This Could Destroy the Lives of Millions
Another Brocker in the news.
IRS Would Like Citizens to Spy on Retailers Too
Interesting article in Bloomberg Businessweek detailing a program in Brazil that encouraged customers to essentially become arms of their governments tax authority.
This is how it works:
In the State of Sao Paulo in Brazil, customers who ask for a receipt can give their social security number to the cashier. Businesses have to submit their copy of those receipts—with or without social security numbers—to the tax authority. The authority creates an account for every social security number entered into the system and reports to customers which receipts have been entered with their social security number and how much they are for. Customers receive a rebate worth about 30 percent of their share of sales taxes paid through the business each month, and for every $50 of receipts they are entered into a lottery with a maximum payout of $500,000. They can complain online if they think receipts are missing or have the wrong price.
The IRS noted that “Overall, compliance is highest where there is third-party information reporting and/or withholding. …”
Not that anyone should be surprised by the existence of such a program, or the IRS’s admiration of coercing third parties to do some of their legwork. This is par for the course in the bankrupt era in which we find ourselves. People are no longer citizens but chattel who serve only two purposes – maintaining the status quo through blind, single-issue and/or reactionary voting and forking over the meager fruits of our labor into the money-pits that used to be our governments.
Don’t look for things to get less Orwellian any time soon. We have jumped the shark.
Government of Canada allows Washington DC to kidnap Canadian citizens
The inter-governmental agreement (IGA) between the USA and Canada which will enforce FATCA in Canada has an interesting line on page 27:
With respect to New Individual Accounts not described in paragraph A of this section, upon account opening (or within 90 days after the end of the calendar year in which the account ceases to be described in paragraph A of this section), the Reporting Canadian Financial Institution must obtain a self-certification, which may be part of the account opening documentation, that allows the Reporting Canadian Financial Institution to determine whether the Account Holder is resident in the United States for tax purposes (for this purpose, a U.S. citizen is considered to be resident in the United States for tax purposes, even if the Account Holder is also a tax resident of another jurisdiction) Continue reading
CARP weighs in on FATCA
UPDATE #3, February 12, 2014, CORRESPONDENCE TO CARP / ZOOMER:
From: caroltapanila
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 3:01 PM
To: Michael Nicin
Subject: Re: Your announcement of your “advocacy” for FATCA (which is combined with US citizenship-based taxation)Mr. Nicin,
If CARP / Zoomer is true to its word that they will follow the FATCA issue, you might want to keep up to date on how FATCA, combined with US citizenship-taxation law, can affect unaware Canadian snowbirds and their time spent away from the US when they spend winter months in the US, how they handle their US property when are in Canada, etc. Some of them have commented in news stories that they’ve been told the US will change their laws to accommodate them and the time they can stay in the US for no tax consequences. They shouldn’t be so sure. Canadian snowbirds, if they are not careful and now that their comings and goings will be recorded at the border, may want to take a page from the FATCA IGA give-away that Canada just negotiated with the US. It only proves their trust should not be given so easily to the governments of either country. It is oh so easy for Canadian snowbirds to be another group that the US will define ‘US Persons in Canada’. They can protect themselves and their interests if they do their homework to be in the know and are not careless. It is your job to advise them. I wrote to Zoomer on this subject when there was a misleading article in their “advertising” for snowbirds. Again, I never got a response.
Consider:
What will be the criteria for your vote for Canadian Government representatives the next time you exercise your right to vote?
From: caroltapanila
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:33 PM
To: Prime Minister Stephen Harper ; Minister James Flaherty ; Kevin.Shoom@fin.gc.ca ; Michelle.Rempel@parl.gc.ca
Cc: Murray.Rankin@parl.gc.ca ; thomas.mulcair@parl.gc.ca ; Elizabeth.May@parl.gc.ca ; scott.brison@parl.gc.ca ; Ted.Hsu@parl.gc.ca ; Abby Deshman, CCLA ; J. Paul Dube ; peggy.nash@parl.gc.ca ; Justin Trudeau ; James Fitz-Morris ; Patrick Cain ; Amber Hildebrandt, CBC ; Mike.Sullivan.P9@parl.gc.ca
Subject: If you have time, does this seem paranoia to you? How many US Persons in Canada do you know?
