Category Archives: FATCA self certification

Are Green Card holders resident outside the USA "US persons" under the #FATCA IGA?

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Introduction …

The above tweet references a comment that was left on Olivier Wagner’s Tax Samurai blog. Olivier is discussing an earlier post of mine called “When It Comes To FATCA, There Are Four Kinds Of Americans Abroad“.

I highly recommend his “post about my post”.

The comments discuss the question of:

Is a Green Card Holder resident in Canada a “U.S. Person” for the purposes of FATCA?

The last comment notes that the Canada Revenue Agency is advising U.S. Green Card Holders who are resident in Canada that they should NOT identify as “U.S. Persons” under the FATCA IGA.

The exact text of the comment reads:

Green Card holders in Canada are interpreting the following statement from the Government of Canada to mean that FATCA does NOT apply to them:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/nhncdrprtng/ndvdls-eng.html

“I hold a U.S. green card. How does this affect my tax residency?

If you are a green card holder (that is, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S.), the U.S. considers you to be a U.S. resident.

However, if you are a resident of Canada for tax purposes and do not hold U.S. citizenship, you should not identify yourself as a U.S. person to your Canadian financial institution.”

The actual IGA is here.

FATCA-eng

The definition section includes “U.S. residents” which presumably means tax residents (which in the case of Green Card Holders may be affected by a Treaty election).

The plain reading of the statement on the CRA site will mean that Green Card holders resident in Canada will NOT identify as being U.S. tax subjects.

Note: I tried to leave a similar comment a moment ago, but it didn’t seem to show up. This is a duplicate. Feel free to pick one comment or the other.

– See more at: http://www.taxsamurai.com/index.php/2014/09/06/four-kinds-americans-abroad-response/#comment-7

The purpose of this post is to expand this discussion …

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Part 1: What God Hath Wrought – The #FATCA Inquisition (Review, Identify and Report on "U.S. Persons") – "Entity Edition"

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Prologue – All non-U.S. “Entities are subject to the FATCA inquisition” …


 
How the U.K. IGA affects the U.K. PTA …
The online discussion referenced in the above tweet is about a U.K. PTA account. How can FATCA, (like the recent passport revocation bill which is one of the many “Revenue Offshore Provisions” used to target Americans abroad), included to finance the costs of the 2010 HIRE Act, possibly intrude into a U.K. PTA? To be clear, a U.K. PTA is similar to a U.S. PTA. Full details on a UK PTA are here. The information (maybe U.S. Treasury doesn’t believe it) is that a U.K. PTA is a charity and is described as:

A PTA is an excellent way to bring together parents, teachers and your local community to raise money and to support the school. It provides an opportunity for everyone to work together towards a common goal. All parents, teachers and school staff can get involved even if they only have a small amount of time available. Whatever type of association you decide to form, your school will benefit from the additional funds it will raise and the increased opportunity for parents to be more involved in school life.
 

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