Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

Alberta to recruit American war vets to work in oilsands

The question is — with working in Canada for long periods of time, what are tax return and reporting responsibilities for these workers — both for Canada CRA and US IRS?

CALGARY— Alberta is seeking to recruit an army of oilsands workers — literally.

The province is on the march to attract thousands of demobilized U.S. military personnel to help develop what’s been touted as Canada’s economic engine for coming decades, the oilsands.

The project’s success would also act as a goodwill gesture for Canada’s controversial oilsands, said Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes.

“We’re trying to understand how we could produce employment opportunities for American service people returning from overseas,” Hughes said Friday. “I’ve detected some interest in the States.”

The mission has attracted the attention of U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson and the encouragement of the U.S.’s former consul general in Calgary, Laura Lochman, said Hughes.

Hughes said there are a half-million unemployed or underemployed younger military veterans in the U.S. — a force that could be tapped to satisfy a chronically-hungry energy industry in Alberta.

. . .

I am temporarily suspending wall of shame inductions but I think the following blog post is rather interesting. Ann Hollingshead and the Task Force for Financial Integrity & Economic Development have been big FATCA supporters for many years whom I sparred with back in the early days of Brock. At one time she was also critic of Jim Flaherty for as she put it interferring with the soveriegn right of the US to make its own tax policies. Clearly she knows about our criticism and has been stung by it(She in fact singles out American Citizens Abroad for as she puts it hyperbole). I think this might be a wonderful opportunity to bring our criticism back home to her and let her know about our latest activities. (The actually point of the blog post is to say how great the IGA’s are).

http://www.financialtaskforce.org/2012/11/14/a-strong-sustainable-future-for-fatca-and-tax-compliance/

A Strong, Sustainable, Future for FATCA and Tax Compliance.

UPDATE 2:  This post has been upgraded to a press release at newswire.ca and digitjournal.com.  Thanks go to Jim Jatras.

UPDATE:  Jim Jatras has provided an revised Word Version of the text below for mass distribution.

Canada appeal

The following is a message from Jim Jatras:

Friends

Please review that following and submit comments. I hope it’s more or less self-explanatory.

As indicated in a previous comment, it’s in effect a kind of ad or statement inviting people to contact Harper, Flaherty, MPs and oppose FATCA/IGA. Ideally, it’s the kind of thing that would be posted online or even in print publications as an ad, if there were money for that. (If Canadian industry weren’t spending money trying to get the “best deal possible” from the Americans under an IGA instead of fighting.) Certainly individual comment letters to the Finance Department should be sent, but let’s not kid ourselves they will pay much attention them. What we need is a groundswell of outraged Canadians to contact Harper, Flaherty, and MPs as soon as possible with a simple message: NO!

I realize that it’s always risky to hang a draft out where anyone can take a whack at it, but feel free. Also, any ideas on where and how it can be posted and distributed are welcome.

BTW, this is the kind of thing that routinely gets placed in DC in publications like Politico, The Hill, Roll Call, and other pubs aimed at Congress. Picture a similar message aimed at Congress but making an American argument against FATCA, as this makes a Canadian one. That’s how we get things done – if we had someone with money and willing to fight.

Best

Jim

Call or email Stephen Harper, Jim Flaherty, and Your MP Today!

Call or email Stephen Harper, Jim Flaherty, and Your MP Today!

STOP an Impending Massive Handover of Canadian Sovereignty to the United States!

 Tell the Government: Canada Must Say NO

to the United States on ‘FATCA’

Recently the Department of Finance invited comments on what was characterized as “an agreement to improve cross-border tax compliance through . . . the provisions enacted by the United States commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).”  This eleventh-hour invitation came as sources in both Ottawa and Washington announced that they were close to finalizing an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) that would, in effect, deputize the Canadian government to enforce this American law in Canada.

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I just became aware of this: McBride #1 – Court Holds Government Must Prove FBAR Willful Penalty by a Preponderance (11/11/12).  I thought it might be interesting for all of you.

What I found most interesting was Townsend’s commentary:

Based on the detailed findings of fact, the Court first determined that the Government need prove willfulness only by a preponderance of the evidence rather than by clear and convincing evidence.  Since the Court’s recitation of facts was so damning, it is not clear that the Court would have reached a different conclusion even if the burden were clear and convincing.  Nevertheless, here is what the Court said about its holding on the preponderance of the evidence burden…

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There have been tremors and blips for years, from Texas to Alaska and all the way back to Vermont we have heard of possible seccession movements building up in the US.  In the aftermath of the US election some 20 different states’ residents have even submitted official petitions to the White House with this very goal in mind, and the Texas petition has garnered enough signatures that the White House must officially respond to it.

US election: Unhappy Americans ask to secede from US

Whether or not this will come to anything is anyone’s guess.  Coming from the EU, where seccession is a real issue (especially in Flanders, Scotland, Catalonia and now even Venice), I find it difficult to compare public mood in the US to that in Europe – I personally believe that there will be at least one new European state within the next five years.

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