The OECD has released its “Common Reporting Standard,” a.k.a. a global “Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information.” The plan more or less tracks the so-called “intergovernmental agreements” (IGAs) that the US Treasury is using to try to get the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act working. But the OECD’s model for the world differs in two critical respects:
1 it is based on the global standard of residence-based taxation
2 it would require reciprocity
Readers of my prior work (on soft law, on the OECD’s norm-creating role, and on its grappling with the issue of sovereignty) will know that I am cautious about the premise of accepting proclamations of the OECD about “global” tax norms.
In the case of residence-based taxation, however, this is not an OECD-created norm but one that dates to the very beginnings of modern income taxation and while flawed is the best available structure if more than one country in the world is going to have an income tax and people are going to be allowed to leave their countries freely if they so choose. Relax either of those assumptions and legal status-based taxation might become technically feasible, though it would still be fundamentally unjust. Neither is the reciprocity norm an OECD invention: instead, its roots trace back to post-Westphalian fundamental international legal principles.
The OECD’s forging ahead with a plan that more or less relies heavily on US acceptance is eerily reminiscent of the last OECD attempt to curb tax evasion, via the harmful tax practices initiative. The US first supporting and then completely reversing course eviscerated that effort, thus cementing the status quo we witness today.
US exceptionalism with respect to who should be considered its residents and what it can be compelled to share with other countries cannot help but perpetuate a grave reciprocity imbalance that will only be exacerbated if the US does not sign up to the OECD standard, and the OECD accepts a carve-out to accommodate it.
Given that efforts toward a repeal of FATCA and an ongoing legal challenge to data reporting by US banks are currently unfolding in the US, the OECD’s report comes at an interesting juncture in the process of picking up where the harmful tax practices project left off. It could unfortunately foreshadow a repeat of the events that unfolded in that project circa 2001. Or, more optimistically, it could be that the OECD report is a means of giving the US a reason and the political cover to bring its antiquated status-based tax regime up to date with the global residence-based standard, and its one-sided view of the value of data sharing in line with how the rest of the world views things. That would make global automatic data exchange of offshore financial accounts a much more clearly positive development overall, leaving room to focus on solving the other outstanding issues. Only time will tell which way this will unfold.
http://taxpol.blogspot.ca
Quick Request
Hi
I know we had a problem last time but the new Meetup Group seems to have met all the conditions……Please, could people join? We have 2 new people there and only 4 of us.
http://www.meetup.com/US-Expats-Toronto/
Thanks,
Trishia/nobledreamer
Finance Canada–244 Pages Access to Information
Cross-posted from MapleSandbox with permission
Finance Canada–244 Pages Access to Information
Posted on February 10, 2014 by Blaze
A few months ago, I submitted a request to Finance Canada for records relating to FATCA through Access to Information.
After several delays, I finally received 244 pages about 10 days ago. I’m still awaiting several other pages. I was holding off posting these records so I would not jeopardize the remaining records.
With the signing of the IGA, that concern is now irrelevant, so I am uploading the pdf documents here. You will notice some pages have been withheld entirely. Other pages have been partially redacted.
James Jatras has seen these and says the Canadians use nifty blackouts where the American just use black magic marker.
So, what have I learned from these documents?
1. Finance Canada has been far more concerned about the banks than they were about Canadians.
2. Canadians are neater at withholding information than Americans.
I also have a request in to Justice. They sent me some information in print, so I can’t post it here. However, the only information they provided was copies of laws, procedures, etc. Essentially everything to date was completely withheld. I am still awaiting more information, but I expect most will be withheld or redacted.
(Note – had to split into 4 parts)
FATCA Update from Access to Info Request_Part1
FATCA-Update-from-Access-to-Info-Request_Part2
Allison Christians on New Canadian-US IGA
Cross-posted from Allison Christians Canada-US Agreement Reached on FATCA Data Sharing
(used with permission)
Things have been exciting the past few days as a long-expected agreement on FATCA between Canada and the US was announced and Canada’s Department of Finance released a flurry of accompanying materials. The US Treasury has now added Canada to the list of jurisdictions deemed to have an agreement in effect. I will have more analysis soon but just wanted to provide some of the most useful links to get things up to speed.
