Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

Let’s meet at L’espresso Bar Mercurio, 321 Bloor Street W Toronto, ON M5S 1S5, southeast corner, Bloor St. West and St. George. Event is 6:00 PM nearby. So meet at 4:15-4:30 PM. I will ask for a space at Mercurio. May still be spaces still available at conference. I made a reservation for 15 people.  The food is lunch-type sandwiches menu, casual and they are definitely open. Reservation made under Isaac Brock Society and/or “Dennis”  See you then!!!
http://ccla.org/pathways2privacy/

Cross-post from Blaze at Maple Sandbox:

Another significant submission for our side. After I sent him our news release about retaining Joe Arvay, privacy lawyer Michael Power (who was a law school classmate of Elizabeth May) forwarded me a link to an announcement and submission to Finance Canada from the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association on FATCA.

I just posted it at Sandbox and tweeted it.

http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/b-c-freedom-of-information-and-privacy-association-speaks-out-against-fatca-iga/

It’s strongly against the IGA.

Now, I want to know why Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has been quiet since the IGA was announced. I have e-mailed a contact there three times and my messages have been ignored.

Please feel free to cross post at Brock.

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“We oppose (the FATCA IGA) on a number of grounds, but we will restrict our comments to the large scale infringement of privacy rights.”

That is the beginning of a four page Submission by the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association to Finance Canada.

They challenge several aspects of the IGA as well as challenge the authority of the federal government to regulate credit unions.

They also state clearly their agreement with Peter Hogg.

BCFIPA Concludes:

There are considerable difficulties involved in any attempt to implement a FATCA IGA in this country and those will almost certainly result in extensive litigation and damage to people and institutions which are in no way connected to tax evasion in this country or in the United States.

Therefore, we urge you not to proceed with this wholesale infringement of the constitutionally guaranteed privacy rights of Canadians.

Thanks to privacy lawyer Michael Power who e-mailed me the BCFIPA Announcement with the link to the actual submission.

Thanks to Maple Sandbox and privacy lawyer, Michael Power, for the sharing of this submission!

From PLAN (Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network) a membership-based non-profit organization, established by and for families committed to ensuring the safety, security and well-being of our relatives with disabilities.

RDSPs and FATCA: Warning to People With Disabilities With Any Connection to the U.S.

My comment and my sincere thanks to this incredible organization:

My friends at PLAN, I thank you so much for providing the WARNING STICKER that all Canadian Registered Accounts, including the RDSP, should have for anyone deemed to be a ‘US Person’ in Canada. It is negligent that this has not been accomplished before now by those who offer these products. (I have paid over $2,000 in US taxes for the Canadian government’s contribution of bonds and grants to my son’s RDSP, for which I am the Holder. There is no other way to say it — these are $$$$ stolen from Canada’s taxpayers who provided the funds for those grants and bonds — and also from the Canada’s treasury to go to the US.)

I object to my Canadian-born son (born to me in Canada before I became a Canadian citizen in 1975) now being being referred to by the Canadian government and the Canadian Bankers Association, respectively, as “a U.S. citizen resident in Canada” and “a U.S. taxpayer resident in Canada”. He has never been registered with the US, never lived in the US, never got any benefit from the US – only from Canada and for those benefits I am forever thankful.

Hopefully, I am no longer described that way as I have officially renounced my US citizenship and now have a Certificate of Loss of Nationality that I can show my local CANADIAN “foreign financial institution” when I am asked if there is any reason the US would consider me a ‘US person’ in order to turn over account information to the CRA to then turn over to the US IRS. I cannot renounce on behalf of my son, even with a court order.

I can’t thank you enough, PLAN, for the needed warning to Canadian families who would not have an ounce of extra strength left over after caring for family members who have some type of disability to deal with US tax and financial account reporting to the US on top of that. In addition they most likely do not have any extra money to fork out to US tax law and accounting professionals year after year after year for compliance of US tax and reporting for which there would likely be no taxes owed. I was “lucky enough” to have retirement savings to pay for coming into compliance. Some families may be like my family and have a son or daughter who would be entrapped into US citizenship and this year-after-year-after-year absurdity and stress for no (or very little) actual tax owed to the US.

Bless you for saving other families what mine has experienced in the past several years. This is just the awareness I’ve been working for.

US Persons in Canada are now deemed 2nd class citizens — and this should not happen to Canada’s most vulnerable.

This, my friends at Isaac Brock, is the awareness to the right families that I have been working for. I will sleep a little better tonight KNOWING that this information will now better get to the ones I want it to reach.

From an email that I sent to some politicians who attended last evening’s (March 12) Liberal MP Ralph Goodale Calgary reception:

“disgusted”, one of my ‘US Person’ friends, spoke with you this evening at the Ralph Goodale reception and sent me your email contact information. I hope it is OK if I take the liberty to pass on to you an email that I sent to Honourable Ralph Goodale (below). Note that in that email I ask Mr. Goodale what his vote will be on the IGA implementation. He, this evening, said that MPs will not get to vote on the IGA but it will go to the Executive Committee. How is this possible in a “democracy”? If one of you could elaborate on that process, I’d be very grateful.

