The FBI has released its latest report on Active Records in the NICS Index, updated to 31 March 2013. NICS now contains the records of 21,504 persons who are prohibited from purchasing firearms in the United States because they swore an Oath of Renunciation of United States Citizenship at a U.S. consulate abroad. This is an increase of 196 records as compared to 28 February, and 850 records in the first quarter of 2013 (since 31 December 2012). The quarterly number of renunciants shows an increase of 88% as compared to the same period last year — as we reported two months ago, 452 records of renunciants were added to NICS in the first three months of 2012.
Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad
Canadian bank accounts are just as secret as Liechtensteinian ones
I thought this might be a good opportunity to remind people that Canada has bank secrecy laws too. Remember PIPEDA.
From the privacy commissioner
http://www.priv.gc.ca/information/02_05_d_08_e.asp
PIPEDA requires private-sector organizations to collect, use or disclose your personal information by fair and lawful means, with your consent, and only for purposes that are stated and reasonable.
They’re also obliged to protect your personal information through appropriate security measures, and to destroy it when it’s no longer needed for the original purposes.
You have the right to expect the personal information the organization holds about you to be accurate, complete and up-to-date. That means you have a right to see it, and to ask for corrections if they got it wrong.
If you think an organization covered by PIPEDA is not living up to its obligations, you should try to address your concerns directly with the organization. If that doesn’t work, you have the option of lodging a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner.
PIPEDA applies to the personal information collected, used or disclosed by organizations engaged in commercial activities, from banks and retail outlets to airlines, communications companies and law firms. It applies equally to small and big businesses, whether they operate out of an actual building or only online. The law, which has been fully in force since 2004, applies to private enterprises across Canada.
There are exceptions: Many private enterprises operating within British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec are covered not by PIPEDA but by similar provincial statutes.
But, even in those provinces, PIPEDA applies to organizations under federal jurisdiction, such as companies involved in banking, transportation, broadcasting or telecommunications. For those businesses, PIPEDA also applies to the personal information of employees.
Another law, called the Privacy Act, protects the privacy of your dealings with federal government departments, agencies and Crown corporations
FATCA: Number of Chinese becoming US citizens declines
The number of Chinese who became US citizens has declined annually over the last five years to 31,868 in 2012 from 40,017 in 2008, according to the US Department of Homeland Security…
…”I don’t really have the urge to apply for full US citizenship,” Duan said. “I like the freedom I have to travel back and forth between China.”
The IT programmer said he also has been deterred from getting citizenship by frustrated friends whose US citizenship makes buying real estate in China more difficult and also requires them to pay taxes on their overseas businesses.
According to Lin, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which seeks to curtail offshore tax evasion, is also a factor in the decline of Chinese seeking naturalization.
“It’s a law that’s very well known in the Chinese community,” Lin said. “People are really concerned about the implications.”
Under the new law, US taxpayers holding financial assets abroad must report those assets to the Internal Revenue Service if assets exceed $50,000.
Failure to report those assets may result in a $10,000 to $50,000 penalty..
The law also requires foreign banks and financial entities to find any American account holders and disclose their balances, receipts and withdrawals to the IRS or be subject to a 30 percent withholding tax on income from US financial assets held by the banks or financial entities.
Unbelievable hypocrisy: CRA says it can’t recover tax penalties in Lichtenstein due to OUR privacy laws
While watching the CTV news at 11, I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard the claim by CRA that taxes due from Canadians holding secret bank accounts in Lichtenstein prior to the signing of the DTA were uncollectable due to Canadian privacy laws. You can hear this for yourself
http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.1223543
Kevin Newman interviewed a Lichtenstein official for this short clip; there will be a segment on W5 this Saturday at 7 pm. The whistleblower on the 100 Canadians with Lichtenstein accounts will be featured.
My goodness, I do believe we can use this!
CBC reports that Goldman Sachs exec may be new US ambassador to Canada
Sigh. Another corporate overlord will soon be dispatched to supervise the northern colonies:
Obama picks Goldman Sachs exec for ambassador to Canada
If approved, new ambassador would replace David Jacobson
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/03/pol-us-ambassador-to-canada-obama.html
I wonder if Mr. Heyman will be invited for a drink at the exclusive Canadian IGA club where Canada’s big banks, the Canadian Bankers Association and the Federal Finance Department have already gotten the FATCA party started.
Bahamian technicolor dreams of US financial support for FATCA implementation
Here are two of the stranger and more delusional articles to come down the FATCA rail line so far, courtesy of the Bahamas Tribune:
Bahamas Takes ‘Regional Lead’ Over Fatca
http://www.tribune242.com/news/2013/mar/28/bahamas-takes-regional-lead-over-fatca/
June 1 Deadline For Decision On Fatca
http://www.tribune242.com/news/2013/apr/03/june-1-deadline-decision-fatca/
Inexplicably, the Bahamas seems to be trying desperately to convince itself not only that FATCA might actually be a positive thing for their banking sector, but that they will also somehow convince the US government to help pay for its implementation. Does the Bahamian government, or its media, have ANY idea of what an unmitigated disaster FATCA will be for their island paradise, and for the rest of the world? Astonishing.
Larry Lipsher speech on FATCA (citizenship-based tax) at Hong Kong FCC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBcAao4U1xw
Interesting and funny video, however the FATCA and citizenship-based tax starts about a quarter of the way in.
Upon further watching, this is a MUST WATCH.
Daniel J. Mitchell video interview on FATCA (March 21 2013)
Interesting. Blame clearly directed at the White House and Obama personally. I think he gives some pretty good analysis of where things actually stand behind closed doors in Washington right now. Not great but not as totally bad and inevitable as the FATCA Compliance complex might want you to think.
No April Foolin’! “FATCA Is Far from a Done Deal” via @jonmatonis
April 1, 2013
Washington, DC
By James Jatras
Writing today in the American Banker, e-money researcher and crypto economist Jon Matonis gets dead right what a lot of the conventional “wisdom” gets wrong: FATCA (the “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act”), is far from a “done deal”: Continue reading
IRS tinkers again with “final” FATCA regulations
CCH Group posted this new article on March 28th, 2013:
The IRS will provide clarifications and technical corrections to the final regulations issued on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), enacted as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-147 ), an IRS official said on March 27. When asked whether there might be further ”refinements” to the final regulations, John Sweeney, chief, Branch 8, IRS Associate Chief Counsel (ACC) (International), said that the IRS is also looking at what issues might require substantive changes, but he did not promise that the Service would issue amendments to the final regulations. Sweeney spoke during an American Bar Association (ABA) Tax Section webcast.