On October 7, 2014 I posted the new IRS procedures for dealing with Canadian RRSPs and RRIFs (or more precisely the reporting requirements). I posted only the IRS announcement without commentary. As might be expected, the post attracted some interesting comments, including the following comment from Roy Berg.
Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit: November 1, 2014 legal bill will be paid on time! / Poursuite canadienne contre la FATCA et le gouvernement canadien : nos frais légaux du 1er novembre 2014 seront payés à temps !
[We now have a NEW POST taking us up to February 1, 2015. This post will be retired from service.]
THE AUTUMN 2014 UPDATE
Dear Donors,
Together, we reached our goal of $100,000 to pay the November 1 legal bill 11 days ahead of schedule!
Thank you Canadian donors from coast to coast and our friends from around the world for your generosity, support and determination — and especially for not being afraid.
The name of our non-profit corporation is the “Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty.”
We were very deliberate in including in our name the word “sovereignty”, which forms a cornerstone of our Claims against the Government of Canada.
Canada and dozens of other countries throughout the world gave into a bully because their “leaders” were afraid of harm caused by a trading “partner” — and they gave their sovereignties away.
Help us convince by example the Leaders and Governments of all countries worldwide that they should return their sovereignties back to their Peoples.
Please continue to support our lawsuit.
“Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” (Helen Keller)
— Plaintiffs Ginny and Gwen, and the ADCS-ADSC team
Chers donateurs,
Ensemble, nous avons atteint notre but d’amasser 100 000 $ pour payer notre facture légale du 1er novembre 11 jours d’avance !
Un gros merci à vous, donateurs canadiens, et à nos amis de tous les coins du monde pour votre grande générosité, soutien et détermination. Et surtout pour votre courage.
Le nom de notre organisme sans but lucratif est « l’Alliance pour la défense de la souveraineté canadienne ».
Nous avons choisi délibérément le mot « souveraineté » puisqu’il constitue la base fondamentale de nos revendications envers le gouvernement du Canada.
Le Canada et des dizaines d’autres pays se sont pliés devant l’intimidation des États-Unis parce que leurs « leaders » ont eu peur des menaces de notre « partenaire » commercial. Ils ont donc vendu leur souveraineté à rabais.
Aidez-nous à convaincre les dirigeants et les gouvernements de tous ces pays qu’ils se doivent de remettre leur souveraineté à leurs peuples.
S’il vous plaît, continuez à soutenir notre cause.
« Seuls, nous pouvons faire si peu. Ensemble, nous pouvons faire beaucoup. » (Helen Keller)
— Ginny, Gwen et toute l’équipe de l’ADCS-ADSC
DONATE to www.adcs-adsc.ca (ADSC en français).
The #FATCA Time Has Come to Surrender Myself. I AM A US PERSON.
The time is coming near to when I must surrender. In my country of Sweden, the real Swedish people are being mapped, while the US persons remain out there unidentified. It’s time to do what is right for my Sweden and for you to do what is right your country too. I must turn myself in., and so should you.
My country is spending more than $25 per person in order to find me. This must stop.
I know that I am worth 30 000 SEK to Sweden—they are paying more than $200 million dollars to find all of the US persons here, and there are about 50,000 US persons located here. I can do my part and give myself to Sweden. I am worth 30,000 SEK to them. If all of the others can follow and do the right thing, the country will be saved and the FATCA money can go back to being spent upon real Swedish people.
Soon, I shall dress myself up, and take myself first to my bank. I will take my number in the bank line, and when I reach the front of the line, I shall declare: “I admit, I am a US person” “Please save Sweden from me”.
From there, I shall walk to the local tax authority skatteverket, and I shall again take a number for the que. When I reach the front of the que, I shall humbly state “I am a US person” “Please save Sweden from me”
I shall pick the appropriate time, Perhaps it shall be Tuesday, the 11th of November, at 9:30 pm, depending upon what is convenient, and if anyone should decide to accompany me.