I also found a 2011 piece from Mr. Goodale, “Fighting The “Long Arm” Of The U.S. Tax-Man”: http://www.ralphgoodale.ca/blog/fighting-the-long-arm-of-the-u-s-tax-man/.

I believe Mr. Goodale could and should educate Justin Trudeau on the realities of FATCA for Canada and its ‘US Person’ CANADIAN citizens and residents. Mr. Trudeau’s answers to my questions re FATCA at the recent Okotoks meet and greet were not encouraging. There will be an approximate one million Canadians (or as we are now being referred to by the Government of Canada and Canadian Bankers Association, ‘US citizens resident in Canada’ and ‘US taxpayers resident in Canada – how insulting – we are CANADIANS!) and their families and business partners and friends for whom there will be one issue come voting time: extra-territorial FATCA law in Canada.

etc.

Thanks very much for your interest. I encourage you to pass this information on to anyone who might have an interest. This WILL affect and be a cost to every Canadian.

Regards,
Carol Tapanila

From: caroltapanila
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:39 AM
To: ralph.goodale@parl.gc.ca
Subject: Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Law in Canada

Honourable Member of Parliament Goodale,

I will be attending your Liberal reception tomorrow, Wednesday, March 12th, in Calgary. FATCA and the signing of the IGA with the US will have a bearing on any federal Canadian budget. I would appreciate your views and what your vote as a Canadian MP will be for the intergovernmental agreement.

etc.

NOTE: Mr. Goodale supports our fight for this and still feels as he did in his 2011 statement (in link above)
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Sent this morning to MP Irwin Cotler in an attempt to get clarification on whether or not MPs will be able to vote on the IGA (not yet answered, of course):

Dear Mr. Cotler,

Yesterday one of us was advised by an MP that there will be no vote in Parliament on the pending FATCA IGA legislation, but that the “decision” will be made by “executive committee.”

Questions: Is this statement correct? Can the IGA bill come into law without approval of Parliament? If this is the case, is Senate approval also not required?

We would appreciate an answer, if at all possible, by the end of the week.

Thank you for your help.

“IRSCompliantForever”

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Subsequently, NativeCanadian’s report on this morning’s attempt for clarification:

Just got off the phone with Flaherty’s office. I was told this draft proposal for Fatca has passed consultations. This is the process where our letters recently sent for feedback will be considered and the IGA may be “tweaked”. Once the tweaking is done, the IGA will be tabled and be voted on by our MP’s. The “tweaked” IGA will be made public. …

UPDATE:
We HAD information on a vote by MPs on a “tweaked” IGA.

But, as we are now getting further conflicting information from different sources, we still don’t know and are back to –

Yet to determine:

A Free Vote

OR

A Party Vote

OR

No Vote at All

by all Canadian MPs

on the FATCA intergovernmental agreement (IGA) as negotiated with the US?

What might be the case is that the IGA does not need Parliament so the actual MP vote on the IGA won’t matter that much,

BUT

the ACT TO IMPLEMENT THE IGA will matter, and that is what we SHOULD care about.

Shadow Raider made the following comment:

Due to the extreme difficulty in having a decent discussion about CBT with Congress, I decided to start a plan B. I’m not abandoning the RBT proposal, but I see that it’s going to take a long time, so I came up with an alternative that may work in the meantime. I’ll explain it below.

In US law, nationality and citizenship are not exactly the same thing. Citizenship is actually a subset of nationality, so all US citizens are also US nationals, but it is possible to be a US national without citizenship. Such status was historically created for people in US territories, and today it only applies to American Samoa.

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On March 10 2014 a small group of Canadians (with supporters in other countries) took a gamble and donated money they could not afford to try to bring down FATCA using a legal challenge approach.

What if similar groups in other countries took their governments to court over this?

One Brocker, upset that the Swiss referendum did not obtain enough signatures, already told us that:

“[The Swiss Federal] Constitution undisputably mandates guarantees of nondiscrimination and liberty of economic opportunity, as well as the right to a family and the protection of privacy, among many other things. Here at IBS, we all know that FATCA violates such guarantees, as expressed in the UDHR, as well as many constitutions around the world”.

https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/01/14/swiss-anti-fatca-referendum-did-not-obtain-enough-signatures-disappointing-however-not-end-of-world/

Here is a list of countries with constitutions. How many of these constitutions guarantee fundamental rights that are violated by FATCA?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_constitutions

Are there any Brockers/Sandboxers or their sympathizers in these countries who could lead anti-FATCA constitutional challenges?

See today’s new post on the Republicans Overseas website asking that this happens:

Canadians Ask “US Persons” World-Wide To Challenge Legality of FATCA

In only six days Canadians Dr. Stephen Kish and Lynne Swanson received sufficient donations from Canadians and those in other countries to retain a constitutional expert attorney. The attorney will examine the constitutionality of the proposed IGA (Intergovernmental Agreement) between the United States and Canada to implement FATCA.

