The following advertisement spontaneously appeared in the Delta Optimist. This paper appears weekly in the riding of Kerry Lynn Findlay, Minister of National Revenue (Kerry-Lynne.Findlay@parl.gc.ca). We accept free advertising like this from any concerned citizen who wants to try to make an impact. Thanks to the person who did this and sent me the graphics.
ACA Urges Congress To Adopt Residence-Based Taxation
by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington
07 March 2014
American Citizens Abroad (ACA) has provided testimony to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Investigations Subcommittee following its recent hearing on offshore tax evasion, and has recommended that the United States should implement a residence-based tax (RBT) system to avoid penalizing American expatriates.
The ACA, as the principal organization representing Americans overseas, has limited its comments to tax issues which impact US citizens and green card holders resident overseas.
Under the current citizenship-based tax (CBT) system, Americans abroad remain subject to US taxation as though they were still US residents. Under RBT, only US residents, whether Americans or foreigners, would be subject to US income, estate and gift taxation, while Americans resident abroad would be taxed under essentially the same rules applicable to non-resident aliens.
Asking “Where Are You From?” Results In $60,000 Rental Discrimination Penalty
Innocent Small Talk Apparently Illegal, According to Boston Fair Housing Commission
The seemingly innocent question posed by a Boston rental agent to Gladys Linder when they were searching for an apartment was “Where are you from?”
“Venezuela,” she answered.
Gladys and her husband went on to find an apartment a month later without further incident. But she found the question about her national origin insulting and upsetting.
This is Massachusetts, and you know what came next.
Stokel filed a complaint with the Boston Fair Housing Commission, claiming that rental agent’s question was discriminatory and caused her to suffer fear, anxiety and sleeplessness over a three-year period.
Seriously?
Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 151B and the Boston Fair Housing Commission Regulations make it illegal for any licensed real estate broker “to cause to be made any written or oral inquiry or record concerning . . . national origin.”
A stop to the violence and hatred? A stable coalition government? A resolution to the crisis in Crimea? Nah, none of that stuff really matters compared to the business of privatising the profits and socialising the costs. And with Ukraine’s U.S. “allies” pushing FATCA down their throats, the banks have some big costs they need to foist on the Ukrainian taxpayer, to make sure the banks don’t have to pay all of it themselves.
So Ukraine’s banks have taken a cue from Carl Levin’s strategy of sneaking FATCA itself through as a midnight amendment to a bill that was too long for anyone to read — they only conduct their anti-democratic IGA advocacy when no one is looking. And what better time than when the rest of the public is busy paying attention to some minor political kerfluffle like the fate of their country?
НАБУ обеспокоена отсутствием реальной имплементации Закона FATCA в Украине |
NABU concerned about lack of real implementation of FATCA law in Ukraine |
| http://news.kompass.ua/news/2014-03-07-34186 | |
| Независимая ассоциация банков Украины (НАБУ) обеспокоена отсутствием официальной информации о подготовке проекта Соглашения между правительством Украины и правительством Соединенных Штатов Америки относительно имплементации Закона «О налоговых требованиях к иностранным счетам» (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, FATCA). Об этом Ассоциация сообщила в своем письме в адрес премьер-министра Украины Арсения Яценюка. | The Independent Association of Ukrainian Banks (NABU) is concerned by the lack of official information on the preparation of the draft Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the United States of America concerning the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, the association stated in its letter to Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk. |
“We must save our country immediately so we can surrender it to the IRS in one piece!”
Google Translate handles the article surprisingly well, so I’ll let you read the rest there. Apparently the greed and chutzpah of bankers is a universal language.
A Brocker recently received this letter from her MP with regard to the IGA.
Dear xoxo
I shared your concerns about the U.S. Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act
(FATCA). I am thrilled to report that on February 5, 2014, Canada and the
United States signed an inter-governmental agreement under the longstanding
Canada-U.S. Tax Convention. This agreement brings a series of lengthy
negotiations to a conclusion which, I believe, will be of great benefit to
dual citizens and Americans living in Canada.
DONORS: We Did It!!
We just made our target of $18,500
PLEASE STOP FURTHER DONATIONS
The Donation button is now closed, only six days after the launch of the Canadian Charter Challenge Fund ~ and well AHEAD of our three week schedule.
Thank you all so much for being part of this important first in fighting the FATCA invasion into our honest, productive lives as Canadian citizens and residents. Together, we can make a difference.
NEXT STEPS:
Remember, this is just the first step, and we all know that the next step will be much more difficult.
“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step” ~Martin Luther King Jr.~
Stephen Kish and Lynne Swanson thank you for having the faith to take that first step with us.
We are so very happy to announce that we have reached the amount we need to engage Joe Arvay for a legal opinion as to whether we have a case for the Charter Challenge.
PLEASE – DO NOT SEND ANY FUTHER DONATIONS REGARDING THE CANADIAN CHARTER CHALLENGE FUND!
We are extremely grateful to all who were able to give to this cause. We are sure some of you had to dig deeper than might be comfortable to donate. We appreciate that more than you will ever know.
A more formal announcement will follow but had to get this up immediately.
With thanks,
Stephen, Lynne, GwEvil & Tricia
Summary: South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that 3,621 of their citizens filed Declarations of Permanent Return last year after cancelling foreign citizenship or permanent residence (likely to be about half from the U.S., though their report does not specify), prompting anguished reactions from Korean Americans who didn’t move back; only 95 new renunciants were stripped of firearms purchasing rights and added to NICS in February, the second-smallest monthly total since 2012; and finally, USCIS estimated that 9,371 people will file Form I-407 to abandon their green cards in 2014 and subsequent years, even though the average level in the past five years has been twice that.
Details and links after the jump.
Elizabeth May and the Green Party of Canada have spoken out against the recently announced FATCA IGA between Canada and the US. On Monday, Ms. May raised the issue of Charter rights in Question Period. From Open Parliament, here is her exchange with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty:
Elizabeth May Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC
Mr. Speaker, I rise to ask a question today of the Minister of Finance relating to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, FATCA.
On the U.S. side of the border, there are concerns raised that because the treaties have not been ratified through the U.S. Senate, these may not be legally binding treaties in any case; and on the Canadian side of the border, no less a legal expert than Peter Hogg, former dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, has written the advice that this very likely will violate section 15 of the Charter by treating some Canadians differently from others.
More than 30 years ago, I learned constitutional law in a textbook he wrote.
What will the minister say to its constitutionality?
Jim Flaherty Minister of Finance
Mr. Speaker, I was taught by Peter Hogg as well. I got an A in the tax course.
The “General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2015 Revenue Proposals”, or the “Green Book” for short, has just been released (hat tip: Tax Prof Blog, of course — and it seems Just Me beat me to the story in a comment a few hours ago). It includes a proposal to “Provide for Reciprocal Reporting of Information in Connection with the Implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act”, a.k.a. “DATCA”, beginning in 2016. There are also a half-dozen other proposals which may also be of interest to extraterritorial tax filers, most of which were also offered up last year but failed to pass.
The inclusion of a proposal in the Green Book by no means ensures its passage (witness previous failed attempts to repeal “check-the-box”, or just note all the similarities between last year’s Green Book to this one’s), and it also gives concrete form to something which up until now was vague and uncertain. That means there is now specific language around which domestic opposition can coalesce, which in turn may provoke international concern about the likelihood of getting any actually reciprocity from these IGAs their bankers are urging them to sign.