Perhaps someone shall also be willing to do the right thing. The world must be saved from these US persons and Sweden must be saved from me.. I shall turn myself in. So should you.
I shall do my part to save Sweden from me, for I AM A US PERSON.
Cross post from
http://samuelclemmons.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/the-time-has-come-to-surrender-myself-i-am-a-us-person/
(Read the other articles, too)
Citizenship Showdown Coming Between Free People and the U.S. Government
It’s a sunny day in the UK. I call my father.
‘Hello Dad. I got this funny letter from my financial institution. It’s about tax, or something. Uh, am I still an American?
I was born in the U.S. Thirteen months later, we moved to the UK, where I have lived ever since.
As a baby, I had an American passport. As a child and throughout adulthood, I’ve only held a British passport. I’ve been back to the US once, for a short holiday over 20 years ago.
‘You’re American-born. I suppose that means you’re still an American?.
As it turns out, it does indeed. I am an American. I am an American who cannot remember living in America. I am an American who cannot name more than a dozen American states. I am an American who has never voted in an American election.
I am an ‘accidental American’. And for that I will pay. Literally.
*****
This is one more example of the United States imposing citizenship on people because they were born in the U.S. Is citizenship something that one chooses or is citizenship something that is forced upon you? Does any country have the right to impose citizenship on residents and citizens of other countries? Is citizenship a “property interest” that a government has in people? Does the U.S. government believe that it has ownership over anybody born in the United States?
The Obama administration has made U.S. citizenship such a burden and devalued it to the point where people are happily paying money to be rid of it.
But, the U.S. government is making it very difficult to relinquish U.S. citizenship through the available statutory channels. This is clear from the:
– outright refusals to recognize past relinquishments
– outrageous wait times and inability to get appointments
– the outrageous and unjustifiable fee increase to renounce U.S. citizenship
– the imposition of Nazi and Soviet style exit taxes
It’s certainly “change we can never believe in”.
This is going to get very very nasty.
On the one hand we have a U.S. Government that says:
“You are our property until we say you are not”.
On the other hand we have those who don’t believe they are property and will say:
“I am a free person. How can I then be a citizen of the United States?”
IRS Commissioner Koskinen is BRAINDEAD!!!
and worse than Shulman: http://www.taxanalysts.com/www/features.nsf/Features/C21A42AD927007A285257D780057410A?OpenDocument
MR. HOFFMAN: What did you think of Steven Miller’s comments last week that he’s not sure that FATCA’s benefits will outweigh its costs, which were followed, I believe, followed shortly thereafter, by Nina Olson’s comments somewhat along a similar vein, concerned about the cost versus benefits of FATCA? COMMISSIONER KOSKINEN: Well, I think it’s always an important question if you’re going to make statutory changes and increase, by definition almost, some burden to some extent. You know, what do you gain from that? You know, we’ve already collected 6 or 7 — now over $7 billion in additional revenues that would otherwise not have been collected just through the offshore voluntary disclosure program. And, you know, that’s — there the burden was simply people had to come forward. It was a fairly straightforward process, so there was a fairly significant amount of money in return. I’ve always thought that the problem you have is you can’t measure the benefit just by the taxes you collect. What you have to do is measure the benefit by the overall impact on the system generally. And what I’ve always been, even before I got here, concerned about was if the average taxpayer felt I’m paying a greater burden of supporting the government because rich people with fancy lawyers and accountants don’t have to pay taxes, they can hide money in Switzerland. You know, hiding money in Switzerland has been a visible issue for 50 years. It’s corrosive to compliance and corrosive to the system. So when you’re going to talk about measuring the benefit, you can’t look just at the burden and the additional resources we get out of the filings there. But having said that, there are indications, not surprisingly, there was a preliminary review that said between 2011 and 2012 — in fact, you guys reported it — we got 500,000 more returns about foreign accounts with $100 billion of income. And we’re seeing the same thing in 1099-Ks. But even as we do that, as I say, and we’re tracking, the voluntary compliance rate is going up as we go. In some cases, when people match, the revenue goes up, then suddenly their expenses magically go up. But those are signals that we can follow. So I think in FATCA, when you look at it, you won’t be measuring just by the amount of money we collect from the people we catch. You won’t be measuring it just by the increased reporting and money we collect from people who now are with the program. Ultimately, the benefit is, again, protecting the overall compliance rate in the sense of the average taxpayer that it’s a fair system.
