This is my letter to the IRS explaining why my 2009 tax return is late. I felt I owed an explanation, since they sent me a little while ago a letter demanding that I file my overdue return and send a questionnaire with my return. The questionnaire did not cover the bases. So I will send the following letter with it. What I want to see is if they will honour their agreement with Jim Flaherty, not to charge late charges.
Reply letter from Minister of Finance, Hon. Jim Flaherty
I am going to post the reply letter I received from the Finance Minister.
Although the content is encouraging, I sense that the Canadian Government believes our problem has been ‘solved’ by the December 13th IRS Fact Sheet, and the only other obstacle to deal with is FATCA.
Having said that, I give credit to the reply, and have faith that the Canadian Government is at least making an effort.
Collateral Damage?
Hmmm, is there more to it than just getting the USC’s? And now what happens to the USC’s who switched to Wegelin from UBS?
excerpts of interest:
To avoid risks of legal “contamination” from Wegelin’s problems in the U.S., where three of its Switzerland-based private bankers were this month indicted by the U.S. authorities, Raiffeisen is not buying any of the latter’s U.S.-related business.
In a complex deal, Wegelin, founded in 1741 and controlled by eight partners who have the risk of personal liability, has transferred all its non-U.S. activities to a formerly passive sub-brand, Notenstein Privatbank. The latter has in turn been sold to Raiffeisen, where it will form a standalone subsidiary.
Wegelin’s problems arose from the revelation that – like a handful of other Swiss banks – it had, from roughly 2008, taken the ill-judged step to welcome former U.S. offshore customers of UBS AG
Many such clients were desperate to establish a new Swiss banking relationship once UBS decided to close its Swiss-based offshore private banking operations for rich Americans after a legal battle with the U.S. authorities, which ended with a $780-million settlement and the disclosure of almost 5,000 U.S. client names.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-news/european/article2317658.ece
IRS News Room – Do You See Anything Wrong Here?
Here is the link to the IRS News Room. I expect that within the next year, the U.S. will pass a law applicable to every country, making this (IRS News Room) the home page on every browser of the world. Not only is intended to be the “Latest News”, but it is intended to be the only news.
Here is the part that announces the December FS – the information to U.S. citizens and dual citizens living outside the United States:
Information for U.S. Citizens or Dual Citizens Residing Outside the U.S.
FS-2011-13, December 2011 – This fact sheet summarizes information about federal income tax return and FBAR filing requirements for duel citizens in Canada, the United Kingdon and other countries.
Do you see anything wrong with this? There are at least two mistakes. Do you think the use of the word “duel” is a Freudian slip?
An Open Letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper From A Loyal Canadian
This is part of a comment posted by “Blaze”:
Right Hon. Steven Harper
Prime Minister
House of Commons
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6
Dear Mr. Harper:
RE: IRS INTRUSION INTO CANADA
Let me be clear. Like you “I am a Canadian and only a Canadian.” Like you, I have only ever had a passport of one nation. That passport is Canadian.
You made those points recently concerning Thomas Mulcair’s dual citizenship.
US tax policy, FATCA, FBAR criticized on a Swiss website: the embarrassment of the United States — English translation of the open letter
I would encourage anyone here who has the time to post responses on the TSR Infrarouge website in order to fuel the debate and increase awareness amoung the Swiss of how bad the situation is:
http://www.infrarouge.ch/ir/thread-364069-suisse-protege-assez-peuple-contre
U.S. passport renewal information to be reported to the IRS – January 26, 2012
Here is information from the Federal Register dates January 26, 2012. Note the penalties. If you are a permanent resident of Canada who has not become a Canadian citizen …
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-01-26/html/2012-1567.htm
[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 17 (Thursday, January 26, 2012)] [Proposed Rules] [Pages 3964-3966] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2012-1567]
Quick Post – IRS tightening reporting obligations
What does it mean for the future?
US tax policy, FATCA, FBAR criticized on a Swiss website: the embarrassment of the United States
I am pleased to have now invited Jeff D Tomas, nom de plume, from Switzerland to contribute here at Isaac Brock. To give you a sample of his writing, I reproduce here his recent comment at Isaac Brock and his editorial, in French, at Infrarouge. As many at Isaac Brock are able to read French, they can see how embarrassing it should be for the United States to be criticized in this manner, as the US policies violate not only the US constitutional protections but forces other sovereign states to violate their own human rights codes, not to mention the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. Jeff commented:
Dark Web?
The statistics for search engine terms that bring internet trawlers onto the Isaac Brock Society web site show that only one search counts for much at all: the three words “isaac brock society.” A known-item search …
I poked into this findability topic after monitoring and testing search functionality over at the InfoShop. At this point Google has crawled around the InfoShop — a phrase search [wrap it in quotation marks] for a pithy bit like “longstanding american exceptionalism” will demonstrate that.
The words that worried expatriate Americans seem likely to stab into their keyboards will not connect them in any easy fashion with either Isaac Brock Society or with the InfoShop. Launch a few verbal forays and see for yourself. Stabbing into the dark.