Author Archives: Tim

Will their fellow Minister Jim Flaherty follow Hogg’s advice on FATCA too? While we are at it why not submit the text of the US model 1 FATCA IGA for a Supreme Court of Canada reference?

http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/news-nouv/nr-cp/2013/doc_32973.html

The  Honourable Peter MacKay, P.C., Q.C., M.P. for Central Nova, Minister of Justice  and Attorney General of Canada, announced today the steps the Government has  taken to clarify certain eligibility criteria of Supreme Court Justices.

A Reference will  be launched by the Attorney General of Canada, in the Supreme Court of Canada,  relating to appointments to the highest court. Declaratory provisions have also  been introduced to the Supreme Court Act.

“Our Government will defend the eligibility of  longstanding members of the bar in all provinces and territories to sit on the highest court in Canada,” said  Minister MacKay. “Longstanding members of the Quebec  bar should be,  and are under  the law,  treated the same as  lawyers  in other provinces and territories in Canada.”

According to the  legal opinion of former Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie, whose professional  recommendation was sought before the appointment of Justice Nadon, someone who has been an advocate of the Quebec bar for at least ten years at any time during their career is  qualified to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.  This view was also supported by both former  Supreme Court of Canada Justice, the Honourable Louise Charron, and noted  constitutional expert PETER HOGG.

http://www.investmentexecutive.com/-/your-american-clients-and-the-irs?redirect=%2Fsearch

While canadian financial services institutions scramble to prepare for the new U.S. law that requires them to report on accounts held by their American customers, those clients may need a helping hand now.

The new regime starts next summer. For the estimated one million Americans in Canada, this new law means it will be almost impossible to remain off the radar of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) any longer. As a result, your American clients may be panicking and in need of advice and reassurance.

That’s also partly because many such clients have been in denial for some time. But that denial is now a recipe for trouble. “For people who aren’t filing [their U.S. tax returns and] thinking, ‘I’m a small fish; they’re never going to get me’,” says Christine Perry, a lawyer with Keel Cottrelle LLP in Toronto who specializes in cross-border tax law, “I think that’s just a naive way of looking at it. Their accounts will be reportable accounts, and banks will turn over all that information to the [IRS].”

Continue reading →

FATCA comments start at 41:39

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp7sjUYsMNI

http://www.bissresearch.com/blog/fatca-the-end-of-the-beginning/105

FATCA is still with us. Looming over financial services like a great big Golden Eagle, it has been gliding on the hot air of dissension for a few years, but make no mistake the FATCA bird is going to swoop down soon.

Like all regulations which cause industry wide change, FATCA has been taking hits from various jurisdictions around the world, which is the normal response from the finance industry when it comes up against the requirement to invest in technology developments that do not have an obvious business benefit. The tactic is always to rebound back to the inflicting authorities with a myriad of reasons why the laws and rules cannot be implemented, in the hope and expectation that the authorities do not know enough about the market mechanisms or technology to know any different. This has certainly been the case with many regulations that the rest of the developed world has been forced to adhere too. Implementing a global regulation is always a tough call, but in the current economic environment one that had very little chance of being waved through unopposed.

However, the issues that the financial world has with FATCA should not dull the appetite for this regulatory requirement not to be enforced by the revenue authorities across all markets. Indeed the UK has been adopting FACTA like positions already and a UK version of FATCA will no doubt emerge sooner or later. Quite right too in my opinion.

In fact all financial markets worldwide should be made to comply with FATCA, as a kind of test model for a similar requirement to be introduced by their own revenue authority. It is in this way that a global net can be created enabling tax avoidance by the rich and criminal to be eradicated. It’s a small price to pay for financial services firms to buy into the FATCA type projects, which should be viewed as an international development not simply by the will of the USA.

I find it hard to understand the resentment that FATCA has engendered, when in truth it’s a vital piece of tax management that only jeopardises the criminal. The financial markets have to ensure that they are seen as strong and resilient by working with government tax authorities for the good of all.

Isn’t this a good PR job for the financial services industry to undertake for the benefit of society?

Donald Le Pan, Accidental American

(Source: Wikipedia) Don LePan (born 1954 in Washington, DC) is widely known as a book publisher; he is the founder and president of the academic publishing house Broadview Press. He is also a painter and the author or editor of several books, most notably the dystopian novel Animals.

LePan grew up in Ontario, living variously in Ottawa, Kingston, and Toronto. He received a BA in English Literature from Carleton University in Ottawa and an MA in Renaissance Studies from the University of Sussex, where he studied under A.D. Nuttall; his research on Shakespeare’s plots became the basis for a monograph (The Birth of Expectation). He worked for some years in the 1970s and 1980s for the Canadian branch of Oxford University Press (where he was manager of the College Department from 1979-1982), and from 1982-1985 as a secondary school teacher in rural Zimbabwe with the development agency WUSC. In 1985 he returned to Canada to found Broadview Press, a book publisher in the humanities and social sciences. By 2010 Broadview had grown to a company with annual revenues of over $3 million and a staff of 25.^[1] Though modest in size, the publishing house is held in high regard, particularly as a publisher of anthologies and literary editions; in 2004 LePan was awarded an honorary doctorate by Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario for his contribution to academic publishing.^[2]

LePan’s father, Douglas LePan, was well-known as a poet and academic; his brother, Nicholas Le Pan, is well-known as a Canadian civil servant (he is a former head of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions).

