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Re: “Accidental Americans punished by US-Canadian Agreement”

Thanks for printing Gwen D’s letter regarding what many refer to as “the worst law that no one has ever heard about” – the American law, called the “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act”. As a Canadian born to Canadian parents in the US, but having left USA as a baby, I have been following the FATCA drama in Canada and throughout the world, for the last year and a half. With the recent implementation of this American law in Canada, imposed under threat of economic sanctions by USA, the ‘witch hunt’ for Canadians born in USA begins officially this Canada Day.

I feel sorry for the tens of thousands of Canadians who still have no clue about FATCA, and no clue that USA considers them delinquent US tax filers, simply because place of birth on their Canadian passport is USA. These unfortunate Canadians with ‘US persons’ status, will not even know WHY ‘the nice lady at the bank’ is asking them where they were born, and may innocently answer ‘USA’ without realizing that they have just marked themselves “Reportable to the IRS.” Their first clue that something is really wrong, may not be until they get a penalty notice in the mail from the IRS for an amount exceeding the amount in their bank accounts. IRS will calculate penalties by comparing the FATCA reports sent from the banks(via CRA) to the IRS, to the ‘FOREIGN Bank Account Reports’ that US persons are supposed to be submitting every year to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, detailing their LOCAL bank accounts.

Expect some intense drama to unfold over the next year or so, as 10’s of thousands of Canadians wake up to a real life nightmare.

U.S. FATCA law takes precedence over Canadian law effective July 1, 2014, Canada Day: http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/06/20/implementation-of-the-us-fatca-iga-has-been-given-royal-assent/

The U.S FATCA intergovernmental agreement negotiated and signed behind closed doors by the Canadian government; legislation for implementation buried in omnibus Budget Bill C-31; hearings and debate before the House of Commons and the Canadian Senate without media coverage on any of that process to Canadians, and now omnibus Bill C-31 given Royal Assent by Canada’s Governor General and implementation of the FATCA IGA not even mentioned in the Conservative government’s press release.

An oversight? Still so few know. How is this possible in a country that calls itself a democracy?

Royal Assent happened on June 19th. Here’s the June 20th press release from Finance: http://www.fin.gc.ca/n14/14-085-eng.asp

Video of several Conservative MPs mocking of my son’s entrapment into *US citizenship* — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANqVaEpRi_4 – are these the government representatives your vote goes to? He is the other kind of “Accidental American” — born in Canada to US parent(s). Sure, it is easier for those who don’t have a US place of birth showing on their Canadian passport. I, however, don’t want a work-around for my son and others like him — I want common sense law. Canada taxes on residence as the rest of the world, except for the USA and Eritrea. That could easily be changed, but why change a CBT cash cow for the US?

For those concerned about this or future U.S. (or any country) extra-territorial law coming into Canada: http://www.adcs-adsc.ca/

@calgary441
Why the U.S. should agree to a revision of the Canada-U.S. tax treaty: they believe in a people’s right for self determination, free from interference from another sovereign. Applying this to Canada, America should agree to Canada’s right for self derermination for Canadians free from outside interference. The Canadian government should pursue this right – with above exemptions outlined – in a renegotiated treaty.

Re: “Accidental Americans punished by US-Canadian Agreement”

A remedy could be revising the Canada-U.S. tax treaty. This treaty covering all matters of taxation between citizens of Canada and the U.S., by not saying otherwise, is the equivalent of the Canadian government giving legal consent to the U.S. government to double tax Canadians resident in Canada (who happen to have U.S. citizenship). The treaty could have lots of exemptions such as for accidental US persons, family home, life insurance, pension, etc. etc. In my opinion, the treaty represents giving up a portion of Canadian sovereignty to the U.S. government. And, it shows no respect for Canadian family members.

The U.S. government has made statements about the Ukrainian people’s right for self determination free from the interference of Russia. What about the right of Canada for self determination of Canada, free from interference from an outside sovereign – the U.S. government in this case.

This might be an easier angle than reversing FATCA. And it may address issues more comprehensively than a reversal of FATCA.

Re: “Accidental Americans punished by US-Canadian Agreement”

Thank you Gwen D. for your letter and to Beach Metro for publishing it. FATCA implementation was smuggled into Canada in a hidden panel in the luggage compartment of another of Harper’s omni-buses. It needs to be hauled out and exposed for what it is — Canadian government approval for a US witch hunt to find anyone with a US connection (no matter how minuscule) and for a massive data transfer to the USA of private, sensitive, financial information about individuals who are Canadian taxpayers. It will affect 1 to 4 million people in Canada — those the IRS deems to be “US persons for tax purposes” plus their family members and business associates with whom they share accounts. Thank goodness the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty (stopfatca dot ca) recognizes the importance of an individual’s privacy and the value of a nation’s sovereignty. I share Kathleen P.’s concern for Canadian residents who could innocently walk into a bank after July 1st without any awareness of FATCA. It’s vital to get the word out to them. It’s vital to challenge the Canadian government for bringing FATCA across the border.

Our government has criminalized 1,000,000 Canadian citizens. Imagine if the Chinese or Indian governments tried to pull the same thing as the USA!

Joe, you are way way off on your numbers as many are when they try to assess the populations involved.

“They” say there are an estimated 1,000,000 US citizens living in Canada. They forget to count the “dual” Canadian / US citizens living in other countries. They forget to count the family members who may not hold US citizenship but are considered “US Persons”, so estimate that if 75% of the US Citizens have families with at least one child then add 1,500,000 (including the partner) people to the 1,000,000 number to get 2,500,000 immediately affected on the primary level. 2 children? …add another 325,000 to total 2,825,000 and finally if there are 3 children then add another 50,000 for a grand total of 2,875,000….but wait there’s more

Another level consisting of US persons for tax reasons include hundreds of thousands of Canadian citizen “Snow Birds” and Canadian citizens only that happen to have purchased real estate in the US and therefore have financial ties including bank accounts or even Green cards to allow them to work in the US and one can see the numbers easily double (estimate) for a result of close to 5,000,000 people that might attract unwanted hassles from the IRS, all thanks to Harper burning the House of Canada to the ground leaving only ashes to blow away. In my opinion, Canada no longer has a sovereign identity therefore has nothing to be proud of going forward. In short, it now stands for nothing at all. Our financial institutions are now controlled by a hostile foreign power thirsty for our money to help fund their war machine.

New names are in the wings for our banks:

Toronto Dominion Bank to become Texarkana and Denver Bank and Watering House

Bank of Montreal to become Bank of Minneapolis

Scotia Bank becomes Sacramento Bank (You’re poorer than you think)

Royal Bank of Canada to become Reno Bank of Canuckistan

and so on. Credit Unions are blameless in my opinion even if they cooperate with the IRS reluctantly

The next question a lot of people are asking is why are Obama and Harper destroying their respective countries?

@Tricia Wilson – Please cite examples of “distinctive small retailers” that have been driven out by “development pressures”. Oh, that’s right, development has driven exactly zero retailers out of the Beach.

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