http://www.bissresearch.com/blog/fatca-the-end-of-the-beginning/105

FATCA is still with us. Looming over financial services like a great big Golden Eagle, it has been gliding on the hot air of dissension for a few years, but make no mistake the FATCA bird is going to swoop down soon.

Like all regulations which cause industry wide change, FATCA has been taking hits from various jurisdictions around the world, which is the normal response from the finance industry when it comes up against the requirement to invest in technology developments that do not have an obvious business benefit. The tactic is always to rebound back to the inflicting authorities with a myriad of reasons why the laws and rules cannot be implemented, in the hope and expectation that the authorities do not know enough about the market mechanisms or technology to know any different. This has certainly been the case with many regulations that the rest of the developed world has been forced to adhere too. Implementing a global regulation is always a tough call, but in the current economic environment one that had very little chance of being waved through unopposed.

However, the issues that the financial world has with FATCA should not dull the appetite for this regulatory requirement not to be enforced by the revenue authorities across all markets. Indeed the UK has been adopting FACTA like positions already and a UK version of FATCA will no doubt emerge sooner or later. Quite right too in my opinion.

In fact all financial markets worldwide should be made to comply with FATCA, as a kind of test model for a similar requirement to be introduced by their own revenue authority. It is in this way that a global net can be created enabling tax avoidance by the rich and criminal to be eradicated. It’s a small price to pay for financial services firms to buy into the FATCA type projects, which should be viewed as an international development not simply by the will of the USA.

I find it hard to understand the resentment that FATCA has engendered, when in truth it’s a vital piece of tax management that only jeopardises the criminal. The financial markets have to ensure that they are seen as strong and resilient by working with government tax authorities for the good of all.

Isn’t this a good PR job for the financial services industry to undertake for the benefit of society?

By Henry ChuOctober 7, 2013, 7:00 a.m.

Donald Le Pan, Accidental American

(Source: Wikipedia) Don LePan (born 1954 in Washington, DC) is widely known as a book publisher; he is the founder and president of the academic publishing house Broadview Press. He is also a painter and the author or editor of several books, most notably the dystopian novel Animals.

LePan grew up in Ontario, living variously in Ottawa, Kingston, and Toronto. He received a BA in English Literature from Carleton University in Ottawa and an MA in Renaissance Studies from the University of Sussex, where he studied under A.D. Nuttall; his research on Shakespeare’s plots became the basis for a monograph (The Birth of Expectation). He worked for some years in the 1970s and 1980s for the Canadian branch of Oxford University Press (where he was manager of the College Department from 1979-1982), and from 1982-1985 as a secondary school teacher in rural Zimbabwe with the development agency WUSC. In 1985 he returned to Canada to found Broadview Press, a book publisher in the humanities and social sciences. By 2010 Broadview had grown to a company with annual revenues of over $3 million and a staff of 25.^[1] Though modest in size, the publishing house is held in high regard, particularly as a publisher of anthologies and literary editions; in 2004 LePan was awarded an honorary doctorate by Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario for his contribution to academic publishing.^[2]

LePan’s father, Douglas LePan, was well-known as a poet and academic; his brother, Nicholas Le Pan, is well-known as a Canadian civil servant (he is a former head of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions).

Nicholas LePan (Canadian citizen and brother of Donald LePan)

Mr. Nicholas D. Le Pan is an Independent Director of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, since February 2008. Mr. Le Pan is a Corporate Director with experience in financial services matters. Mr. Le Pan served as Superintendent of Financial Institutions for Canada from 2001 to 2006 and as Deputy Superintendent, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Canada (OSFI) from 2000 to 2001. From 1997 to 2000, Mr. Le Pan acted as Deputy Superintendent (Supervision) where his duties included oversight of the supervision programs for banks and other deposit-taking institutions. Mr. Le Pan has been in international and Canadian regulatory coordination efforts, including representation as Chairman of the Basel Accord Implementation Group and Vice Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. He is also Chair of the Canadian Public Accountability Board, which oversees auditors of public companies, and Chair of the Independent Review Committee of Brandes Investment Funds. Mr. Le Pan holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Economics from Carleton University and a Master of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Toronto.

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]