Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2014/07/18/sanders-bill-targets-corporate-deserters/12847561/

At the ACA event in Toronto someone asked whether the State of Vermont and its residents were somehow more “pro Canada” than the rest of the United States. I just laughed. Hell no.

Perhaps though Senator Sanders(and former Mayor of Burlington, VT) might enjoy if the one and only natural gas pipeline that services Vermont(running from Montreal to Burlington, VT) were to be “shut off” on the Canadian side on the coldest day of next winter.  Senator Sanders might start discovering some new definitions of patriotism.

Peter MacKay’s CANADA’S Privacy Deficit Turned These Lives Upside Down

…
Recently we’ve seen a number of disturbing stories come to light that underline just how important this campaign is. It can sometimes be difficult for everyday Canadians to see privacy as an issue that impacts their everyday lives — when in fact the human consequences of privacy breaches can be immense.

Here are just a few concrete examples of Canadians who’ve had their lives turned totally upside down because of this government’s privacy deficit.
…

No mention of omnibus Bill C-31 implementation of FATCA in Canada, erasing privacy rights for *US Persons in Canada* as their Canadian “foreign financial institutions” and the Canada Revenue Agency become arms of the U.S. IRS to turn over their private financial information to a foreign country.

Huffington Post where this article appears requires commenters through Facebook.

Author: David Christopher, @dchristopher_bc

PR guy, history grad and politics geek – from Ireland, now living in Vancouver in beautiful British Columbia. Tweets are my own, RTs are not endorsements.

From bubblebustin (and I now see originally from Eric) to us:

Can someone make a separate post for the NTA’s latest report to Congress? You can sense of urgency and frustration in her words when she states her concerns for Americans living abroad. The situation is already dire. FATCA will be an unmitigated disaster for both us and the IRS. FATCA must be repealed.

IRS Responses and National Taxpayer Advocate’s Comments Regarding Most Serious Problems Identified in 2013 Annual Report to Congress

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.

Some of you might know that Lynne Blaze has a pre-existing medical condition. Unfortunately, Lynne just sustained a serious injury to her shoulder and won’t be fighting the FATCA fight for awhile.

She cannot predict where she will be in the immediate future and I expect that she will not be able to communicate with us for some time.

We all know Lynne’s determination to make our lives better. Her spirit shines through her pain.

Lynne asked me to pass on to us the following poem:

Lynne Blaze gave Stephen a call
Lynne Blaze had a great fall

Her Sandbox and Brock friends
Hope Lynne will be put back together again.

Yes, Lynne will be put back together again, but she will be missing in action for awhile. All of us wish her the best and her quick return to fight the FATCA fight once again.

Dear Lynne / Blaze,

Sorry it took a bad fall to slow you down…

We’re wishing you a speedy recovery —

and maybe an admin assistant and a cook and housekeeper to help.

from your many friends at Isaac Brock Society and Maple Sandbox,

TAKE SPECIAL CARE!

We got an anonymous tip in our ADCS-ADSC.ca email letting us know that we have made it to the big time.

Go to the Wikipedia page about FATCA and scroll down to “Opposition” – we are listed just under the entry about James Bopp, superlawyer.

There is a link to our website there. Thank you anonymous tipper and thank you anonymous editor in Wikipedia who added us.

The Isaac Brock Society and Maple Sandbox are also listed 🙂

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.