Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

I just came across this and my hands a shaking as I type this up. From the book Billionaires’ Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality.

http://books.google.com/books?id=I4_HY0QmTp0C&pg=PT169&lpg=PT169&dq=Neil+Brooks+canada+fatca&source=bl&ots=K-vKrvVEiP&sig=soKZTxKwEwb5ctfk9_X_gDajIZo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ICJeUI6LH-3H0AHkz4CQBA&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Neil%20Brooks%20canada%20fatca&f=false

I can’t copy past the exact text but if you go to the link you will see what I am talking about McQuaig and Brooks both criticise Canadian Banks and the Harper government for speaking out against FATCA(without any acknowledgement of the NDP’s role too). Both indicate that Canada has an obligation under the “laws of nature” and “societal justice” to help the United States get financial information on its citizens due to the huge degree income inequality in the US.

Neil Brooks

http://www.osgoode.yorku.ca/faculty/full-time/neil-brooks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_McQuaig

Linda McQuaig is a famous Canadian writer and journalist who worked for the Toronto Star and famously broke the Patti Starr case(relating to an Ontario Liberal MPP engaged in illegal campaign fundraising)

To McQuaig and Brooks I will see to it that your public reputation in Canada will become dirt if the two of you don’t recant public statements in favor of FATCA. I also think the NDP has to make a decision to acknowledge whether these individuals are NDP members and if so whether they should be expelled from the NDP.

I posted this on another thread, but it really deserves its own post. This submission was recently made to the Office of the Chief Council and Associate Chief Council (International) to the IRS and prepared jointly by the Canadian Bankers Association, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada, and the Investment Industry Association of  Canada. It brings up key sticking points in draft forms W-8IMY, W-8ECI and W-8EXP that are “predominantly technical in nature“, and again points out how FATCA’s devil is in the details.

As Badger notes:

“Interesting points about the legal/illegal use and disclosure of SIN numbers, privacy, and Canadian law, as well as the issues of official versions of all those forms and instructions in languages other than English. Specifically French language in Canada, as we are officially a bilingual country, but the CBA document also mentions in passing that other languages would be required – which of course would be the case when FATCA is being imposed on the entire world. Currently the IRS forces those in other countries to bear the significant cost of providing taxpayer submissions and filings plus supplementary documents translated to IRS satisfaction, by certified translators. Those service don’t come cheap.

And I am wondering also, how do US IRS requirements for duals intersect with sovereign rights of Canadian First Nations re taxation? Presumably there are dual Canadian citizens/US persons who are also First Nations individuals.”

September 20, 2012 FATCA Commens from Canadian Financial Industry

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/21/it-is-our-right-eritrea-vows-to-continue-taxing-citizens-in-canada-despite-warning-from-ottawa/

“We have to tax our people, it is our right,” Semere O. Micael, the Eritrean consul in Toronto, said after the National Post reported that Ottawa had sent a diplomatic note to his government making it clear he would be sent home if he continued to run the tax scheme.

Asked to respond to the consul’s comments, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s press secretary Rick Roth said: “We have made our position on this matter to the Eritreans clear, and we expect that to be respected. The government of Eritrea should not test our resolve on this matter.”

My My My This is becoming awfully interesting. I have to wonder for a whole bunch of reasons whether the US State Department is really thrilled with Canada’s actions including for reasons that have nothing to with the US’ own taxation policies. For one thing Canada is picking a fight with a country that is not exactly in the most stable part of the world over an issue notwithstanding Susan Rice’s US Security Council Resolution the US has not appeared to be nearly as willing to go to that mat over. Canada is essentially in some form promoting a customary international law position against citizenship based taxation something at some point the US State Department will have to notice. Canada does have a history of taking “principled” position in this part of the world over international affairs. When the movie Argo comes out in October everyone will be reminded of Canada’s role in the Iran Hostage Crisis. There is also of course Canada’s longstanding ties to Ethiopia which Eritrea was once part of before 1991. Some of you might be remember the Ethiopian Famine and the relief effort started by Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark, and Stephen Lewis and Joe Clark’s famous 1984 visit to Ethopia breaking the western blockade of the then Ethiopian Marxist government. However it is not clear in the present the Ethiopian Canadian relations are much better John Baird for example made a highly publicized but unsucessful visit to Addis Abbaba to win the release of a Canadian citizen being held in a Ethiopian jail. There is also the more recent expulsion of Iranian Diplomats from Ottawa.

Another paragraph in the article should also be observed:

David Matas, an international human rights lawyer who has been assisting Eritrean refugees in Winnipeg, said the consulate was not complying with the substance of Canada’s request.

“To me, that’s making light of the government request. It’s not treating it seriously. It’s trying to play fast and loose. It’s basically trying to pull a fast one on the government of Canada,” he said.

David Matas is not just any old international human rights lawyer he has BIG TIME connections to the Conservative Party of Canada, Jason Kenney, John Baird, and the Harper PMO. My message to the Eritrean government is David Matas is not someone you want to mess around with in Canada. Read any of Paul Wells pieces in Maclean’s magazine about the Rights and Democracy NGO and Aurel Braun.

Story just appeared in the National Post:

“Canada will consider the embassy’s request for renewal of his accreditation once it has received written confirmation that Eritrea has complied in full with the department’s expectations … and therefore the consulate has effectively ceased to collect the 2% ‘recovery and rehabilitation’ tax and the donation for national defence,” read the note, a copy of which the National Post obtained.

“If Mr. O. Micael continues to carry out tax solicitation and tax collection activities in spite of Canada’s express disapproval and view that such activities are incompatible with the normal performance of consular functions, it will expect a notification from the Ministry stating that such person has been recalled from Canada.”

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/20/ottawa-forces-eritrea-to-nix-2-extortion-tax-on-citizens-in-canada/

Note to US Senators if you go ahead with Passport “revocation” bill you will essentially be forcing US Consular Personal in Canada to do the EXACT same thing Eritrean officials were almost booted out of the country over. I do have to say it interesting the Canada took such strong steps against Eritrea especially compared to the US and the FATCA G5 countries notwithstanding the resolution of the UN Security Council. A principled Canadian foreign policy perhaps.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19594334

A bit of satire to lighten the mood 🙂

http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/media-advisories/Pages/09172012B.aspx

Unfortionately the Brussels visit was today. She will be in Paris the rest of the week then Singapore. Maybe she can drop in Eduardo Saverin while she is in town. No Canada visit announced. According to the press release she met with all EU Member States and is meeting with some OECD members but it is not clear which ones.