At around 11:00 am this morning, I will turn off the ability to make comments at isaacbrocksociety.ca. Then, thanks to a website developer who has graciously volunteered his time, we will be upgrading the website to a more robust platform. This will enable us to handle more easily the traffic that we have been experiencing.
Please note that if you are absolutely in need of comment fix, that our Facebook page is also available. If you haven’t liked that page, today is a good day.
http://www.scmp.com/business/article/1519835/beijing-urged-comply-foreign-account-tax-compliance-act
Hong Kong financial institutions with mainland affiliates are hoping Beijing signs an agreement with Washington soon on a new US tax disclosure law, because of concerns mainland financial institutions will otherwise find it difficult, if not impossible, to comply with the new law.
We have observed that in China, financial institutions are waiting for more information on an IGA (intergovernmental agreement) before registering [to comply with Fatca],” said Florence Carr, Asia-Pacific Fatca lead at accounting firm EY.
HSBC spokesman Gareth Hewett said it had decided that the whole group should be “Fatca-compliant”.
“Achieving compliance with Fatca by July 1 is a requirement,” he said. “Achieving this is in line with our ambition to be the world’s leading international bank.”
Ralph Nader: Big Credit Suisse’s Sweetheart Deal – OpEd
1. The bank retained its permits and licenses to remain fully operational in the United States.
2. Top management and directors emerged unscathed and were allowed to keep their lucrative positions.
3. State and federal regulators, including the SEC and Federal Reserve, agreed not to take related actions against the bank.
4. Credit Suisse does not have to give the Justice Department and the IRS the names of some 22,000 U.S. customers who engaged in these schemes, citing prohibitive Swiss law, which tough U.S. officials could have challenged with a waiver demand.
Are you worried that you might have inherited “U.S. Personhood” from an American emigrant parent, but never had your status documented and have lived your whole life solely as a citizen of the country where you actually reside? Then you might find this case interesting. Via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Cerrina was born prematurely in 1999 while her mother was visiting Mexico. Both of her parents were American citizens, but due to her early birth and some language difficulties, she wasn’t issued the correct form for babies born to American parents abroad. No one told her mother such a form was needed. When Crissy Foster brought her daughter home to Longview after the birth, the border guard who let them back into America even congratulated her on what he assumed was Cerrina’s automatic dual-citizenship, she said Friday.
But Cerrina didn’t have citizenship anywhere, as her mother soon learned … The United States wouldn’t issue a birth certificate to Cerrina without the correct paperwork from Mexico. And Mexico also didn’t claim her, because by law she was an American. At first the paperwork glitch seemed minor. But her case dragged on. It took a petition to the Mount Vernon School Board and a conference call with then-Congressman Brian Baird just to get Cerrina enrolled in kindergarten. She couldn’t be on her mother’s health insurance policy without a birth certificate, either.
“Anyone else getting the FATCA Call” (from MapleSandbox.ca)
Has anyone received the FATCA call from their bank, investment firm or other financial institution?
Johnnb posted the following under What’s New, but it definitely needs its own thread:
In a previous post I described how my wife and I decided to get our (backdated to 1973) CLNs. We applied in January of 2012 and the CLNs arrived in July 2012. We promptly made copies and gave one to our financial advisor at Scotia McLeod.
UPDATE: Here is the podcast: John Richardson interviewed on AMI “Contact” May 25, 2014.
Tune in this Sunday at 7 and 10 p.m. when Contact examines the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. The US legislation will require American expatriates to report their financial accounts held outside of the United States. This legislation will also require foreign financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service about their American clients.
Some have criticized the legislation as an invasion of privacy and Canadian sovereignty. In some cases, people with Registered Disability Savings Plans are fearful the legislation could adversely affect them.
May 25: Under the controversial US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act all non-US financial institutions, including Canadian banks, must make information known about financial accounts owned by US expatriates. Some have called the legislation an infringement of Canadian sovereignty. Toronto lawyer John Richardson discusses the legislation, its potential impact and his reasons for opposing it.
Hear more. Learn more. This Sunday at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. make Contact …on AMI Audio.
Finally, one country seems to have relocated its testicles and is calling America’s bluff on FATCA reciprocity:
http://rt.com/politics/160764-russian-banks-fatca-ban/
Whatever else one might make of recent events involving Russia, the nation deserves praise for tossing the FATCA live grenade squarely back into the laps of its authors. Russia realizes full well that there will never be reciprocity in any FATCA IGA and that there is thus no reason to surrender Russian sovereignty and to share private banking information with the IRS. There is also increasingly less to fear from the American threat of FATCA sanctions as Russia rapidly expands multilateral trading agreements which bypass the increasingly unfriendly and toxic U.S. dollar. If anything, FATCA is serving as an unintended, yet effective catalyst for a major realignment of global trading currencies which should have occurred years ago.
If only Canada’s pathetic Conservative government would have shown half the intelligence, foresight and resolve of the Russians and refused to capitulate to FATCA’s hollow threats and even hollower promises.
A twitter friend tweeted this article this morning. It is refreshing to hear a non-expat source describe our feelings so well. Kind of like enjoying comfort food on a long, dreary rainy day. Of course the site has a motive for taking this position (investment in precious metals, –Hi Chears! ), but thought you might enjoy anyway.
Excerpts (all emphases mine):
It isn’t for tax reasons that all expats are renouncing their citizenship, for sure, but it is telling that as the July 1 deadline looms for the full implementation of FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), renunciations are sharply on the rise.
The IRS is literally chasing Americans away from their homeland.
Few other countries treat its citizens living abroad as terribly as America does. It is like we have some sort of vendetta against them. Expats are not using our roads. They are not using our schools. They are not being protected by our military. On what possible basis would they owe taxes to the United States if they are living and earning wages abroad? There is no justification, just that the government thinks it can get away with this, so it’s the law. And it’s getting worse.
Summary
All citizens of the United States as well as U.S. resident aliens are required to report their worldwide income for U.S. federal income tax purposes. However, where foreign assets are involved, this is an area in which taxpayers, knowingly or unknowingly, may fail to comply with the law.
There are numerous information reporting requirements involving foreign assets that may assist the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in recognizing a failure to report foreign income; however, both taxpayers and tax preparers may not be fully compliant with filing these forms. Again, this may be more a matter of ignorance of the requirements than any intent to skirt the law.
Neither the reporting requirement imposed by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) nor the Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR) imposed by the older Bank Secrecy Act directly involves reporting income for tax purposes. Instead, each involves reporting the existence of financial assets or accounts located outside of the United States. Although in some cases the same accounts or assets may be reported on each information-reporting form, both forms may be required. Failure to file either form if required may result in significant penalties, in some cases amounting to the entire balance of the unreported account or more. Continue reading
