Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

They re-iterate their fight continues to be with the Obama Administration though:

https://www.facebook.com/republicansoverseas

Jim’s comment on big disappointment yesterday is very interesting. But what Canada’s supposedly “Conservative” government did will not be Republicans Overseas’ focus since our job is to hold the Obama government’s feet to the fire and put pressure on Congress to repeal FATCA. However, as constitutional conservatives, we do believe FATCA has trampled on 7.6 million overseas’ American citizens’ right to privacy, to make a living, to private property, and to due process since neither the Obama government nor Canadian government could claim all 7.6 million Americans, including close to 2 million of them residing in Canada are tax-cheats. What we have witnessed is that both governments take away everyone’s constitutional protection in order to catch a few tax-cheats. This dragnet approach could only happen in authoritarian societies, not in free societies like Canada and America. In a free society, voters do hold parties and politicians accountable. Would this Canadian government regret that it could be blamed for helping the IRS to collect personal financial data on its own citizens due to FACTA’s reciprocity feature on the next election day? it depends on you, the Canadian voters.

On pages 40-41, section II, paragraph B2… it seems to state that credit unions are Deemed-Compliant Financial Institutions.! Please look!
http://www.fin.gc.ca/treaties-conventions/pdf/FATCA-eng.pdf

For at least two years now, people concerned about FATCA have pleaded with the media to stop treating them as tax cheats.  We are law abiding Canadian residents and Canadian citizens who pay all our taxes in Canada.  Yet the media continues to treat us as criminals.  This is a form of libel, to be sure.  But it is worse.  It is destroying our ability to get our message out:  We are law abiding but even the Canadian media treats us as shirkers and tax cheats.  Consider this headline by Barbara Shecter of the National Post:  Canada signs agreement to dull impact of U.S. crackdown on tax cheats.

This is journalistic incompetence at best; but at worst, it shows malice towards people of US National Origin. It is incompetence because it employs a logical fallacy, a common  propaganda tool called “Poisoning the Well“:

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I really want to believe that the NDP will provide us with support. Murray Rankin is the lead on this and he seems like a sincere, good man, See links below…
http://murrayrankin.ndp.ca/u-s-tax-law-invades-canada
http://murrayrankin.ndp.ca/government-must-address-public-concerns-about-u-s-tax-law
http://www.ndp.ca/news/canadians-deserve-answers-fatca
Murray.Rankin@parl.gc.ca

“The Canadian government has a responsibility to protect Canada’s tax base, and while we understand the United States’ desire to protect their own tax base, this should not come at the cost of the rights of individuals residing in our own country,” stated Rankin.

About Murray

Murray Rankin is the Member of Parliament for Victoria. Shortly after being elected, Murray was named Official Opposition Critic for National Revenue by New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair. He also serves as Official Opposition Critic for Pensions, and sits on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.

Murray is a nationally recognized expert in environmental and public law, who has been involved in many landmark legal cases in British Columbia and the Supreme Court of Canada.

For over 30 years, Murray has been associated with the University of Victoria, first as a full Professor of Law and subsequently as an Adjunct Professor. Before being becoming an elected official, he was also co-chair of the Environmental Law Centre, a University of Victoria student-run legal clinic, and he had a private law practice in Victoria.

Murray has dedicated his life to fighting for the environment. He was president of the West Coast Environmental Law Association and the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre.

He has been a director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and he has also lead a team of legal experts fighting to stop the Enbridge pipeline.

With law degrees from the University of Toronto and Harvard, Murray was a managing partner in the Victoria law firm Arvay Finlay for over a decade. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1999 and is fluent in French.

For years Murray coached minor league baseball at Beacon Hill Little League as well as soccer with Bays United.

A resident of Victoria for the past 35 years, Murray currently resides in Oak Bay with his spouse Linda and their two sons, Benjamin and Mark.

Again, cross-posting from Maple Sandbox this relevant information:

http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/canadian-government-proposing-changes-to-citizenship-act/

According to several sources this morning, our government is going to be announcing changes to our citizenship act today. I think we will all be anxiously waiting to see how this affects us.

( links at Maple Sandbox article )

Conservatives set to announce ‘comprehensive’ changes to Citizenship Act

“Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander will detail the changes at a Toronto news conference. The government is calling the overhaul the first comprehensive reform to the Citizenship Act in more than a generation. Alexander recently said the government planned to implement new rules that will ensure Canadian citizenship “has value.” Among the reported changes is one that would allow Ottawa to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals in “extreme cases,” such as in cases of treason or acts of terrorism.Alexander also suggested recently the government will try to give citizenship to those who have been wrongfully denied it in the past, such as the children of war brides.”

