Reductio ad nauseam:
The Ottawa Sun, February 6, 2014
Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
Important Canadian IGA notes from Canada Revenue Agency and Department of Finance
Here are links provided to me by a source within CRA. Please read and provide your feedback. This is crucial information about how Canadian financial institutions will provide details about US Persons to the CRA and how Finance intends to introduce overriding legislation to enable it. This is a must-read:
The CRA has prepared documents in response to the signing of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) related to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) to help Canadians understand the implications of the agreement from an administrative perspective. This guidance is available on the CRA website at the following URLs:
In addition, Department of Finance has also now posted on its website the Legislative Proposals and Explanatory Notes Relating to the Canada-United States Enhanced Tax Information Exchange Agreement
Canadian Civil Liberties Association: Our Best Hope!
The CCLA is widely respected and can get the real story in the media.
See their statements.
http://ccla.org/2012/12/04/ccla-registers-privacy-concerns-over-ongoing-canada-u-s-information-exchange-negotiations/
http://ccla.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-12-04-Letter-to-Dpt-of-Finance.pdf
Contact them. NOW!
http://ccla.org/contact/
Windsor Star: Ottawa shouldn’t be in bed with the IRS
The Windsor Star objects to the Harper government’s FATCA agreement with the United States. Here is the money quote showing how the Tory government actually admits to capitulation:
In fact, when the Tax Compliance Act first surfaced just over two years ago, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was one of the strongest critics, pointing out that the proposal “has far-reaching extraterritorial implications. It would turn Canadian banks into extensions of the IRS and would raise significant privacy concerns for Canadians.”
What happened to “never surrender”?
The Star’s view: Ottawa shouldn’t be in bed with the IRS
Facebook comments are welcome at the Windsor Star.
Fifth Amendment: Never speak to an investigator: This includes the IRS–and now your friendly Canadian bank (Updated)
New to the Isaac Brock Society? Here is an old post that reminds you that you have specific rights under the US constitution. If you file FBAR or a tax return to the US, or even a W9 form for a Canadian bank, you may be waiving specific rights under the Constitution. Above all, you may be tacitly accepting the notion that you are a US citizen under US laws, when you are actually a Canadian under the laws of Canada and international law. If you’ve never been in the US tax system before today, you do well to consider your Fifth Amendment privilege. Anything you say (or put in a form), can and will be used against you in a court of law. Remember, if you admit to being a US citizen in your Canadian bank, you may have already committed certain US felonies without knowing it. Your Canadian bank has just become an inquisitor investigator for the United States government. With that in mind, watch the following video. (Update, February 8, 2014)
Jack Townsend shared this at his blog: Good Advice on Talking to Investigators – Fifth Amendment.
IRS calls you on the phone. “Do you mind answering a few questions about your return?” A border guard asks a US citizen living in Canada, “Have you been filing your tax returns?” What is the correct response?
First Published June 18, 2012
Travel Down a New Road. Meet New Friends.
It has been a traumatic last couple days for ‘Brockers’ as well as recently stunned ‘US persons’ who have just had their ‘OMG moment’. This is just the tip of the iceburg. We sit at a precipice looking down, and looking back. Many have not yet arrived at the point some of us are at. The current Canadian government helped create the precipice. They had a choice; they made the wrong one. We warned them; they didn’t listen.
My twenty-one year old daughter instantly grasps the concept of why you do not sacrifice a minority of people for a majority when you have a CHOICE to do otherwise. She used the example of a bus (yes a bus) traveling down the road towards a group of five people. She asked me, “if you had the power to grab the bus and throw it in another direction directly in the path of one person, would you do it?” We both agreed that the answer in this case is ‘Yes’, and yet this is the supposed argument our government is using to justify its agreement with the USA to implement FATCA. My twenty-one year old daughter and I intuitively get that the two situations are not the same. Apparently our Conservative government does not.
One of the cool things about Brock for me, has been the opportunity to correspond with, and meet in person, many intelligent, kind, moral people, and if it wasn’t for FATCA, I would never have had the opportunity to make my life a lot richer despite the pain of being persecuted for being born in the wrong country.
Now’s the time to call in some markers.
Having just renewed my membership in Canadian Civil Liberties Union, I contacted them…
For general inquiries:
Phone: 416-363-0321
type in Deshman to reach woman responsible for this file. She has previously spoken at a Brock meeting so be nice when leaving a message.
email: mail@ccla.org
NDP —
malcolm.allen@parl.gc.ca
charlie.angus@parl.gc.ca
niki.ashton@parl.gc.ca
alex.atamanenko@parl.gc.ca
Robert.Aubin@parl.gc.ca
Continue reading
Corruption inside the IRS
Mr. Harper will expose innocent Canadians to the capricious and evil treatment of the IRS. Just how bad is it? The IRS is a criminal organization that regularly abuses elderly people, just like our beleaguered Canadian citizens whose bank accounts will now be exposed to the IRS under FATCA. Read what one insider has to say. Powerline blog reproduces a letter by Bill Henck an IRS insider (emphasis mine):
Bill Henck: Inside the IRS
I have been an attorney in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel for over 26 years. Over a number of years, I have attempted, largely unsuccessfully, to alert the public to abuse within the IRS. One of my kids suggested that I contact a blog and Power Line has graciously agreed to publish this account.
Who protects the protector? An open letter to Prime Minister Harper
A law enforcement officer who is an “Accidental American” writes the Prime Minister asking for the protection of the Canadian government.
Violation of 26 USC § 6103 in latest Federal Register list
As Innocente notes, the Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate for Q4 2013 is now available for public inspection on the Federal Register website. The list has a bit more than 630 names; the usual caveat about the completeness of the list applies, especially seeing as, once again, the FBI’s count of renunciants is greater than the IRS’ count of renunciants, relinquishers, and green card abandoners combined.
Update: the FBI has also posted its latest monthly report on Active Records in the NICS Index, which showed 24,127 records in the “Renounced U.S. citizenship” category, up by 320 since the beginning of the year. That suggests the total number of renunciants and relinquishers during January was around 600. According to the Federal Denials report, NICS also caught one firearms purchase attempt last month by a renunciant or, more likely, a person fraudulently using a renunciant’s identity.
With the latest Federal Register list, fresh list author Maureen Manieri may have broken the United States of America’s tax laws in a creative new way: not just by submitting the list for publication after the 30-day deadline, but by disclosing information in violation of 26 USC § 6103, “Confidentiality and disclosure of returns and return information”: one entry in the list contains not just a name, but other information whose disclosure is illegal.