FATCA has no Maximum, only Minimums–FATCA comes to Sweden
Sweden begins to implement FATCA by sending out FATCA questionaires in a spray to Swedish citizens.
Since FATCA only has minimum reporting requirements, each bank and each customer in any country is deputized to do anything it wants to US citizens. This fulfills the opposite of the function of a government—which is supposed to PROTECT its citizens from harm no matter where they are in the world. Not to deputize foreign banks and foreign countries to violate the rights of their citizens.
Please note the VERY intrustive questions. Have we returned to the McCarthy era?
Sweden has a weak government—it will do whatever is demanded-and then some.
“Are you a politically exposed person, have you or have you ever had a high political post, high government office or close family member of such a person?”
“What is the origin of the capital that is currently on your Nordea account?”
“What is the purpose of your current banking relationship with Nordea?”
ROUGH TRANSLATION: “Any Swedish bank customers must shortly certify that they are not taxable in the United States. The reason is a new cooperation agreement between the United States and Sweden. An agreement under which both critics endangers both the privacy and may violate EU laws.
“Are you a politically exposed person, have you or have you ever had a high political post, high government office or close family member of such a person?”
“What is the origin of the capital that is currently on your Nordea account?”
“What is the purpose of your current banking relationship with Nordea?”
When a letter from the bank with these issues tumbled down the home of Janne Bengtsson in Alingsås, he became suspicious.
– I thought it was the imposter and was thinking of going to the police, but on the way there, I took the turn for Nordea to ask them. They said it was about an agreement with the USA and Sweden signed and that I would answer the questions, he says. Did not bother to answer
But he still thought it was creepy and thought it could not happen anything serious if he did not care to answer the questions, because he is a customer of the bank since long. It turned out to be wrong.
The reason that Janne Bengtsson got the letter on the other side of the Atlantic.
After the American financial crisis, the United States imposed a new law that would help them find tax evaders in the world, even in Sweden. As recently as August, the then Swedish government an agreement with the United States, known as FATCA Agreement.
The agreement is the basis for a bill that the Finance Ministry is working on right now and that parliament is expected to approve this spring. The legislation will come into force on 1 April by 2015. collects information
Nordea says to SVT that all who become customers after July 1, 2014, and further, some people get the questions from the bank. Although the legislation has not yet entered into force, one has in gathering information for the United States. The next step is that banks violate bank secrecy and hand over customer information to the Tax Office, but it requires a change in the law.
According to sources in the Ministry of Finance, the banks in the future be required to terminate accounts if customers do not provide the information requested.
Swedes in the US shall be reported
The debate surrounding FATCA has been rather lukewarm, although criticized by heavy bodies Swedjsh Bar Association and the Swedish banking association.
According to the Ministry of Finance is an agreement between the countries better than the American law applies over the head of the Swedish authorities. Now Sweden has an exchange, since the United States in the contract (IGA) agrees to the return report Swedish taxpayers in the United States.
In the end, Janne Bengtsson in Alingsås responded to the questions, but only after Nordea informed him that he would not be able to use their bank account in full if he did not respond.
– I’m dependent upon being able to transfer money, I send money to friends in Tanzania to help with medical care and food, so I had to fill out. But I think it feels like Sweden sold to the United States, says he said.”
Vote all you want: The Government Won’t Change
Interesting Article:
IDEAS: Why would policy makers hand over the national-security keys to unelected officials?
GLENNON: It hasn’t been a conscious decision….Members of Congress are generalists and need to defer to experts within the national security realm, as elsewhere. They are particularly concerned about being caught out on a limb having made a wrong judgment about national security and tend, therefore, to defer to experts, who tend to exaggerate threats. The courts similarly tend to defer to the expertise of the network that defines national security policy.
