Category Archives: Issues regarding US persons abroad

Another article on famous entrepreneurs switching citizenship!

The Apple co-founder has resided for some time in Australia has recently stated that he is applying for citizenship and intends to remain there permanently:

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/387219/20120924/apple-co-founder-steve-wozniak-guns-aussie.htm#.UGHEFkI_OlM

The author of this article seems to think that he become the next big tech person to renounce US citizenship, which I would imagine would result in a huge media storm in about a year’s time should his name appear on a quarterly registrar.  What do you think? Is he trying to get ready for FATCA?

Readers who live in Australia – How has FATCA been impacting your daily life or banking activities up to this point in time?

 
those who choose to become tax exiles betray the countries that enabled their success

France’s Fleeing Billionaire
 

http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=5709773&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=1

Check them there are a lot. I don’t really know who or how many people made FATCA related ones.

Given the Ford Family history of ignoring legal requirement and not doing proper paperwork I tend to have my doubts. It would be interesting for the Toronto Star to take a look. Perhaps Linda McQuiag should take it upon herself to start making some phone calls to City Hall. In fact if you look at Doug Ford’s Linkedin page it still says he lives in Chicago and for those who don’t know the Ford Brothers are both multi millionaires. Remember too even if Doug Ford filed a treaty election with the US to still be considered tax resident in Canada he was still required to file an FBAR on any Canadian accounts if he stayed in the US more than 180 days.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/doug-ford/15/371/233

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.