They and other Canadians believe strongly that the IGA will violate Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Kish and Swanson ask concerned peoples in all countries affected by FATCA (i.e., ALL countries worldwide) to begin similar efforts to bring down the FATCA beast.

See the press release for the Canadian Charter Challenge Fund: http://maplesandbox.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/News-Release-First-Legal-Step-To-Stop-FATCA.pdf

https://www.facebook.com/republicansoverseas

The Richmond Hill session for March 29 has been expanded and based upon the program we had last June.

• When: Saturday March 29, 2014 – 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 pm
• Where: Emmanuel Anglican Church – 15 MacKay Drive, Richmond Hill, ON L4C 6N9

Session I:  The Financial and Emotional Costs of U.S. Citizenship Abroad

Session II: US Citizenship Abroad and Compliance Issues

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As the initial shock wears off and the first emotional responses to Canada’s signing of an IGA with the US begin to coalesce into well-written, detailed submissions, Charter challenge fundraising and myriad other signs of a growing and sophisticated anti-FATCA movement, it is worth taking a moment to pay attention to what is currently happening in Quebec.

The drumbeat of yet another referendum is beginning to be heard, carried now by powerful voices like that of Pierre Karl Peladeau, a true Quebec oligarch who has now fully and publicly embraced the separatist cause.  Despite the obvious concerns about conflict of interest as a campaigning politician who just happens to control most of the media pie in Quebec, Mr. Peladeau seems determined to put his money where his mouth is and champion separatism in a manner which will no doubt be unprecedented in Quebec politics.

Against this backdrop, it is interesting to consider how these two stories will inevitably intersect, since they both deal with fundamental questions about self-determination, national sovereignty and the democratic process.  Meanwhile there is a vast ticking FATCA time bomb for Quebec which the PQ so far seems to be blissfully unaware of, but which it will have to deal with head-on if it truly believes it is Quebec’s destiny to become a sovereign nation.

A Full Comment article in today’s National Post focusses on the splash that Mr. Peladeau has already made and how it is clear that while he may be a most savvy and ruthless CEO, he still has much to learn about the realities of politics and the campaign trail.   Continue reading →

Hard-hitting alternatives for this Conservative Government and all MPs on how they can stop, better analyze the consequences and not recklessly change what Canadians hold as values if the signed Intergovernmental Agreement with the US for FATCA is implemented. At the very least, let’s have some open discussion with ALL of Canada …

Richardson / Kish Finance Canada Submission, March 10, 2014

John Richardson and Stephen Kish give very specific reasoning the Department of Finance has not likely seen before in:

. Why there should be NO Canadian participation in FATCA;

and

. Specific recommendations in the event that Canada does participate in FATCA.

The Government of Canada should not assist the United States in general, and in any manner with the facilitation and/or implementation of FATCA on Canadian soil.

March 10, 2014

Tax Policy Branch
Canada Department of Finance

Enclosed please find PDF and and Word attachment versions of a proposal by John Richardson and Stephen Kish to Canada Finance entitled “Request for changes in legislative proposal to establish IGA between U.S. and Canada for the enhanced exchange of tax information.”

Mr. Richardson and I hope that you will find the comments to be useful.

Regards,

John Richardson
Barrister and Solicitor,
Toronto

Stephen Kish, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Toronto
Toronto

We welcome your comments on this submission. We worked hard on it.

Cross posted with permission from Tax, Society & Culture

I have just posted on SSRN a submission to the Canadian Finance Department co-authored by myself and Professor Arthur Cockfield of Queen’s University. Here is the abstract [the full submission can be downloaded here]:

The United States enacted a tax reform in 2010 known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which will impose an extensive third-party monitoring and disclosure regime on financial institutions around the world in an effort to “smoke out” American tax cheats and expose their undeclared foreign assets to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The flow of information from Canadian financial institutions directly to the IRS that is required by FATCA would violate a number of laws in Canada. Accordingly, the United States has requested changes to these laws. The Canadian government now seeks to accommodate these requests in the form of an “intergovernmental agreement” (IGA) with the United States, which will be enacted into law as the Canada–United States Enhanced Tax Information Exchange Agreement Implementation Act (the Implementation Act) pursuant to a proposal released for comment by the Department of Finance. The Department of Finance invited public comments on these documents. We examined the proposed Implementation Act and the IGA and we find that they raise a number of serious issues ranging from likely constitutional violations to violations of international law. We submit these comments in the hope that they will help lawmakers and the public understand that FATCA, while intended to catch tax evaders, is poised instead to impose serious and unjustified harms on people who live around the world as non-resident U.S. citizens and green card holders, as well as their family members and business associates.

I know that some of my good friends and colleagues view FATCA as a net positive step toward a much-needed global automatic information sharing regime, and some have not understood my reasons for caution. I hope that this submission will help explain some of these reasons.
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