting suspicious transactions, or determining politically exposed people and providing details about them to government and police agencies — for free. Though managing these “offloading” regulatory requirements doesn’t have any direct benefit to managing the bank’s core business, they must be followed to stay in business under threat of substantial fines and criminal charges.

These government and policing agencies have zeroed in on the fact that banking is a necessity, and that the institutions providing these banking services have access to very personal information otherwise not readily available on consumers and their monetary habits. Therefore, my expectation is that our regulations will continue to expand while new ones are added.

Since it is now July, and hotter than a cat on a tinfoil hat, this story may make your temperature rise:

http://www.inquisitr.com/1344871/will-july-be-the-month-the-u-s-dollar-collapses-imf-announces-possibility-through-creepy-message/

We’ll have an update on July – never mind, just watch the video.

http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d35c2f66-5a6d-4612-8a44-a5b507a755d3

Implementation of the FATCA Treaty

The Dutch Ministry of Finance has launched a consultation on a decree implementing the FATCA Treaty. The decree requires Dutch financial institutions to provide information about bank accounts of US tax subjects, and to report financial institutions that do not comply with their FATCA obligations.

The Netherlands and the United States entered into a treaty on the implementation of the FATCA Treaty in December 2013. A bill providing for the ratification of the treaty will be submitted to parliament shortly.

Perhaps someone from the Dutch government should have a little chat with Allison Christians.

The excellent interview by All In A Day’s host Alan Neal with Allison Christians and Kathleen:

http://www.islandsun.com/inter-governmental-agreement-simplifies-fatcas-compliance-premier-says/

Well, you don’t get much bigger than the entire universe:

“The signing of the FATCA IGA is universal… Also, contrary to what others claim, this is not about selling out anything,” Premier Dr. the Hon. D. Orlando Smith announced during a press briefing on 8 July. The BVI Leader made the comment as he announced that Government signed a Model 1B intergovernmental agreement (IGA) in relation to the United States (US) Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) on June 30.

Dr. Smith explained that FATCA is a United States federal law that is universal, and requires United States persons living outside the United States to report, among other things, their income to the US Government.

The BVI Leader further defended the decision to sign on to FATCA by stating: “I said this before and I will say it again, we are doing merely what a responsible government should do:  one, alleviate the burden on its citizens to comply with this universal law; and two, protect our financial services industry by helping the financial institutions to comply with this obligation.”

We’ve been saying for some time that the IRS seeks to tax US Persons no matter where in the universe they live.  This appears to be the first time that a government official anywhere on this insignificant planet has confirmed this fact on-the-record.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/john-baird-warns-eritrean-consulate-over-diaspora-tax-1.2701635?cmp=rss

Only one week after ushering-in FATCA on Canada Day, Canada’s government is warning the Eritrean consulate to stop harassing Eritrean-Canadians or risk closure of its consulate.  Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird made the announcement today in Ottawa (be sure to watch the video as well):

John Baird warns Eritrean consulate over ‘diaspora tax’

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says he has sent a message to the Eritrean consulate to stop collecting a “diaspora tax” from Eritrean-Canadians here or he will order the African nation’s consulate closed.

In response to a question from a reporter in Toronto, Baird said the practice of requiring Eritrean-Canadians to pay a tax at the consulate is “unacceptable.”

“We share the deep concern that Eritrean-Canadians, and others, have for the work that has gone on at the consulate. We’ve repeatedly sent out strong signals that is unacceptable, it’s wrong and will not be tolerated,” Baird said.

“I gave instructions to my deputy minister several days ago to very clearly and unequivocally deliver a strong message that this activity must cease and desist, and if it doesn’t we will close the consulate,” Baird said.

Baird said the messages were sent in “recent days” but did not specify when a shutdown of the consulate might occur.

This is just the most recent action Baird has taken against Eritrean officials in Canada over the practice of requiring expatriates to pay what the UN has condemned as a worldwide “diaspora tax” on its nationals, valued at two per cent of their income. Last year, Baird expelled consul general Semere Ghebremariam O. Micael.

Eritreans here have complained that if they don’t pay the tax, their families back home will suffer consequences.

Fair enough to say that this is certainly one of the most egregiously hypocritical moves the Conservative government has ever made – and there have been far too many to count over the years.  I would love to hear Mr. Baird explain to Canadians how it is acceptable for the United States to impose its infinitely more invasive extraterritorial tax laws in Canada but Eritrea’s paltry amateur-hour 2% shakedown warrants impending closure of its consulate?  Could it be that Mr. Baird is in fact preparing a subsequent announcement that he will be ordering the immediate closure of the US Embassy as well?  Should we give him the benefit of the doubt?

Unfortunately, it does not appear that commenting is possible with this article.  No doubt this story will soon be reported in other outlets so we should all be ready to dig-in.

UPDATE:  Just to be clear, in light of recent comments, whatever the relative differences in scope, scale or sophistication between the Eritrean and U.S. versions of citizenship-based taxation; both are repugnant, immoral and indefensible practices.  Both countries should hang their heads in shame for even pretending that CBT can ever be justified.  The diasporas of both countries should find plenty of common ground here, despite the taunting and ignorance we both have to put up with from so many of our “homelander” cousins.