Pakin interviews outgoing US Ambassador Jacobson – No mention of #FATCA or #IRS #FBAR assault on Canadian citizens http://t.co/zd9GTmnmC9
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) June 29, 2013
H.R. 2299 Calls for Withdrawal of FATCA IGA Reciprocity Tool (DATCA timeline update)
H.R. 2299 “To prevent the Secretary of the Treasury from expanding United States bank reporting requirements with respect to interest on deposits paid to nonresident aliens.”
In the last Congressional Session, Representative Bill Posey proposed 3 amendments to H.R. 4078, “The Red Tape Reduction Act”, which was passed by the House, but died in the Senate.
Posey’s third Amendment, was of interest to us. It specifically was calling for a withdrawal of IRS bulletin 20-2012 . This is an important reciprocity tool that Treasury is promising the world’s governments in their FATCA IGAs as a first step along the way to imposing a full blown domestic equivalent of FATCA (which we call DATCA).
…… to stop the IRS from implementing new misguided regulations expected to lead to billions of dollars of capital flight from U.S. banks to foreign institutions. Despite strong bipartisan requests in both chambers of Congress, the Treasury Department has refused to withdraw the rule, or at a minimum, conduct an economic impact analysis on how the regulation would affect the banks and the economy. Continue reading
SIFMA and American Bankers call for FATCA to be delayed until 2015
Due to slow progress in signing IGA’s. Will this happen. I say its 50/50. IRS/Treasury probably listens to SIFMA more than any other group because of its domestic US political influence. Its also very notable that SIFMA is pointing to a long list of very specific promises by made the IRS to the banking industry that have not been met on time at all. SIFMA is also basically predicting a huge mess come January 1 2014 if the IRS goes ahead at this point.
Will there be a change in the effective date. As I said its 50/50. The IRS might also feel this is a now or never moment.
National Taxpayer Advocate Identifies Priority Issues for Upcoming Year: Offshore issues AGAIN called out.
TAS AREAS OF FOCUS
- Establishing less draconian and more reasonable “settlement initiatives” for the millions of taxpayers who have legitimate reasons for overseas bank and financial accounts and whose failure to file reports was merely negligent.
Read more below:
Jack Reed tries again
Undeterred by the failure of his previous attempts to legislate Exile and Punishment for Apoplectic Taxpayers Residing In Other Territories, on Monday Jack Reed (D-RI) introduced his third amendment to ban covered expatriates — people who found financial success overseas thanks to the countries to which they emigrated many years ago, or ordinary wage-earners who in the past five years missed some of the dozens of pages of confusing tax forms that Americans abroad must file and that Homelanders have never seen.
The number of this latest amendment is S.A. 1609. It appears at page S5075 of the Congressional Record for Monday, 24 June 2013; the text is identical to the earlier S.A. 1233 we discussed two weeks ago, including in its misspelling of “principal purpose” as “principle purpose”. However, it is not an amendment to the immigration reform bill itself, but rather a second-degree amendment to Patrick Leahy (D-VT)’s border security amendment S.A. 1183 — in a manner heavily reminiscent of Carl Levin’s FATCA, which after its repeated failure as a standalone bill was moved as an amendment once he finally finally find somewhere to sneakily insert it. The Senate already invoked cloture on S.A. 1183, and scheduled it for a final vote on Wednesday (tomorrow).
I’ll leave it to Tim or others to comment further on the parliamentary procedure implications of this. As he mentioned earlier, even if the amendment passes, the House might still “blue slip” the whole bill if they agree that permanent exile for ex-citizens or other provisions of the bill violate the Constitution’s Origination Clause requiring that all bills raising revenue come from the House. However, note that this version of the amendment, unlike S.A. 1252, does not include the provisions of the original Ex-PATRIOT Act that would hit covered expatriates with an additional 30% tax on U.S.-source capital gains (like that already imposed on non-resident aliens present in the U.S. for half the year or more).
It’s time – Competent Authority confirms Canandian #FATCA IGA to be signed summer of 2013
On May 30, 2013 Accidental post the following comment:
Accidental says
May 30, 2013 at 8:01 pmI read that the Eritreans had formed a group and retained the services of a human rights lawyer. Why don’t we co-ordinate as many foreign Americans as we can, spanning, say, 30 cities worldwide? We’ll need a lawyer in each city, and probably a constitutional lawyer in the US to co-ordinate the case. When we’re ready, we co-ordinate the service of 30 class action law suits at 30 embassies simultaneously. We should all challenge the ‘Saving Clause’ in the bilateral tax treaty, without which the taxing authority where we live would have precedence over the IRS; Cruel and unusual FBAR punishment; citizenship based taxation, taxation without representation etc. It seems fraught with jurisdictional and diplomatic issues, but we could at least explore the idea.
Maybe even better. Let’s try to put 1000 of us together. We all contribute according to our means, but that should give us America’s best human rights lawyer, all the way to the supreme court if need be. File in DC and make sure we’re all there for the trial. It’s not just for ourselves, it’s for all the Accidental American’s who’ll be meeting the IRS via FATCA, but most importantly, for our kids, present and future, who stand to inherit a most unfortunate ‘gene’, unless we tend to it now.
It’s time to get started. I note the following comment on June 25, 2013 from Marie:
Attn:Brockers
This afternoon I put a call into the CRA to request some info on Canada’s existing treaty with the US. They forwarded me to Competent Authority, the division of the CRA that deals with tax treaties. They are in Ottawa and can be reached at 613-957-2071. I spoke to a representative that had a great deal of info on the matter. I called with some general questions, she gave me info on the “Agreement”. Here is what she confirmed for me.
First off, the Ministry of Finance had some concerns about s.15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They concluded that Fatca reporting does not contradict or conflict with the charter.
