I thought it might interesting to go through the Government of Canada Travel Expense reports and see WHOM and how often do various Canadian Government officials deal with the US Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service.
How are some of the more interesting travel logs:
Terrance McCauley Assistant Commissioner Compliance CRA visit to IRS National Office Washington, DC May 7th 2012
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/xpnss/mcauley2/2012/q2/3265t1-eng.html
Given that some individuals here may some day be heading for the Supreme Court of Canada I thought it might be interesting to post a video showing what oral pleading in front of the court are like for an attorney doing it for the first time.(In all deference to lower courts in Canada I suspect “FATCA” related legal issues will only be decided in their finality by the SCOC). It might also take off some of the “heat” after the recent controversies we have had here on the site.
Q Canada opposes the planned U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) aimed at American tax evaders in this country. Explain your concerns?
A FATCA is the poster child for the problem of extra-territoriality. One can understand the rationale. They want to cut down on tax evasion. Fine. We understand that and are sympathetic to that. It’s the way they have chosen to go about doing it which is a real problem. It’s hugely unworkable. It extends U.S. territoriality into Canada. It threatens to erode Canadian sovereignty. Ultimately … FATCA would have turned individual banks, individual financial institutions, into arms of the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] in the United States. If FATCA came through in its current form, before a Canadian citizen could open up a bank account at a Canadian bank, you would have to prove you were not an American citizen.
I thought this article might be interesting to some of you:
Ted Cruz the new Republican nominee for US Senate in Texas happens to have been born in Calgary and lived there for several years(I happen to believe even under Canadian nationality law of the era he is a dual citizen). Additionally Cruz was personally endorsed by several other “Tea Party” Senators including three of the four recent authors of that FATCA letter to Geithner(Jim DeMint, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul).
I will also note that all of the Washington “establishment” journalists are quite upset with Cruz’s victory complaining he is “hardliner” who will “gum up” the US Senate along with Rand Paul, Jim Demint, and Mike Lee.
http://www.niagaraadvance.ca/2012/07/27/baird-rejects-us-nexen-concerns
Key Quotes:
A senior U.S. senator has called for a hard line on a state-owned Chinese company’s takeover bid for Canadian oil company Nexen, but Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird refuses to be pushed into anything.
“Decisions about the Canadian economy or about our economic relationship with China will be made in Ottawa, not in Washington or in New York,” Baird said on Friday.
His comments come after Sen. Chuck Schumer — a top New York Democrat — wrote to the U.S. treasury secretary about China National Overseas Oil Corporation’s (CNOOC) proposed $15.1-billion takeover of Nexen.
Schumer says Nexen’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico — U.S. territory — account for about 10% of its business, so any takeover by a foreign buyer would be subject to review.
Baird says he has “great respect” for Schumer, but doesn’t know if the U.S. can block the CNOOC-Nexen deal.
The minister also refused to link the Nexen takeover to securing greater access to the Chinese market.
“Obviously we’d like to see less trade barriers, more trade, more free trade that is unencumbered,” he said. “We will continue to pursue that independently of this decision.”
The FATCA IGA has been released by HM Treasury this morning. A couple of comments: This type of legislation being proposed to be enacted by the UK Government in Canada would be outright Charter violation. The UK admits to the agreement not being reciprocal and in fact the information UK will be getting from the US is basically the same as Canada is already receiving. David Cameron and George Osborne are also total losers.
Here is the quote from George Osborne:
Welcoming the publication of the model, George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said:
“We need to be as tough on tax evasion abroad as we are at home. The Model Agreement constitutes an important step in tackling international tax evasion. We have achieved substantial changes to how FATCA will be implemented that will provide significant benefits to UK financial institutions while strengthening our ability to tackle the evasion of UK tax. I look forward to the prompt conclusion of our bilateral negotiations and the signing of our agreement with the United States.”
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/joint_intl_statement_fatca_260712.pdf
http://www.noozhawk.com/article/072112_mark_shields_denise_rich_u.s._citizenship/
Just to provide some background Mark Shields is big time “insider” journalist and has been for years. In many ways the current problems the United States is having is because of Washington “insiders” like Mark Shields. He is everything wrong with Washington.
Canada’s response dare I say has not been all that great.
According to a leaked copy of the UN report, which was expected to be released this week, at least some of Eritrea’s military financing comes from its consulate in Toronto, which levies a dubious 2% income tax on members of the diaspora.
“According to a recent Royal Canadian Mounted Police assessment, which is consistent with the Monitoring Group’s own findings, refusal to pay the tax often results in denial of service or threats against, or harassment of, family members still residing in Eritrea, or possible arrest of the individual should they travel to Eritrea without paying the taxes alleged to be owing,” it said.
The report recounted the case of a man who had immigrated to Canada from Eritrea. Before he could become a permanent resident, Canadian immigration authorities required him to present a valid Eritrean passport.
Since he didn’t have one, he had to apply at the Eritrean consulate in Toronto. But the consulate told him he would first have to pay a tax, which included a contribution to the “Eritrean defence fund.”
When the man responded that he was willing to pay the 2% tax but not the money for the military budget, the consulate refused to renew his passport. He pleaded with Canadian immigration officials, arguing that he would be violating the UN arms embargo if he gave money to the Eritrean military, but they insisted he had to provide a valid passport. He “had no choice but to pay the entire sum,” the report said.
Not that interesting but wanted to give everyone a heads up.
I found a pretty good research paper back from 1997 describing the old Filipino system of of citizenship based taxation and the impact of the Canada Philippines Tax Treaty. Like the US Canada Treaty the Filipino treaty had/has a “savings clause” allowing the Philippines to tax its citizens living in Canada on Canadian source income. The paper suggests a route to bringing a charter challenge to get the treaty thrown out on the basis of equality of citizenship (something we have talked a lot about here). This is big very big. I am going to try to track down the author of this paper.
Double taxation: Riding on the backs of Filipino export labour, by Genevieve Hamada-Plank , Ottawa Law Review / Revue de droit d’Ottawa 29 (1997-98) 395-423.
