Am I dreaming?   Could we open our internet browsers some morning soon and see this headline?   Northernstar talks about  the ripples of anti-FATCA sentiment spreading throughout the world.  We are seeing it in increased media reports like this one that JustMe pointed out: http://www.freeenterprise.com/economy-taxes/fatca-trap-opposition-builds-can-intrusive-foreign-tax-compliance-law-be-stopped, and this one that describes Ruth Freeborn’s FATCA nightmare: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/27/209810/new-tax-law-driving-expats-to.html.

Maybe,  just maybe….

Does anyone else see the connection between this article and FATCA?    If you are against internet surveillance, you are for child pornography.  If you are against FATCA, you are for tax evasion.

Jess Kline at National Post writes:

In trying to defend the government’s lawful access legislation last year, then public safety minister Vic Toews said that Canadians can either “stand with us, or with the child pornographers.” Given that the proposed Internet-spying legislation was incredibly unpopular, this statement didn’t sit well with many people. Surely law-abiding citizens could object to living in an online surveillance state without siding with child pornographers.

Indeed, the backlash against the Tories’ lawful access legislation was so harsh the last time around, they eventually promised the shelve the idea for good.

“We will not be proceeding with Bill C-30 and any attempts that we will continue to have to modernize the Criminal Code will not contain the measures contained in C-30,” said former justice minister Rob Nicholson in February. “We’ve listened to the concerns of Canadians who have been very clear on this.”

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The Conservative strategy appears to have been to lay low for awhile, pick another cause de jure and reintroduce the legislation under a different name.

Read the full article here:  http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/11/26/jesse-kline-tories-bully-canadians-into-accepting-internet-surveillance-bill/

According to TD Canada Trust’s Customer Service web page on FATCA:

“TD is committed to providing impacted customers with support and information to ensure they receive a comfortable experience once the law comes into effect.”

Let the full-page ads begin:

This is a print version of part of a November 19 CBC radio interview in which a representative of the Canadian Bankers Association as well as Allison Christians (Chair of Tax Law at McGill University) and a U.S. person in Canada were interviewed.

The title of this November 25 CBC update “Canadian banks to be compelled to share clients’ info with U.S” is incorrect as the banks are aware that they have the option to resist FATCA and lobby seriously for its repeal.

It might be significant that the CBC/CBC reporter selected the pointed phrase that our financial institutions are being “deputized by the IRS.”

@Em notes below that there are 650 comments already (7:45 pm) on this CBC site– with most anti-FATCA (and not from the usual Brocker/Sandboxer crowd)

Some commenters do not understand FATCA and ask: “What are people so afraid of if they have nothing to hide?”

See the CBC link:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-banks-to-be-compelled-to-share-clients-info-with-u-s-1.2437975

In the eyes of the Swiss, the reputation of the United States of America has for various reasons been in sharp decline, and America has been presenting itself to Switzerland less and less as an old friend, and more and more as an enemy. I want to remind our friends in Switzerland, as well as every American in Switzerland, that the US is a friend of Switzerland, and I want to tell you what the Swiss as friends must do.

The US and Switzerland are two of the worlds oldest democracies, and both share the founding principles of freedom and independence. At the time of the American revolution, Switzerland was surrounded by tyrannical monarchies, and its fierce independence and stubborn refusal to submit to these despots earned it the title of ‘Sister Republic’ to the United States of America.

How things can change. In 2010, the US Congress with FATCA decreed that every bank in the world must report to the IRS, or face severe consequences. This is nothing less than an act of war on the sovereignty of every nation. Switzerland must under no circumstances submit to these threats, and we must as friends tell America that they are out of line. Brute force has replaced enlightened thinking, and the language of threats and intimidation have become the norm of US foreign policy.

Continue reading →

From the Finance Canada website:

“The Government of Canada today ratified the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, done at Strasbourg on 25 January 1988, as amended by the Protocol amending the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters,done at Paris on 27 May 2010 (collectively, the “Convention”). Canada signed the original convention on April 28, 2004 and the Protocol thereto on November 3, 2011. The Convention will enter into force, in respect of Canada, on March 1, 2014, and will have effect in accordance with Article 28 of the Convention.

“The Convention, developed jointly by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Council of Europe, is a multilateral instrument, open to all countries, whose purpose is to improve international tax co-operation between the taxation authorities of countries that are a Party to the Convention, with a view to combating international tax avoidance and evasion. In Canada, the Convention will apply to Canadian taxes that fall under the Income Tax Act, Excise Tax Act, and the Excise Act, 2001.

“Under the Convention, Canada will exchange tax information pursuant to the OECD standard with other Parties to the Convention. Pursuant to reservations, Canada will not under the Convention be obligated to collect taxes on behalf of another country, or provide assistance in the service of related documents. Canada will instead continue to negotiate a provision on assistance in the collection of taxes on a bilateral basis, and has agreed to include such a provision in certain of its bilateral tax treaties.”

See: http://www.fin.gc.ca/treaties-conventions/notices/maatm-aammf-eng.asp

Is there anyone out there with the expertise to determine the relevance of this to FATCA implementation in Canada?