The presidency itself is not a top-down institution, as many people in the public believe, headed by a president who gives orders and causes the bureaucracy to click its heels and salute. National security policy actually bubbles up from within the bureaucracy. Many of the more controversial policies, from the mining of Nicaragua’s harbors to the NSA surveillance program, originated within the bureaucracy. John Kerry was not exaggerating when he said that some of those programs are “on autopilot.”
#FATCA Global Implementation Costs Revealed (Cross Post, Guest post)
#FATCA: A Taxing Law Made by a Whole Bunch of Zeroes.
A new US tax law raises only $9,000,000,000 for the USA. However the world pays $200,000,000,000 to implement that tax law. That means that 9 zeroes were made by 11 zeroes.
The 2010 Congress’ HR 2847 Jobs for Mainstream Act, a domestic jobs bill, was funded by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). FATCA’s mechanism is to force all of the world’s banks to identify their resident customers who might be suspected of being dual US citizens or US green card holders. The law takes advantage of US’ globally-unique taxation system, which is allowed to tax any dual citizens or US visa holders even when such persons do not reside in US. The only two countries of the world practicing this type of taxation is US and Eritrea. To better understand this method, envision being born in Iowa and paying lifelong taxes to Iowa even while living in Georgia or Ohio.
Of course, there is limited relief to this taxation. A dual citizen living in Sweden, via the use of a complicated set of forms, might be able to offset most of the US taxes with exclusions and credits for having paid Swedish taxes. Unfortunately, his Swedish pensions and Swedish unemployment benefits could still be taxed by USA. He could also be subject to self-employment taxes and (if qualified) could also not escape the Obamacare tax upon the rich. FATCA will make its revenue gains by ensuring that dual US/Swedish citizens in Sweden are identified so as to pay taxes upon their income not taxed by Sweden. And so forth. Country-by-country and instance-by-instance, FATCA would enable further IRS revenue by identifying previously-unidentified US dual citizens throughout the world.
Australia’s study determined that FATCA would cost its banks $1.065 billion USD, or $42.12 USD per capita. Hence, its recommendation was for the Australian government to absorb some of FATCA’s implementation costs, by signing an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the US Treasury Department. With the IGA, it was determined that its banks costs would be reduced by more than half—from $42.12 USD to $20.46 per capita. Canada and UK have also absorbed some of the banks implementation costs, so that their banks are only burdened with $26.02 and $25.28 USD per capita. These three countries verify each other’s calculations, in being able to transfer more than half of their bank’s implementation costs into each country’s own administration.
Up to half of the world’s governments have signed IGA’s. Even China, Russia, Kosovo, and UAE have agreed to collect and store FATCA’s identification of US persons within their countries. As a result, we can see that about half of the world has reduced it’s banks’ implementation costs from $42.12 to as low as approximately $22 US. Even though these IGA’s are not all the same, this could succeed to bring FATCA’s global bank burden down to as low as $221 billion USD.
FATCA is a law created by specialist US accountants with specialist FATCA competency. As such, FATCA’s implementation is primarily by very-high priced compliance firms. There are few discounts available in lower income countries. There are few lower-cost specialists outside of the developed world. It would be difficult to say that FATCA-implementation cost reductions might be possible in low income regions or in non-IGA countries.
It might also be said that low income countries have fewer banks for their populations and fewer banks trading in US investment products. If these banks could succeed to stay out of US investments, indeed, the global FATCA implementation costs might be reduced somewhat. Another possible reduction might be that, although the 2010 Congress intended for the entire world to implement FATCA, many developing countries can not or will not implement FATCA.
There is no other analyses available showing other than an $8.5-8.9 billion USD FATCA revenue benefit over a 10 year period. Round that up to $9,000,000,000—9 zeroes. However, with the analysis in this article, it shows that the FATCA implementation costs have been reduced from $291 billion to $221 billion. FATCA has then been shown to globally lose $212 billion dollars net. Rounding down, we see that FATCA is made by $200,000,000,000—11 zeroes.
