I thought for old times sake we were overdue for a repost of US President Obama’s official announcement of support for FATCA in 2009. I know many newcomers have not yet seen this video so I thought this might be a good time to re-post
It starts at around just the 16:00 minute mark. I am currently working on trying to get a video clip of just Obama notwithstanding the earlier part of the video with John Richardson’s great presentation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZhcsiuyDuc
Deb says:
…while I wanted to actually mention Harper and the Conservatives, I agree with Chears that that would probably be hard to get submitted.
So I made the ad as generic as I could while still getting the gist. At least I hope so.
The layout is like the one Chears ran and is intended as a starting point. Input from everyone is welcome and appreciated.
There is other advertisement discussion at https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/03/28/breaking-news-tories-hide-fatca-law-in-budget-act/comment-page-2/#comment-1318170.
(Note: I’m just putting this in one place in case people want to discuss options of what they’d like to do. I am not the coordinator for this effort, just the poster.)
Deb’s NEW VERSIONS:
[ Click on image for larger / clearer look. ]
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REPLACEMENT OF FINAL VERSION of ad from Chears:
Newer ad from Chears, the first being the “final” / the final FINAL above:
Original ad from Chears:
This is the way I see the immediate future.
1. Continue our lobbying and support for the Charter Challenge;
2. Get our personal situations in order regarding the $50,000 thresholds and plans to cross or not cross the border — many solutions are possible;
3. Clarifying the Credit Union story [if they are indeed excluded because of the 2% rule this is a great chance to move the equity agenda forward and nail the banks]; and
4. Sit back and wait to see the storm that arises when 1,000,000 Canadian citizens — most of which are still probably oblivious to all this — are thrown under the bus.
The American Citizens Abroad Global Foundation has just launched its educational program with a forum/debate on the merits of Citizenship-based taxation vs. Residence-based taxation.
This is a full day event, sponsored and organized by the ACA, that will be held at the University of Toronto on May 2. Registration and Information
UPDATE re booking accommodations:
My understanding is that the speakers will be staying at the Holiday Inn 280 Bloor Street West in Toronto phone 416-968-0010.
At the moment all rooms at this hotel are booked up at the central reservation service for May 1, but I called the hotel and arranged for a University rate of about C$130 night plus tax. There are 20 or so rooms still available at that May 1 date (many more for May 2). The rooms cannot be held for us but you can book now until all are taken.
To book a room you email cn312res@whg.com and request a $130 room for the RBT vs. CBT conference. You also have to provide a code. I asked the conference person to choose between RBT vs. CBT and she came up with the correct answer RBT (!) which will be your code.
If you are interested in coming to the conference I would book right away.
To my knowledge, this is the first public debate — worldwide — devoted to this important topic.
The speakers will include academic tax specialists Bernard Schneider and Michael Kirsh, who have different approaches to the taxation of US citizens abroad, with the program moderated by Toronto lawyer John Richardson.
Dr. Stephen Kish, who co-authored with Mr. Richardson a submission to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee (see below), will be the academic host.
Bernard Schneider:
The End of Taxation Without End: A New Tax Regime for U.S. Expatriates, Virginia Tax Review, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2012, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2186076
Michael Kirsch:
Revisiting the Tax Treatment of Citizens Abroad: Reconciling Principle and Practice, October 23, 2013, Florida Tax Review, (Forthcoming), Notre Dame Legal Studies Paper No. 1457, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2346458
Richardson/Kish:
John Richardson, Willard Yates, Stephen Kish, Request for Tax Rules Changes for U.S. Citizens Overseas: Submission to the Senate Finance Committee, January 2014, http://citizenshipsolutions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/RichardsonYatesKishJan232014SFCSubmission.pdf
Keynote Speakers
Prof. Michael S. Kirsch, Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
Dr. Bernard Schneider, Teaching Fellow, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London School of Law
Phil D.W. Hodgen, International Tax Attorney, Hodgen Law Group PC, Pasadena, CA
David Kuenzi, Certified Financial Planner,® Founder, Thun Financial Advisors, Madison, WI
Charles W. Cullen III, Certified Financial Planner, ® RBC Dominion Securities, Inc., Halifax, NS
Neil Sinclair, Chapter Chair, Amcham Canada – Ontario Region
Closing comments: Jackie Bugnion, American Citizens Abroad, Inc., Director of Tax Team
As some have predicted, the IGA legislation has been buried in the Budget Implementation Act.
Little likelihood for free vote now. One source tells us that final reading of the bill in the House may happen by end of May/June.
Posted by Blaze on Sandbox:
The Cons continue their sneaky games. They have hidden the law to enable FATCA and the IGA in the 375 page omnibus Budget Implementation Act 2014.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/215070578/2014-Budget-Implementation-Bill
The enabling law begins on page 72 (Clause 99). The IGA begins on page 313.
A source tells me it is possible the FATCA legislation could pass by late May or June.
So, now we know what Finance Canada did with all of our submissions. Nothing.
http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/breaking-news-cons-hiding-fatca-law-in-budget-act/
March 29 Update on Joe Arvay Legal Opinion:
Just to let everyone know that Lynne Swanson and I contacted Joe Arvay today (Saturday, March 29) for an update.
He tells us that he is on track to provide the legal opinion on the FATCA IGA legal challenge in April — but that there is a possibility that it might take longer because not all can be predicted. Mr. Arvay wants to get this right.
I know all of us want the answer today, but please be patient.
