Please join me at this event: Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country http://t.co/zGCJrRsALc
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) October 30, 2013
It’s here. Opportunity for FATCA protest?
Diane FrancisAuthor, Editor at Large, National Post, Distinguished Professor, Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Managment
Recently, newspapers in the Philippines have reported on accusations that National Food Authority administrator Orlan Calayag is still a U.S. citizen. For example, The Philippine Star writes that Calayag “acquired dual citizenship as American and Filipino on Jan. 7, 2013”, while the Manila Standard Today quotes an unnamed source who claims that Calayag “reacquired Philippine citizenship … but still did not renounce his US citizenship”.
However, the people they quoted are missing a crucial fact: in August 2013, the U.S Internal Revenue Service (IRS) confirmed in an official notice that one Orlan Agbin Calayag had given up his U.S. citizenship. Calayag was one of more than a thousand people whose names appeared in the IRS’ most recent official list of newly-minted ex-U.S. citizens. Most of them seem to have given up U.S. citizenship sometime between mid-2012 and early 2013.
Whether or not Calayag is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines (a question of Philippine law on which I take no position), he is definitely no longer an American or a dual citizen.
Here is a bit of musical inspiration for all those Brockers and Maple Sand Boxers, who may be feeling a little tired from all the emailing, letter writing, protesting, twittering, article writing, blogging, sign making, FACTA sheet facting, myth busting, editing, radio and television interviewing, organizing, petitioning, ETC.
Enjoy!
ADDITION by Calgary411: I’m taking he liberty of adding to Tim’s post (for use in forwarding to government representatives, media, etc.) the COMBINED Q-121 and Q-127 in PDF format in more a more readable form (questions asked in the Canadian Parliament on October 25, 2013 by MP Ted Hsu and October 28, 2013 by MP Scott Brison, respectively). Canadian Parliament FATCA Questions 121 and 127 – Oct 25,28 2013
Q127
I just received the following email in response to my thank you to Mr. Ted Hsu, Liberal MP for asking Question 121 in the Canadian Parliament on October 25, 2013: Question 121 re FATCA, October 25, 2013:
Thank you for your email regarding FATCA. We are awaiting an answer to Mr. Hsu’s Order Paper question, which the government must provide within 45 days. I have passed your message on to Mr. Hsu, who has asked me to respond on his behalf.
I spoke with CCTV’s Kristiaan Yeo a couple weeks ago. I’ve only learned today that the report is available on Youtube:
I thought when doing this interview: Speak on CBC to a potential 30 million viewers; speak on CBS to a potential 300 million viewers; speak on China Central Television to a potential 1.3 billion viewers.
I mentioned the New Berlin Wall as the reason I expatriated. I am pleased that CCTV chose to retain that particular sound bite out of the approximately 45 minute interview that Kristiaan Yeo did with me.
In case you haven’t heard, the Conservative Party is holding a convention in Calgary, starting Thursday October 31 (how appropriate!) and running through the weekend.
Some of us are trying to figure a way of getting some FATCA coverage amongst the Conservative delegates to the convention in Calgary next weekend. Musing about circulating the FATCA flyer and maybe also a copy of Hsu’s Q-121 question to delegates as they arrive, but we’ve learned that (surprise surprise) the convention centre is private property and leafletting isn’t allowed on private property, there’s only one area of public ground near the convention where the police will allow this, and not many delegates are likely to wander by that spot. Sort of sounds like G-20 in Toronto, doesn’t it?
Based on comments received from people who were part of the recent Ottawa protest, as well as passersby, I revised the generic FATCA handout to be more Canadian specific, and hopefully a bit more concise and visually appealing. Thank you Pacifica777 for helping with the editing!
If anyone has any suggestions for further improvements please let me know. One suggestion, I received, but did not act upon, was to have a 2-sided hand-out with only the highlights on one side, and the details on the other. If anyone wants to take a stab at formulating the highlights for the opposite side, please feel free. My goal, was to at least have a one-sided hand-out ready for the Calgary protest.
Word Version: What-is-FATCA-CAN-1-4
PDF Version: What-is-FATCA-CAN-1-4
ADDITION by Calgary411: I’m taking he liberty of adding to this post (for use in conjunction with the FATCA Fact Sheet, for forwarding to government representatives, media, etc.) the COMBINED Q-121 and Q-127 in PDF format in more a more readable form (questions asked in the Canadian Parliament on October 25, 2013 by MP Ted Hsu and October 28, 2013 by MP Scott Brison, respectively). Canadian Parliament FATCA Questions 121 and 127 – Oct 25,28 2013
The FATCA Question — this needs to be answered by the Conservative Government of Canada and aired in the media before any IGA is signed. Your turn Mr. Harper, Mr. Flaherty, Mr. Shoom.
Thanks to Tim for this — and especially thanks to MP Ted Hsu.
(I will have a hand-out of the Q-121 at the mini-demonstration in conjunction with the October 31, November 1, November 2 Conservative Convention in Calgary.)
ADDITION, October 29: I’m adding to this post (for use in forwarding to government representatives, media, etc.) the COMBINED Q-121 and Q-127 in PDF format in more a readable form (questions asked in the Canadian Parliament on October 25, 2013 by MP Ted Hsu and October 28, 2013 by MP Scott Brison, respectively). Canadian Parliament FATCA Questions 121 and 127 – Oct 25,28 20133
Questions
Q-1212 — October 25, 2013 — Mr. Hsu (Kingston and the Islands) — With regard to the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA):
(a) what steps has Canada undertaken to complete an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the United States;
(b) with what type of legal instrument will the government enact a FATCA implementation agreement;
Although both the US government and the Canadian government seem to believe that little can go wrong if and when Canadian financial institutions begin reporting on the banking and investment accounts of all deemed “US Persons for taxable purposes” in Canada. The draconian penalties assessed by the United States for even the smallest mistake is reason enough to believe that Canadian financial institutions are likely to err on the side of extreme, and even paranoid, caution.
A good example of what could happen can be found in a recent report Canada’s Privacy Commissioner issued about another agency in Canada tasked with the job of keeping an eye on suspicious activity in the banking sector.
According to a post in The National Post:
The federal agency responsible for monitoring financial institutions for evidence of nefarious activity is still collecting and keeping personal information it should not have, even though it was warned to stop gathering such data four years ago, the federal privacy commissioner says.
A new audit of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) — the department responsible for monitoring consumer bank accounts across Canada for signs of terrorist fundraising or fraud — has found information is collected and kept seemingly without reason.
