Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

In recent testimony before the Canadian House of Commons Finance Committee, Queen’s University law professor Arthur Cockfield testified the American Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) “is really a sea change” in the long-standing tax information exchange relationship between Canada and the United States.

Historically, the neighbouring nations exchanged information on temporary residents in each country. The FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) requires Canada to provide information on permanent residents of Canada, including Canadian citizens who were born in the United States.

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I have sad news to impart: On June 2, 2014, Don Whiteley passed away. See his obituary in the Vancouver Sun.  He was a great ally from the journalistic community, and he will be greatly missed.

See also some of his articles:

The accidental Kenyan: What would happen if the African nation copied U.S. tax policy?

@BCBusiness Gets the Canadian #FATCA Capitulation story right! By Don Whiteley

Will Canada’s hard line on Eritrea’s ‘diaspora’ tax apply to the U.S.?

IRS wants Canada to nab U.S. tax cheats: Why we should care

Well, it really IS beginning. Three weeks from tomorrow, FATCA begins. Apparently our compatriots in Mexico are about to be hit in a very big way.

None has been so far reaching as this notice sent to US citizens who have accounts at Banamex USA in Mexico this week, however.

Banamex USA’s parent, Banamex, is the second largest bank in Mexico and there are over 1 million US citizens living in Mexico, by far the largest amount of any country, and so this news will be felt over a very widespread area.

Notices have begun to be sent by Banamex USA, a bank operating in Mexico and used by many American expats in Mexico, to all US citizens notifying them that their accounts will be closed within 30 days.

Here, here and here you will find three separate online discussions surrounding Banamex USA’s summary closure of American’s accounts.

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Strong language from the Globe and Mail’s Barrie McKenna:

It’s the first bit of goods news in a while for a large group of Canadians who until now have felt targeted by their country of birth and abandoned by their country of choice.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:s.00887:

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As of June 5th. No press coverage to date

BREAKING NEWS: Murray Rankin’s Assistant just advised they expect the vote on the Omnibus Bill C-31 in the House of Commons Monday, June 9 following Question Period.

She said:

The NDP moved report stage deletions to the budget, including deletions to every section pertaining to FATCA, so those will be voted on, followed bny the vote on the budget itself. It is expected that the Conservatives will vote down all of our amendments to delete.

I will keep you updated. And we will continue to work to advocate for all those caught up in the FATCA net!

Please feel free to share the NDP petition.

Cross-posted from Maple Sandbox

I imagine most of us are rather disenchanted about any more submissions to/appearances before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance but just in case anyone doesn’t feel it is totally hopeless yet….

Ottawa, June 06, 2014 –

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance has launched its pre-budget consultation process, and is inviting Canadians to participate. A report on the 2014 consultations will be tabled in the House of Commons prior to the December 2014 parliamentary adjournment. Suggestions made by Canadians and the pre-budget report compiled by the Committee will be considered by the Minister of Finance in the development of the 2015 federal budget.

“I am very pleased to be announcing the 2014 pre-budget consultations,” said Mr. James Rajotte, M.P. for Edmonton-Leduc and Chair of the House Finance Committee. “The Committee encourages the input of Canadians in this process, and invites individuals to provide a written submission with their proposals for the forthcoming budget.”

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First, don’t you love this photo of her at The Sandbox Project in Ottawa yesterday? Elizabeth, you have an open invitation to play with us at Maple Sandbox anytime!

Thanks to Hazy for finding Elizabeth’s comments in Hansard June 4, 2014

Elizabeth May: The piece my hon. friend from Victoria mentioned is the most controversial. It will certainly be the piece that will cause the greatest grief to this administration. It could cause real grief and hardship for about a million Canadians who may find themselves swept up, not as U.S. citizens, but described as U.S. persons.

I refer again to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. This is unusual in a lot of ways. My friend from Victoria and I are both lawyers. I no longer practise in a way which anyone would notice. I am not a practising lawyer. I am not insured to practise law, but I know my legal principles.

It is certainly remarkable that U.S. legislation has been accepted in Canada as having extraterritorial application. Canada is prepared to say okay. I do not know if this would be allowed if, say, Iran decided to pass legislation to say that anyone with an Iranian connection in Canada had to be treated differently than other Canadians.

In the case of the United States and this piece of legislation, it is based on the implementation of something called the Intergovernmental Agreement, or IGA. Obviously, the United States is our greatest trading partner and closest friend. This is nothing against the United States, but as a matter in principle of law, one nation’s laws do not apply extraterritorially to citizens of other countries. In this case, we have agreed, as though it were a treaty, to implement the IGA.

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It worked when we all went crazy sending emails and letters to our MPs and other political representatives. The NDP, some of the Liberals, and the Green Party, not only heard our messages, but acted on them (Murray Rankin, Nathan Cullen, Charlie Angus, Ted Hsu, Scott Brison, and Elizabeth May to mention a few).

The Conservatives, although consistently toeing the party line, probably have many members who ‘get it’, only because WE kept the pressure up.   Yet, regardless of all the noise we have made, the FATCA enabling legislation is being rammed through parliament, and though we may be unable to stop that,  we have been successful because THEY HEARD US.  There are no excuses now, for the Conservative government or the banksters. We have all their weak arguments documented in parliament and senate sessions, letters,  emails,  and articles. They can never claim ignorance now.

One of the things that has always been one of our biggest challenges is to educate average Canadians about the impact of FATCA on directly affected Canadians, deemed ‘US persons’, as well as on ALL Canadians.  FATCA is complicated; banks and government hide the truth, and although there has been some excellent media coverage, it has been sporadic and overshadowed with an abundance of the ‘FATCA is about rich US tax cheats’ meme.

We can’t give up on getting the  message out there.  Canada Day, and FATCA D-DAY are fast approaching.  Perhaps this is  a perfect time to have a “Letter to the Editor Blitz” playing on the emotions surrounding the national pride and celebrations of this time of the year.  Don’t worry about crafting the perfect letter.  The point is to inundate  newspapers with your personal letters about the little known US law that is about to change Canada  forever.  I encourage everyone to write to their local major and small newspapers now before Canada Day celebrations start.   One ‘crazy’ lady, writing to a couple newspapers, will likely go unheard, but if we all do it, they will not ignore us!