Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

Dear ________:
Thank you for your correspondence concerning the United States Foreign Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the stance of the Liberal party on the issue. Please excuse my delay in responding to your email – my office has been working to respond to correspondence that had been misplaced during a recent staff transition.

Liberals were the first to raise the issue some years ago, pressuring the Conservative government to pursue amnesty against penalties as the IRS’s Foreign Bank Account Reporting requirements were not adequately communicated to Canadians who would be affected. A two-year amnesty period was negotiated in the face of overwhelming pressure from Liberals and concerned Canadians. Together, we sent a clear signal that Canadians expect their government to stand up for the honest and hardworking people who have been caught up by overly complex American tax rules. Canadians are not international tax cheats and it was past time for Stephen Harper to stand up for them.

During the two year amnesty period, we also made it clear that the government should address the concerns of Canadians regarding the US taxation of tax savings vehicles like RRSP and RESPs and regulations under FATCA that will force Canadian banks to share personal banking information with the IRS. These issues present immense sovereignty and privacy concerns for Canadians. The IRS does not have the jurisdiction or authority to persecute persons living and working in Canada. These people are already paying taxes – in Canada.

Over the amnesty period, the Harper government appears to have made no attempts to safeguard the interests of Canadians who will be victimized by the IRS if FACTA is allowed to proceed. As it stands, FACTA will compel not just dual citizens, but persons known to the US government residing in Canada to report to the IRS. These include dual-citizens, Canadians with American spouses, Canadians who have worked in the United States, and others. I am deeply disappointed in the government’s inaction on an issue that so brazenly threatens so many Canadians. I assure you that the Liberal Party will continue to pressure the Harper Government to address these concerns instead of caving into American pressure as has been its past practice.

Thank you once again for your correspondence; please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance on this or any other issue.

Sincerely,

Hon. Dr. Hedy Fry, P.C., M.P.

Health Critic – Liberal Party of Canada

Vancouver Centre

Canadians, the ones paying attention including US Persons in Canada worried about compromise of all financial information of their and those related to them being turned over to the US:

Bank fraud, computer security top survey of Canadians’ privacy concerns

The poll suggests two-thirds of Canadians are concerned about the protection of their privacy — with a quarter of respondents saying they are “extremely concerned.”

“There is a growing sense amongst Canadians that their ability to protect their personal information is diminishing,” the report says.

Many Canadians feel a growing sense of helplessness when it comes to protecting their privacy. Seven of every 10 people think their personal information has less protection today than it did a decade ago, the report suggests.

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The survey also suggests most Canadians are concerned about bank fraud, credit-card fraud, computer security and identity theft.

Despite these concerns, the poll found most Canadians remain largely unaware of their privacy rights. Some 63 per cent rated their knowledge of privacy laws either low or in the neutral range. That said, Canadians’ knowledge of their privacy rights is higher now than in previous years, the survey suggests.

Canada Privacy Breaches: More Than A Million Canadians May Have Had Data Compromised

Prompted by a question from NDP MP Charlie Angus, the government was forced to acknowledge this week that at the very least, there were 1,072,999 instances where a Canadian’s private information held by various departments and agencies was lost, stolen or accessed by an unauthorized third party.

In a stack of documents tabled in the House of Commons Monday, the government admitted it has recorded more than 3,134 data and privacy breaches between 2002 and 2012 across all departments — although many departments only counted data breaches within the last two to five years. Of the total breaches, only 399 were reported to Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart.
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The Conservative government said Tuesday that it takes the privacy of Canadians seriously.

Here:

http://site.d66.nl/intveld/document/fatca/f=/vj90hk8obskl.pdf

Does the Commission consider that this condition of Swedbank is related to the recently adopted US law FATCA, the ongoing IGAs on it and the legal uncertainty for the FFI as to the extraterritorial application of FATCA?

Is the Commission aware that the extraterritorial effect of FATCA could lead to banks on the territory of the EU refusing to take US clients?

Does the Commission consider this practice as a violation of the general principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination, or any provision of the EU treaties?

Does the Commission consider that the definition of’ US person’ could also include EU citizens, which would mean that EU citizens could be affected directly by US law on EU soil?

G-20 Pushes for Measures to End Tax Evasion — NYT’s David Jolly

NY Times journalist, David Jolly (as well as NYT’s Brian Knowlton on related stories) — ahead of the pack on reporting the FATCA, DATCA, GATCA scenario. Can’t other journalists see it?

The Group of 20 countries called on Friday for a coordinated effort to stop international tax evasion, urging governments to systematically share bank data.

Finance ministers and central bankers of the G-20, meeting in Washington, said in a communiqué that automatic exchange of tax-relevant bank information should be adopted as the global standard.
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Under an automatic exchange, governments would routinely transfer all foreign taxpayers’ data to their home governments, making it far more difficult to hide assets from the tax collector.

The impetus for the new approach is an American law, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, called Fatca, requiring Americans with overseas accounts and non-American financial firms to meet tough financial disclosure requirements. In practice, Fatca conflicts with privacy laws in many countries, so Washington has been working out bilateral deals in which overseas financial institutions share that data first with their own governments for transmission to the Internal Revenue Service in Washington.