Tag Archives: Alliance For The Defence of Canadian Sovereignty

John Richardson Interview With Danielle Smith About FATCA and @Citizenshiptax

1 Reply

On November 12, 2019 CBC Reporter Elizabeth Thompson published an interesting article. The article, reported that “Nearly a million bank records sent to IRS“. Ms. Thompson’s article is quite brilliant for one simple reason. The article focuses on the fact that it is the bank records of CANADIAN RESIDENTS that are being sent to the IRS. Specifically the article leads with:

Number of government transfers of records of bank accounts held by Canadian residents to U.S. has been rising.

The number of banking records the Canadian government is sharing with U.S. tax authorities under a controversial information-sharing deal has increased sharply, CBC News has learned.
The Canada Revenue Agency sent 900,000 financial records belonging to Canadian residents to the Internal Revenue Service in September — nearly a third more than it sent the previous year. The records were for the 2018 tax year.

It also has updated the number of records shared for the 2017 tax year to 700,000 from the 600,000 originally reported.

“That’s a lot,” said John Richardson, a Toronto lawyer and co-chair of the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty, which is fighting the information-sharing deal. “That’s a lot of files.”

The number of financial records of Canadian residents being shared with the IRS has risen steadily since the information sharing agreement began — from 150,000 in 2014 to 300,000 in 2015 and 600,000 for the 2016 tax year.

Now, that (as reflected in the comments) is what got people’s attention! The article does not focus on FATCA (which is often portrayed in the media as tax evasion law). Rather the article focuses on the effect of FATCA and describes FATCA as:

The information transfer is the result of a controversial information-sharing agreement between Canada and the U.S. that was negotiated after the U.S. government adopted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

The law, adopted in a bid to curb offshore tax evasion, obliges foreign financial institutions to report information about accounts held by people who could be subject to U.S. taxes.

Unlike most countries, the United States levies income taxes based on citizenship rather than residency; some Canadians end up facing U.S. taxes because of an American parent, or because they were born in a hospital on the other side of the border.

The article makes the connection between the transfer of information to the IRS and the imposition of U.S. tax on the holders of those accounts! In other words, this information sharing agreement (called FATCA) is described as being for the purpose of helping the United States of America (that “Great Citadel of Freedom and Justice”) impose direction taxation on Canadian residents. Yes, it’s true.

First, the United States imposes worldwide taxation, according to the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, on certain residents of other countries.

Second, the U.S. Internal Revenue Code imposes a separate and more punitive tax system on residents of other countries (here are 12 different examples) than it does on U.S. residents (“Separate but equal” anybody).

Third, the information sharing agreement (referenced in the article) called FATCA is a tool to enable imposing U.S. taxation on the residents of Canada and other countries.

Fourth, the primary impact of FATCA is on individuals who were born in the United States but do not live in the United States. Individuals experience the impact of FATCA in the following two ways:

1. Impact Via The Tax Compliance Industry: It pressures them to comply with the tax and reporting provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. Some people enter the U.S. tax system and effectively agree to U.S. taxation.

2. Impact Via The Banks: In some countries people have experienced limited access to bank (and other financial) accounts unless they are willing to supply U.S. tax identification numbers.

_________________________________________________________________________

John Richardson – Follow me on Twitter @Expatriationlaw

Thoughts on the @ADCSovereignty #FATCA Trial 1: 2015 interview with @AliBrunet underscores which people are primarily affected by FATCA in Canada

Leave a reply

What the Canada U.S. FATCA IGA is NOT about

Canada’s FATCA IGA is NOT about information exchange. The United States does NOT exchange information under the FATCA IGAs.

Canada’s FATCA IGA is not about residency. After all the purpose of FATCA is to transfer information from a country where the person DOES actually reside (and is a tax resident) to a country where the person does NOT actually reside (but is deemed to be a tax resident).

What the Canada U.S. FATCA IGA IS about

Canada’s FATCA IGA IS about the Government of Canada surrendering its citizens to the United States (effectively stripping them of their rights as Canadian citizens).