Nicholas LePan (Canadian citizen and brother of Donald LePan)

Mr. Nicholas D. Le Pan is an Independent Director of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, since February 2008. Mr. Le Pan is a Corporate Director with experience in financial services matters. Mr. Le Pan served as Superintendent of Financial Institutions for Canada from 2001 to 2006 and as Deputy Superintendent, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Canada (OSFI) from 2000 to 2001. From 1997 to 2000, Mr. Le Pan acted as Deputy Superintendent (Supervision) where his duties included oversight of the supervision programs for banks and other deposit-taking institutions. Mr. Le Pan has been in international and Canadian regulatory coordination efforts, including representation as Chairman of the Basel Accord Implementation Group and Vice Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. He is also Chair of the Canadian Public Accountability Board, which oversees auditors of public companies, and Chair of the Independent Review Committee of Brandes Investment Funds. Mr. Le Pan holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Economics from Carleton University and a Master of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Toronto.

http://www.iiroc.ca/news/Documents/FAS2013_FATCA_JRando.pdf

Take note of slide #7

Canadian tax legislation and regulations will be changed to require due diligence on existing accounts, new account opening procedures and reporting by all “Reporting Financial Institutions” unless they are specifically listed as exempt or unless they meet criteria to be “deemed compliant”

http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2013/10/08/FATCA-seminar-hears-of-stiff-penalties/

Acknowledging the welter of detail and difficulties in the law, part of 2010’s Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, Mr. Cantor said the only people that like FATCA are lawyers and accountants.

“From the perspective of a U.S. international tax attorney, we love FATCA for four reasons: complexity; uncertainty, with all the changes since 2010; change, with all the amendments and reforms to the law; and fear-mongering,” Mr. Cantor said.

“One man told me it was the end of Western civilization as we know it,” Mr. Cantor said, explaining that “No, FATCA is aimed at foreign financial institutions and other financial intermediaries to prevent tax evasion by U.S. citizens and residents through use of offshore accounts.”

Audible despair gripped the hundreds of audience members when Mr. Cantor described eight IRS and Treasury Department forms required by the agency, followed by another five that might be needed.

Penalties are stiff for not filing, he said. For example, falsifying or failing to submit Treasury Department Form 90-22.1 could draw a $500,000 fine and up to 10 years for in prison. Tax evasion, he said, is liable to a $250,000 fine and up to five years. Failing to file a tax return attracted a $100,000 fine and up to one year imprisonment.

Following the presentation, Mr. Cantor, alongside Mr. McTaggart and KPMG partner and “head of tax” Doug Harrell, heard an hour of eager audience questions, most related to complex personal circumstances.

Mr. Cantor told one interlocutor that renouncing U.S. citizenship is unlikely to be effective: “First, you have to have another passport before you can do that. You cannot be stateless.”

An “exit tax” would also apply, he said, describing a law that “started when a certain resident here [Cayman] came from Belize.” Someone seeking to expatriate themselves, he said, could be forced to sell their assets, relinquish any trusts and pay state taxes.

“Until the State Department gives you a certificate [of expatriation], you cannot relinquish your passport, not until all your taxes are paid.”

https://www.facebook.com/events/1378041625754057/?ref=22

Join CEO of the SACC, Martin Naville, and world leading experts on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) for an entertaining panel discussion on FATCA, and its implications on US and foreign persons, individuals as well as corporate.

Topics addressed (not for tax experts only):…

–  What will FATCA bring the US Treasury in additional revenues?

–  Do these revenues justify the enormous costs corporations are facing in order to implement this legislative rule?

–  Will these rules jeopardize other country’s privacy rights? What about my own privacy?

–  Will FATCA make me want to renounce my US citizenship?

Venue: UBS
1285 Avenue of the Americas, Conference Room 14th Fl
New York, NY 10019

Time:
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Fee:
US $ 30.00 Member, US $ 50.00 Non-Member

Additional Information:
RSVP: Tina Ross
e-mail (tross@sbsny.org)
Phone (212) 246-0655 ext. 201

Dress code: Business attire

Please see the official invite here:
http://www.amcham.ch/events/downloads/130930_NY_the_empire_strikes_back_us_tax_reporting.pdf

http://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/Myth-vs-FATCA.aspx

Myth vs. FATCA: The Truth About Treasury’s Effort To Combat Offshore Tax Evasion

From:  Senators Call On Treasury Secretary To Sanction Russian Banks That Are Helping Syrian Regime

Here is the full text of the letters of four US Senators:

Dear Secretary Lew:

We write to urge the Department of the Treasury to designate those Russian banks that have helped enable Syria to avoid the effects of sanctions.  In our view, these institutions are complicit in prolonging the brutal conflict in Syria and should be barred from the U.S. financial system.

According to numerous reports, banks such as VTB, Vneshekonombank, and Gazprombank are carrying on “business as usual” with Syria, and have repeatedly undermined American, European Union, and United Nations sanctions.  Such activities have reportedly included Venesekonombank’s facilitating Syrian payments for S-300 missile batteries, VTB’s holding President Assad’s personal funds, and Gazprombank’s making payments for crude oil.

Russian bank support violates international sanctions by enabling Syria to pay for imports and receive funds for exports.  This assistance eases much of the financial burden on the Assad regime, allowing it to continue military purchases and pay the soldiers that sustain the war in Syria.

Most of the international community has banded together in the face of Assad’s cruel war to isolate his regime. The financial lifeline offered by Russia’s state-owned banks undermines Executive Orders 13582, 13573, and 13608. We urge the Office of Foreign Assets Control to vigorously pursue all violations of the U.S. sanctions regime, designating any and all Russian individuals and entities found to be in non-compliance.

We write to you mindful that there is clear and compelling evidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons to brutally murder over 1000 Syrians, including hundreds of children. It is now more critical than ever that you swiftly designate those financial institutions that have profited from violating sanctions to prop up the Syrian regime.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.

Sincerely,

Kelly Ayotte, United States Senator

Richard Blumenthal, United States Senator

John Cornyn, United States Senator

Jeanne Shaheen, United States Senator