FATCA was created by a whole bunch of zeroes.
All rights reserved
This is a guest post—submitted by a fan. For reprints-contact the blog.
http://samuelclemmons.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/fatca-a-taxing-law-made-by-a-bunch-of-zeroes/
Calculations and sources found at the blog, in the comment section.
Canada wins a Round in Trade Battle with US
Barrie McKenna has been following an ongoing battle between Canada and the US.
A WTO appeal panel ruled that a U.S. law that requires grocery stores to list the country of origin on meat products discriminates against Canadian and Mexican livestock.
The Conservative government warned that it will strike back with punitive duties unless the U.S. ends the “blatantly protectionist” regulations, which its says are costing the North American cattle and hog industry more than $1-billion a year.
“Canada will be watching this situation closely to ensure U.S. compliance in accordance with the WTO’s clear ruling,” Trade Minister Ed Fast and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in a joint statement. “We will continue to fully assert our rights to achieve a fair resolution to our concern, including seeking authorization to implement retaliatory measures on U.S. agricultural and non-agricultural products if and as necessary.”
Ottawa has already identified 38 target products for retaliation. The list includes U.S. cattle and hogs, as well as a number symbolic products, including California wine, Vermont maple syrup, Florida orange juice, ketchup and breakfast cereal.
So the issue is the country of origin on the labelling of meat. Discrimination against Canada. The Conservative government is hopping mad and willing to protect the meat industry but will do nothing to protect its own citizens and permanent residents (who pay taxes and according to Hon. Sinclair Stevens, are fulling entitled to the protection of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms). It will however, engage in a trade war for cattle and pigs.
Ottawa is willing to slap on some sanctions in this disagreement but it never seemed to occur to them to respond in a similar fashion when Washington decided to put a crippling sanction on the financial industry. FATCA has been estimated to also cost $1 billion per year. Same issues, same cost.
I find it incredibly ironic that Canada will choose “symbolic products” to target. “Punitive,” “country of origin,” “discrimination” and “asserting our rights.” Sound familiar?
Important Personal Security Planning for US Citizens, US Green Card Holders, and their Families Located in Sensitive Regions, Regarding #FATCA and IGA’s
This system will be fully functioning by spring of 2015. US persons should be fully informed of this procedure by that time.
Follows is information about events which should be considered versus your personal safety. It is up to each individual to determine if he/she is comfortable with this situation in these locations. This is not new information–this system has been developed during the course of 4.5 yrs in conjunction with the US Treasury and these governments.
If you are a US citizen, please be aware that many unstable governments have been deputized to hold your most personal and private information, such as your social security number, local identity number, bank asset values, bank account numbers, address and telephone number. Please be aware that there are little (if any) demands as to how this data shall be stored and communicated.
This is valid for any “US person for tax purposes” who is identified in any country of the world. A US person can be a US citizen, a holder of a US visA (“Green card”), a US-owned business, and any family member or business who might be sharing financial resources and financial signature authority with a US person.
Intergovernmental Agreements (IGA’s) have been made with a large number of foreign governments, who have been enabled, entrusted, and deputized with critical personal information about all US persons.
Some sensitive countries to note are Armenia, Hong Kong, Iraq, Nicaragua, Moldova, Paraguay,Taiwan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Cabo Verde, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Malaysia, Panama, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan
You may discuss this issue with your US embassy. However, please be aware that it was the embassy that implemented this and negotiated this.
Some background information follows at the address where this is originally posted
or
Please do your best to spread this information via all communication channels, such as facebook, twitter, and letters to Congress.
For those that remain as active US citizens, a sample letter to your Congressperson can be copy-pasted from this:
The above tweet references a separate article by Mr. Berg on this topic. He explains this comment in more detail. The article includes:
I recommend the complete article. It’s a valuable contribution to the discussion. I would also recommend rereading some of the other interesting and insightful comments to the original post of October 7.