Listening to this song recently, while driving, and enjoying the most amazing fall weather in Ottawa that we’ve been having for several weeks, (was sunny and 22 Celsius today), made me think of (what else?) – the FATCA battle we’ve been fighting everywhere, but particularly here in Canada.

‘Raise a little hell’, is a song by Canadian rock band Trooper. The song is the 10th and final track on the band’s 1978 album ‘Thick as Thieves’. It is the band’s only top 100 US hit.

Maybe we can ‘raise a little hell’ of our own here in Canada, and make FATCA a US failure!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving everyone!

Was immer die Politik in Washington nun unternimmt: Es ist eine klassische Insolvenzverschleppung.

Regardless of what politicians in Washington do: It is a classic bankruptcy delay.

Die größte Industrie-Nation der Welt wandelt damit auf den Spuren Griechenlands.

The largest industrial nation in the world is changing to follow the footsteps of Greece.

Die Auswirkungen auf die Psychologie der Märkte dürften von den zerstrittenen Parteien übersehen worden seien.

The impact on the psychology of the markets is likely being overlooked by the conflicting parties

Wenn die Banken jetzt schon Angst vor einem Bank-Run haben, ist das ein äußerst bedenkliches Signal für alle Investoren. Denn auch die US-Notenbank Federal Reserve ist wegen der massiven Aufkäufe von Staatsanleihen faktisch insolvent. Ihre aufgeblähte Bilanz-Summe ist eine Zeitbombe, die es ihr schwer macht, Obama in der Not zu helfen.

If the banks are already fearing a bank-run, then such is an extremely serious signal for investors since the Federal Reserve Bank Note is factually insolvent due to the massive purchases of government bonds.  Its bloated balance sheet is a time bomb which complicates its ability to help Obama.

Das System nähert sich seinem Ende.

The system is nearing its end.

High Noon in Washington – und kein Retter in Sicht.

High noon in Washington – and no savior in sight.

Translated from Deutsch Türkische Nachrichten 04.10.13, 10:12

http://www.iiroc.ca/news/Documents/FAS2013_FATCA_JRando.pdf

Take note of slide #7

Canadian tax legislation and regulations will be changed to require due diligence on existing accounts, new account opening procedures and reporting by all “Reporting Financial Institutions” unless they are specifically listed as exempt or unless they meet criteria to be “deemed compliant”

A reader of Isaac Brock sent me the following letter:

Dear CBA:

It’s time for your organization to start standing up for your customers on this issue. You can do much more than encourage the Government to sign onto an egregious foreign governments demand (IGA) to throw Canadian sovereignty out the window to simply protect your members bottom lines.

There comes a time when every person and or organization has to take a principled stand and now is that time for your organization. When the government of Canada says no to signing onto an IGA, which would be tantamount to political suicide, it’s going to land squarely in your court. Are you going to compromise the rights of your loyal customers to respond to what amounts to IRS extortion? Do you think your members and shareholders would support a strong, principled, well funded resistance? Absolutely, once they know the facts. Get the facts out there. Spend some of our money edifying people on this issue. Use the press, use your members resources like the annual rational for increasing fee structures.

It is what it is: The school yard bully wants your lunch money. How do we instruct our kids to handle bully’s? Bully’s don’t expect a fight. It’s time you guys gave them one. It’s time you guys gave something meaningful back to your loyal customers and helped the government of Canada on this issue. Stand up and show some courage and initiative.

I’ll be the first one in line to sign onto a class action if any of my banks ask me where I was born. I’m a Canadian ….end of story.

Sincerely,

[Name withheld by request]

I am delighted to report that Jim Jatras has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all US documentation of negotiations between the governments of Canada, Switzerland and the UK and the US for a FATCA IGA.

We can’t get information like this in Canada from an Access to Information request, because more than 30 years ago Parliament, in the enabling legislation, excluded from access all intergovernmental correspondence and related files. Not necessarily so in the US, it seems. And if we can get our hands on this information, no matter how long it takes, we can and will distribute this to the opposition parties and our media.

So, Jim Flaherty and the CBA, if you’re watching — if you aren’t playing fair ball and protecting Canada’s sovereignty, banking and privacy laws and the Charter rights of ALL Canadian citizens and legal residents, we will find out. And if you weren’t playing fair, you will pay the price and it will be your legacy.

Think about that very carefully. Be careful what you wish for and what you sign.

You’ve been warned.

Thank you Jim Jatras!  We owe you, at least a great Canadian brew, if you’re ever in town!

Continue reading →

Please click on the link for the press release.  This is a separate post in order to make it accessible outside of the long thread.

Protest News Release

The October 12 print edition of the prestigious international and widely-read weekly UK journal, The Economist, has this article about FATCA, also on this web link

The Economist: Expats and tax — Loopy Tax Rules Spur Expats to Renounce their American Citizenship: Overtaxed and over there

Good and balanced article. So much for the Treasury’s Stack of Lies. It will be impossible for the US to ignore this one.

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving, everyone! (Not you, Stack and Obama …)

I don’t see anything yet posted here on Lynne and Victoria’s latest published works so I’ll take the opportunity to pass it along so it can be quoted elsewhere, From Tax-News, Global Tax News: Lynne Swanson and Victoria Ferauge and their “FATCA Reality Check”.

Thanks once again, Victoria and Lynne.

I sent this to Contact Tax-News.com ( enquiries@tax-news.com ):

I cannot find any way to add comments, but I can’t let go by my responsibility to thank you for publishing: FATCA Reality Check, contributed by Lynne Swanson and Victoria Ferauge, October 09, 2013.

This is such an important issue. There needs to be a voice for the approximately 7 million US Persons Abroad as they do not have the numbers, the organization or the money behind them that the FATCA compliance industry does, ramped up to help steamroll people who are absolutely not criminals in its quest to find US tax evaders.

None of us (most of whom are regular middle-class residents and citizens of other countries and who pay our full taxes to the countries that give us our benefits – with Residence-Based Taxation) are against the purpose of FATCA. We are appalled that the US hangs onto Citizenship-Based Taxation, their cash cow reaping reward with outrageous penalties, not actual taxes owed to the US. That the US will not change to Residence-Based Taxation as that of the rest of the world (save Eritrea and the US) tells the US immoral story of FATCA. The tax evaders the US is looking for actually reside within the borders of the US and send their untaxed funds offshore. It is not rocket science to understand this.

Thank you for publishing “FATCA Reality Check” by Lynne Swanson and Victoria Ferauge and providing their voice for US Persons Abroad, many of whom do not yet know how they will be affected; i.e. “It can’t possibly affect me; I am not a tax evader.” Education and advocacy for these people is so needed. Thank you for doing your part.

Regards,
“calgary411″
Calgary, Alberta, Canada