Canada’s FATCA IGA is about assisting the United States in imposing worldwide taxation on Canadian citizens who actually live in Canada, are tax residents of Canada and pay full taxes in Canada. Transition Tax anyone? Do you feel GILTI today? What were you thinking by buying that Canadian mutual fund in Canada?
Canada’s FATCA IGA is NOTHING like the OECD Common Reporting Standard. In simple terms, under the CRS information is transferred from a country where the person does NOT live to a country where he does live.

Yes, Canada’s lawyers spent the week of January 28, 2019 to February 1, 2019:

1. Denying each of these obvious points; and
2. Arguing that Canada that Canada has a constitutional right to betray its citizens by turning them over to the United States.

Post 1 – February 17, 2019:

The U.S. claim of lifetime tax jurisdiction based ONLY on the fact of having been born in the United States

This is based on a post from March of 2015 which was about the number of so called “Accidental Americans” in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.

Let’s start by listening to the CBC interview with Ali Brunette.

Question:

Do these life long residents of the Quebec Eastern Townships (great ski country) seem like U.S. tax evaders to you?

OVDI Refund: On the one hand #Americansabroad should "beware" and on the other hand they should "be aware"

Leave a reply

beaware
It’s been a week of “ups and downs”. As you know, the Republicans Overseas lawsuit was NOT successful in obtaining an injunction. The Alliance For Canadian Sovereignty was NOT successful in obtaining their own injunction in the Canadian lawsuit. The rulings in both lawsuits included judicial observations, and were supported by affidavits, that are likely to be helpful as these lawsuits continue. These “observations” are good news.
But, on the “coming into U.S. tax compliance front” I bring you some additional good and interesting news.
I am happy to report (with the permission of the taxpayer, although the specifics of the information continue to be privileged) that:
A U.S. citizen abroad, who had NOT been filing U.S. taxes and who entered the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (“OVDI”) in August 2011 (do  you remember that month?), has just received a full refund for the amount of the penalties that she paid under “OVDI” (well in excess of $100,000). The payment of the “in lieu of” penalty” was made with the initial “OVDI” submission in 2011. She did not receive a refund of the taxes and interest (which were very minor amounts)  or her legal and accounting fees (approximately $50,000).
After entering “OVDI” in 2011, filing eight years of back tax returns,  and paying an “in lieu of” penalty of approximately $120,000, she transitioned into “Streamlined” (which first became available in 2012). The bottom line is that she received a refund of all penalties paid under “OVDI”.
My point in writing this post is to illustrate that “compliance issues” can have better and worse outcomes. (Obviously the outcome depends on the “facts and circumstances” of one’s specific situation.) Given that this taxpayer, “voluntarily” (on the advice of lawyers) entered “OVDI”, this strikes me as an extremely good outcome. Furthermore, this outcome could not have been anticipated at the point of entering “OVDI” in 2011. Therefore, it’s important to understand that the resolution to compliance (or non-compliance) issues is always in a state of evolution.
Note that in 2012, the “OVDI” program was renamed “OVDP” (which continues to exist).
This story suggest that:
On the one hand, you should BEWARE, but
On the other hand, you should BE AWARE.
Finally …
The current “OVDP” program is suitable ONLY for those who have been committed “willful” tax and compliance omissions. You should NOT enter “OVDP” without being advised by at least three lawyers (who don’t know each other).
John Richardson
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Related articles

CBC #FATCA Interview: @SusanCBCQuebec and @AliBrunet – @ADCSovereignty lawsuit mention

2 Replies

FATCA awareness in the Quebec Eastern Townships

The interview and discussion – March 30, 2015

Feedback and discussion invited

This is a good opportunity to engage the people of Quebec on the issues caused by FATCA and U.S. citizenship taxation. In Standtead Quebec approximately 25% of the town residents, including the Mayor Phillippe Dutil (featured in the interview), were born in Vermont, U.S.A.

I guess there must be a few FATCA border babies in Stanstead.

CBC Quebec AM is seeking your comments. Your options are:
Phone –

1 888 691 3476
Email –

quebecam@cbc.ca

Facebook –

Updated – March 31, 2015 – Some thoughts for the residents of Stanstead, Quebec

Continue reading →