Don’t know about anyone else, but I am very afraid, considering how they caved so absolutely yesterday.

I promised yesterday that I would write a post to discuss the usefulness of purchasing tangible assets in order to structure one’s finances and to keep one’s business out of the banks.  Here are some of the ideas I had:

1. Real estate
2. Precious metals
3. Food

If one is wealthy it is likely that the first two of these would be the most helpful.  Real estate is harder to steal. Real estate however is propped up by the banking system and is therefore in a likely bubble in Canada.

One must find a safe place for precious metals.  But precious metals, unlike real estate, is actually being oversold by the banking system through the paper markets in which large holders of gold like the US treasury and the Federal Reserve bank lease their gold to the bullion banks, who in turn sell it in the gold market to keep the prices artificially low.  This means that while the fundamentals for precious metals remains strong, the price continues to remain obstinately low.

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Here are what look to be a few specific red flags streaming in the wake of Canada’s new FATCA bomb (pdf):
6.4.b (p. 18)
Three-year window. By 1 Jan 2017 specified US persons in Canada can expect that they will be required to provide US TIN to Canadian financial institution. (How long does it currently take to get a TIN/SSN if you feel you need to do that?)
I.C (p. 19)
Canadian financial institutions can elect to follow U.S. Treasury regulations rather than FATCA agreement “to establish whether an account is a US Reportable Account.” This trapdoor means these regulations also need to be examined for what they would allow Canadian banks to do to US persons. [See also VI.F below]
II.B.3 (p. 21)
“The Reporting Canadian Financial Institution must treat the account unless it elects …” Canadian financial institutions are given carte blanche to treat suspected US persons as a mass and to make no further effort to verify validity of indicia. See also II.D.5.b (p. 25) and II.E.4 (p. 26)
II.B.4 (p. 21-22)
Getting out of US-person jail requires that Canadian financial institution maintain record of three distinct discriminatory pieces of data. These should also be maintained on Eritreans for the benefit of Eritrea? Etc.
II.B.4.a.3.b (p. 22)
Here’s the gotcha for accidental US persons who have not relinquished/renounced.
II.C.1 (p. 23)
Point of interest. Canadian financial institution has two years to review pre-existing lower value accounts ($50,000 to $1 M).
VI.C.1 (p. 36)
“Each holder of jointly held Financial Account shall be attributed the entire balance” The joint account gotcha. So what if all the funds actually originate from a non-US person? They all get reported as belonging to the US-person.
VI.D.1 and VI.D.2
Documentary evidence for individual. No requirement beyond what any Canadian resident would normally provide in present circumstances?
VI.F
Private personal data can be extracted by Canadian financial institutions from third parties under alternative elected under I.C? [see above]

schubert1975 says
February 2, 2012 at 12:59 pm
In Ontario try Alterna Savings, a credit union that was formerly called “Civil Service Co-op” but now accepts depositors who aren’t present or retired federal employees. They have no US investments, and in answer to my email query I got a reply informing me their legal advice is they don’t have to comply with FATCA (and won’t) because they have no US holdings (I’m not sure any credit unions do, under their charter I’m not even sure they’re allowed to invest or hold outside Canada but I may be wrong).

Please read and comment on this text:

Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Canada to Improve International Tax Compliance through Enhanced Exchange of Information under the Convention Between the United States of America and Canada with Respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital (pdf)

http://maplesandbox.ca/2014/urgent-finance-canada-making-fatca-briefing-today/

URGENT: Finance Canada Doing FATCA Briefing Today!
Posted on February 5, 2014 by Blaze

Get ready everyone. Today may be the day.

I was just contacted via e-mail by Barrie McKenna of the Globe and Mail:

It looks like Canada has reached an agreement with the US on FATCA. Details at 2 p.m. Are you around to react later today? Please let me know, or perhaps suggest someone else. Thanks

I responded:

OMG! Yes, I am available to speak with you. Can I share the information from you with others and on the web?

What is your source that a deal has been reached?

His reply:

Finance Dept. is doing a media briefing shortly on “issues associated with FATCA,” embargoed to 2 p.m. I am making an assumption they have an IGA with US.

So, this is not for certain an IGA has been reached. But, we should know if that is reason for the briefing when the media is able to release the details at 2:00 p.m.

I’ll keep you updated as soon as I learn more.