1. FATCA is a reality. The agreement will be signed this summer. Info will be available on the CRA website beginning in September 2013.
2. All US persons in Canada are considered US residents for tax purposes according to the US, based on that, Canada considers us US residents as well.
3. Beginning in 2014, Canadian financial institutions will begin identifying US persons to report to the CRA. CRA will report individuals with bank account #’s balances, etc. to the IRS.
4. All bank accounts over $50K will be reported.
5. Registered account such as RRSP’s, RIF’s, TFSA’s and RESP’s are exempt (she did not mention RDSP’s)
6. If your bank account is held jointly with a non-US person, it gets reported as well.
7.CRA’s first wave of reporting to the IRS will take place in April 2015 and will cover 2013 and 2014. After that, balances will be reported once per year in September.
8. CLN/renounciation/relinquishment does not get you off the hook for taxation for 10 years. Your balances will continue to get reported for 10 years after issue of CLN.She recommended that I get my hands on a copy of “A Tax Guide for Citizens in Canada” by Carswell.
There are many more questions that I would like to ask her. I encourage everyone seeking answers to call the CRA for information.
This means the time has come to organize the following legal actions:
1. Class action FATCA lawsuit – A “representative plaintiff” is required. This must be a “tax compliant” (who else would do this) U.S. person who has been “outed by a bank”. I know several tax compliant U.S. persons. One of them might be persuaded to act in this capactiy.
2. Complaints to provincial human rights tribunals – discrimination based on citizenship, national origin, etc.
3. Complaint to those at the UN responsible for the administration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
We are going to need some central coordination of these things.
I am going to try to transfer subsequent comments to Marie’s comment (as per your request). So, I have (at least for the moment) put all subsequent comments in one long comment. The idea (as per Em) is to try to create a new thread out of this important information. I would note that some of the information that Marie received is clearly incorrect (there is no obligation to pay taxes after one ceases to be a U.S. person). Nevertheless, the gist is significant.
It will be very interesting to see where Congress goes on the question of citizenship-based taxation. I have long been of the opinion that the US will have to move to RBT in order to get FATCA. I still would renounce though. Who in their right mind would want to be caught up in the fear of this any longer than necessary.
By the way, for those who have become lover of Canada in the last couple of years:
The Government of Canada, at the request of the banks, is getting ready to cooperate with the IRS to destroy you.
As USXCanada always says:
Look out for yourself and your family first (in English).
On a practical level I think you can mitigate a lot of the effects of this by using a number of bank accounts at different banks to keep your balances low. Also, RRSPs are not reported. You should get rid of the TFSAs and carefully consider how to deal with the mutual fund issues. You do have time to organize your lives and we have time to organize the lawsuits.
But, taking the lead from “accidental” – It’s time!
Another response to a constituent from John Weston, MP for West Vancouver – Sunshine Coast – Sea to Sky Country
This is a second response to a constituent from MP John Weston that has been reported to Isaac Brock: The most recent John Weston reply to his Constituent.
The previous John Weston, MP reply to bubblebustin seemed a bit more forthcoming and hopefully took less than the five months and repeated requests before this constituent received a reply.
What new have we learned from Mr. Weston? I have had a quick look at his website to see if, in fact, there was anything I could find on the issue of FATCA and the negotiations on same by the Canadian government. Perhaps someone else can find what I didn’t see. Why does FATCA not rate a place in Mr. Weston’s Government News?
In this most recent reply, his constituent learned that Mr. Weston agrees with Minister Flaherty that we Canadians of dual nationality are “honest, hard-working and law-abiding people” and the proposed IRS penalties for failing to file IRS paperwork seem out of step with justice and fairness. I do not see anything that leads me to believe that Mr. Weston can understand and convey to his constituents, let alone ALL Canadians who will bear the cost, anything about what FATCA is and what it means for loss of our rights as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Continue reading
Comic Relief for Canadians about their Banking Sector from @Thedailyshow
I was watching the Daily Show this morning on the internet, and its reporting of the most recent Rolling Stones article by Matt Tiabbi about the Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis. This contained some damning internal email communication from S&P and Moodys, which frankly just confirmed , for anyone who has been paying attention, what we should already have known about their role in the financial crisis. Simply put, it is a corrupted system.
So, John Oliver did this piece called Money BOO BOO, which was amusing. All you can do is shake your head and laugh at how bad it was and probably still is.
I don’t immediately have the Canadian web site address, but I am sure there is someone here that will provide it.
Why a Friend is Deactivating Facebook
I am one who has never done Facebook. Primarily because when it started, I didn’t get it. I didn’t want to connect with old school mates, or share photos online with friends and family. I had no interest in the details of their children’s minute by minute lives, or what a GREAT vacation they had at their ‘time share’. Just send me the Christmas card letter. That is enough information for me. Frankly, I just didn’t have the time for it.
Then there was the other disincentive, and that my wife’s admonitions, “Don’t you dare join, so your old girl friends can find you!” She had heard too many upsetting stories from her friends of their mates having dalliances started from Facebook “friends”. 🙂 Continue reading
#Snowden – Has Snowden betrayed the US by telling the truth to its citizens?
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." – George Orwell, born on this day 110 years ago
— Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff) June 25, 2013
Ron Paul explains why the US gov views its citizens as the enemy http://t.co/KdEl08Eh7Z – It's amazing. Really it is.
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) June 25, 2013
In light of the above two thoughts, I encourage you to read this editorial in the Toronto Globe and Mail. Looks like many people perceive the issue to be “US spying” and not Snowden “truth telling”.
Edward #Snowden: From Internet crusader to pawn of China and Russia? http://t.co/B5vniCPqKH – US clearly losing war of public opinion
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) June 25, 2013