Stephen Kish
Crime in the Suites http://t.co/HQ6s1oWLYz – Summary of #CBT#FATCA and acknowledgment that #Americansabroad renouncing citizenship is bad
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) March 28, 2014
This is an interesting article that includes:
Some may think that 3,000 people renouncing their citizenship is a drop in the bucket, nothing to sneeze at, and small potatoes. The number of renouncers doesn’t compare to the 1 million who are legally immigrating to the U.S. every year. “Goodbye and good riddance,” some have commented.
But the trend is more troubling than it may appear. By raw numbers, the U.S. may be averaging a 997,000 surplus in immigrants versus emigrants, but Uncle Sam’s tax roll will not reflect the same surplus. The people who are renouncing their citizenship tend to be on the wealthier side. Not all are Eduardo Saverins (the Facebook co-founder who emigrated to Singapore “for business reasons” i.e. to reduce his tax liability). But expatriates are undergoing the pains of renunciation because they have greater than average networths and they see the writing on the U.S. budget deficit’s wall (many surmise that FATCA is an attempt to curb the deficit). The people who are immigrating to the U.S. tend to be those who are looking for opportunity, education, etc. They are bringing wallets full of hope, not gold. And when you recognize that the top 1 percent of American earners pay about 37 percent of all the federal taxes, a few thousand on the wealthier side become statistically significant.
A very popular phrase bandied about by politicians is that you can tell the health of the nation by the number of people who want to come and stay. That immigration reform is an issue, to many, means we have a good thing going here in the U.S. that others want to be a part of. But when the nation’s wealthy start opting out of the American dream, when they start thinking our borders as made of kryptonite, it’s time to pause and reflect.
A recent letter published in the Squamish Chief, called “The FATCA of the Matter”, by Suzanne Herman, must have upset some people with the truth. Not to be outdone, Bill Cavanagh, former Program Manager, Capital Markets, Bank of Montreal has managed to get a counter letter published, titled “The Facts about FATCA”.
Read Mr. Cavanagh’s enlightening facts:
http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/the-facts-about-fatca-1.932064
Read Ms. Herman’s original letter:
http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/the-fatca-of-the-matter-1.933164
Update Apr 2, 2014:
MP John Weston responds: http://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/letters/safeguards-lauded-1.939921
Just so we don’t get too smug among ourselves here in Canada I wanted to post this late breaking story.
Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard put $600,000 he earned in the 1990s in an offshore bank account in the Channel Islands, reveals a report by Radio-Canada’s investigative team Enquête.
Couillard worked in Saudi Arabia between 1992 and 1996, setting up a neurosurgery clinic.
He stated publicly this week that he had money in an offshore account between 1992 and 2000.
Couillard did not pay Canadian taxes on the money, which is perfectly legal as he had severed all ties with Canada at the time.
“In Saudi, like all people who are there, I was a non-resident. So I put my assets at the time in a foreign bank and when I returned, I transferred the money back home,” Couillard said Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Liberal leader told Enquête today that Couillard declared the revenue from the interest on the money and paid taxes as required by law, and also added that Couillard chose Jersey because that particular bank had links to a Canadian bank.
Seems that the US has always planned to annex Canada one way or another and the war of 1812 was just the first attempt. FATCA and the Canadian IGA are the latest attempts in a long history of planned US invasions of Canada. Perhaps all this “around the world” business is just a ruse to disguise the fact that the US is trying to make us a part of their country, YET AGAIN.
We CANNOT allow this to happen! We MUST fight for our sovereignty and win, YET AGAIN!
Another sneaky attempt that has, so far, somewhat succeeded (notice that there is acknowledgement by both Harper and Obama of “Canadian Sovereignty” during their joint press conference):
Coincidentally, two separate news items which have the potential to collide in a very strange way came out on the same day here in Hong Kong. The bad news first:
Hong Kong and US sign tax information agreement
The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Professor K C Chan, signed today (March 25) in Hong Kong on behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government an agreement with the United States of America (US) for exchange of information (EoI) relating to taxes. The Consul-General of the US to Hong Kong and Macau, Mr Clifford A Hart, Jr, signed on behalf of his Government.
The South China Morning Post cuts through all the government euphemisms in its headline: “Hong Kong agrees to hand over financial details of Americans working in city to US tax authorities”. However, this is not as bad as it sounds, for reasons I’ll discuss after the jump; the very existence of this TIEA, rather than jumping straight ahead to a FATCA IGA, has some interesting implications for Hong Kong and Beijing’s larger strategy towards FATCA.
In addition, there’s another seed of hope for “U.S. Persons” here who have the crazy idea that they deserve the same rights as any other Hong Kong residents, even if the government doesn’t yet realise its implications:
問人「來自何地」或涉歧視 |
Asking people “where are you from” may become discrimination |
| 《星島日報》，2014年3月25日 | Sing Tao Daily, 25 March 2014 |
| 中港矛盾持續，港人辱罵內地人亦時有發生。平機會主席周一嶽昨表示，暫未收到有內地人在港受歧視的投訴，但有收到小量查詢，今年第三季檢討是否修訂四條歧視條例，專家正構思加入「個人的來源地」及「入境年份」等字眼，杜絕無理行為。 | With the ongoing conflicts between mainland China and Hong Kong, there have sometimes been incidents of Hong Kong people abusing mainland people. Equal Opportunities Commission Chairman York Chow stated, although the EOC has not yet received any complaints from mainland people about discrimination they have suffered in Hong Kong, it has received a small volume of enquiries. In the third quarter of this year, the EOC plans to review whether or not to amend the four discrimination ordinances, and experts are considering adding language such as “person’s place of origin” and “year of immigration” to eliminate unreasonable behaviour. |