First, here is the text of the intergovernmental agreement–it is not a signed copy unfortunately, which leaves a couple of technical questions unanswered for now. Here is the Press Release from the United States. Here is the Press Release from Canada, and here are explanatory notes to the agreement, a backgrounder”, and an FAQ.
Please Join Our New Meetup Group
Greetings to all,
We really got motivated by the Toronto meeting last Saturday (January 25) and are expanding our resoures to include our own Meetup Group.
Please join and it would probably be helpful to keep your same handle/moniker etc.
This is a good opportunity to help us get the word out to more and more of those who are stuck, or still don’t even know what is happening.
Thanks,
Tricia/nobledreamer
http://www.meetup.com/American-Expats-Abroad/events/162765622/
Hear How #FATCA Impacts Ordinary Canadians on CBC Radio 1
Atticus and Allison Christians will be interviewed tomorrow by Anna Maria Tremonti on “The Current” on CBC Radio 1 at 8:30 am.
Please be sure to listen.
Can anyone record this?
Official Press Release for Toronto Protest, November 13 & 14
Here is our official press release regarding the upcoming protest in Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, November 13 & 14. Thanks to Lynne & Peter!
Wednesday, November 13, 2013 a.m. Update:
Peter and Stephen are on site and have been they would be arrested if they entered building and tried to leave CBA letters — “comments about CBA are inflammatory.”
Inflammatory is: “… the goal of this conference is to teach them how to navigate the compliance ‘hurdles’ in a session called ‘Preparing to Implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)..”
Canada’s Banks: Would they Sacrifice Charter and Privacy Rights to Comply with Extraterritorial U.S. Tax Law?
November 12, 2013
For Immediate Release
TORONTO – U.S. Treasury officials are engaged in a financial attack on millions of law-abiding Canadians and Canada’s banking industry appears ready to help them win.
An open letter sent today to Terry Campbell, President of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA), urges him and his association to abandon their policy of capitulation to unreasonable U.S. demands and instead defend the rights of Canadians everywhere. The letter is a collaborative effort of Canadians from coast to coast. Most are participants at the Isaac Brock Society and Maple Sandbox websites at which the letter is posted online. Continue reading
Press Release for Ottawa Protest October 16, 2013
Please click on the link for the press release. This is a separate post in order to make it accessible outside of the long thread.
Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s RIGHTS WATCH CONFERENCE in Toronto September 20-21, 2013
I just noticed this while looking at FB timeline. Perhaps of interest to those who live in the area.
Each year the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s RightsWatch Conference brings together a wide variety of stakeholders and community members, including academics, public officials, lawyers, students and interested members of the public for an intimate conference. This year CCLA is pleased to partner with Ryerson University’s Office of the Vice President, Research and Innovation, the Ryerson Journalism Research Centre, and the Ryerson Law Research Centre to present Civil Liberties and Democracy in the Digital Age: Privacy, Media and Free Expression. There will be a series of discussions on the impact that new technologies and modes of communication have on legal and societal understandings of privacy, freedom of expression and the media. We are planning panels on surveillance, anonymity and expression in ‘public’ space, freedom of the press and the citizen journalist, the application of constitutional guarantees of privacy to new communications technologies, access to information and ‘open’ government, and privacy and expression in the private sector.
Join us Friday, September 20, 2013 for an evening keynote and reception, and Saturday, September 21, 2013 for a full-day conference.
Notes From the June 15th Meeting in Toronto -“Traumatized by the IRS & the US Reaching into Canada?”
I have received an okay to publish these notes from the Speaker of Part 2 of the meeting that was held in Toronto on June 15. I apologize that they are not in narrative form; I don’t have total memory of all that was said nor did I understand everything that was said and I fear giving the wrong impression if I were to attempt to elaborate. Hopefully, the general sense is correct. I wanted to do them as a separate post so that more might see them; it seems less people will benefit if they were buried as comments only. Many ideas were remembered by commentors on the original post but there are some important ideas that need to come out. The Speaker did an excellent job outlining and organizing a lot of information that many will need as they try to figure out what to do about their own situation. Also, I did not take any notes on the first session as it was my understanding that it was to be completely private and I thought it would be inappropriate for me to do so.