My Canadian Government Representatives,
We have a whole lot of stories to tell. That we are afraid to come forward and tell them in fear for ourselves and our families (fear which I still, or even more so now have that I have come forward) is a story in itself.
Every Canadian MP, our government representatives, must intimately know ALL aspects of FATCA and must know their US Person constituents stories. Blowing us off with no discussion, no answers to our questions is not appropriate. They are to represent me and my family. Their knowledge of FATCA, US citizenship-based taxation, how it wreaks collateral damage to so many of Canada’s population, the complicity of the Canadian government in draining the resources from Canada’s treasury, the cost to every single Canadian. If I don’t know that plus have their full support that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will continue to protect ALL Canadians, then my vote will not have been earned.
Continue reading
Liquid Lunch Brockers
Some of us have been invited to appear on Thatchannel‘s Liquid Lunch today. Expect us at about 1:30 pm on the live stream.
UPDATE: Gwen, Peter Dunn and Tricia Moon spoke with Hugh Reilly and Sandra Kyrzakos. Here is the actual video, the actual segment begins at 1:27:50
New Theo Caldwell Article in Canada’s Financial Post Attacking CBT, FATCA, the IGA, and Asking For a Leader to STAND UP to the Bully
UPDATE:
This article has also been published at The Hill’s Congress Blog. It’s a great opportunity to directly reach a Congressional audience so we encourage readers to get over there and comment!
This is the second article by Caldwell in Canada’s conservative-leaning Financial Post and is much stronger than the first. I have asked Mr. Caldwell to send his article as a submission to Canada Finance (deadline March 10).
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2014/02/11/canadas-u-s-tax-capitulation/
A few excerpts:
“FATCA, passed by the U.S. Congress in 2010, is an extension of America’s anomalous and larcenous practice of demanding taxes from people, regardless of where they reside in the world. The United States is one of only two countries that engage in this disgraceful conduct (Eritrea being the other.)
….Let us eliminate a deliberate misconception: This agreement is not about catching “tax cheats” as its proponents aver and journalists obediently repeat. It is about expanding America’s oversight of global commerce, while increasing its ability to confiscate funds to which it has no legitimate claim.
Should non-citizens be able to vote in 2014 Toronto municipal election? Independent Nation discusses citizenship with Brockers
John Richardson and Bahman Yazdanfar discuss citizenship issues with Peter W. Dunn and Trica Moon. The topic at hand is:
Don’t be too surprised when FBAR, FATCA and/or citizenship based taxation becomes part of the discussion.
The legal analysis starts: Roy Berg: Moodys Gartner Tax Law, with quote from Allison Christians
As MPs tell their constituents what a good deal Canada’s IGA signing with the USA is, I am posting this so others can consider.
I will have to read this a few more dozen times to get my head around it.
Roy Berg’s conclusion is:
Conclusion
“I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Non-US trusts occupy an unenviable position in FATCA-Land. Most will be classified as Financial Institutions and therefore will have to carefully navigate the vagaries of domestic and international law in order to avoid the consequences of inadvertent non-compliance. The Canada-United States IGA goes a long way to mitigate the compliance cost and consequences of non-compliance but, as noted, some clarifications are required.Just as Alice couldn’t go back to the person she once was, neither can we go back. FATCA has changed the global banking, business and tax landscape – and more changes will follow.
I want my son to be able to expatriate but ‘they won’t let me do so on his behalf’…
February 17, 2014 UPDATE – my email regarding this: Help, I Want to Expatriate But They Won’t Let Me, Part 2
My comment on this tax blog post regarding what will be discussed in Part 2:
calgary411 says:
February 10th, 2014 at 21:07As a comment to me at isaacbrock some time ago: (https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/06/29/accidental-americans-born-abroad-to-us-parents-and-not-registered-with-the-us-are-they-automatic-us-citizens-or-do-they-have-a-right-to-claim-us-citizenship-when-they-can-make-that-decision-as-an/comment-page-2/#comment-412753)
quote:
This is what is so disappointing and disturbing about this posting and string: My late friend, Andy Sundberg, founder of American Citizens Abroad, worked tirelessly during the 70s and 80s to change US law to be much more inclusive than it had been. One of the reasons was his daughters were born effectively “stateless”; he, an American, his wife, a Frenchwoman, gave birth to their daughters while living in Switzerland. He found that there were quite literally tens of thousands of people in similar circumstances.