Tuesday, November 12, 2013

I'm talking FATCA: Listen tomorrow morning on CBC's the Current

Tomorrow I'll be talking about how the US crackdown on offshore tax cheats via FATCA impacts ordinary Canadians with US ties by virtue of citizenship based taxation, on Anna Marie Tremonti's the current (CBC radio). I'll do my best to explain the intent versus the reality of FATCA within the time allotted.

Update: here is the story from CBC with a link to the broadcast. Lots of things I wish I would have had time for, but hopefully this at least sparks a national conversation about this important topic.

20 comments:

  1. When I learned that the Current was interviewing a lawyer I was worried that it would be someone from the FATCA Compliance Complex. So relieved to learn it is you, Allison, friend of US persons living abroad. I look forward to hearing it tomorrow. (PS, you'll be in good company!)

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  2. Thanks, I will do my best. It is a very difficult subject to explain clearly and concisely!

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  3. Thanks for speaking out on the FATCA threat. My wife came to Canada when she was 1 year old.. that was almost 60 years ago. We have *finally* applied for Cdn citizenship (after much business and procrastination). But, until that come through.. and we wade through the hassles of renouncing her US cit., she is scared to try and visit her relatives in the States. Should she be?

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  4. Heard you on CBC radio, this AM. Thanks for speaking out - but, the program left us with many questions.
    My wife came with her family to Canada, back in 1955. She was one yr old, and have never lived in the USA, and has no SSN. With raising our kids and other business, she never got around to applying for Canadian citizenship until this summer. In the meantime, we are scared to drive down in to the States. She doesn't want to be hauled away in chains! She intends to renounce her USA cit. but now we hear that itself is a difficult thing to do.

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  5. Your wife may want to look into "relinquishing" rather than renouncing." That is for now a distinction with a difference and you should do a little research on it. You might start with recent stories on Tina Turner! She won't be hauled away in chains, I don't think, but yes anyone travelling on any passport--US or not--showing a US birthplace could be asked/warned about their tax compliance.

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  6. Just finished listening, Allison. You were BRILLIANT.

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  7. thanks Victoria. Not brilliant, but did the best I could. For example when I was talking about not just bank accounts I meant to say things like tax free savings accounts, education savings accounts, and RRSPs are trusts that the IRS wants to know about. Instead I said trusts, and to a lay audience, that probably sounds like something only rich people have. Oh well, better next time, and hopefully this was the beginning and not the end of the conversation.

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  8. I wouldn't worry too much about that, Ruth made it pretty obvious that the little guys are getting hurt and how toxic we are to share ANY bank accounts with. The implications if that are catastrophic to the US's diaspora

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    1. thanks; you're right, her story was very compelling and it brings the lofty abstractions down to the unpleasant reality.

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  9. Excellent interview, which left me wishing you could have been on for an entire hour. So I will root around on your Web site, with much appreciation for your clarity and knowledge. With FBARs, PFICs and now FATCA, the U.S. has declared all of us dual citizens to be criminals even though what they really want is money from wealthy folks who might actually owe it. Those people can afford accountants and lawyers. The rest of us are getting whacked. I have filed every year since I moved to Canada in 1990, but it has become too complicated for an ordinary person. The services of an accountant come at a cost of nearly $3000, which I simply cannot afford. I would relinquish my US citizenship (reluctantly because it is still the country of my birth), but I fear doing so would cost me my Social Security, which I am going to need. It feels so strange, to be treated with hostility by the U.S. I left the U.S. for love, not to make a political statement.

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    1. Cathryn, thanks and I am sorry to hear about your story, it is becoming an all too common theme. I am not sure about the effect on your social security. The US and Canada do have a treaty (called a social security totalization agreement) in effect that might offer some protection, but I confess it is not an area of expertise for me and I really do not know. I wrote a paper some time ago with some references and links that might be helpful to you, you can download that here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=822504 There is way too much legalese in there, for which I apologize, but it might help you figure out what questions to ask and how to get help.

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    2. I can't see why you couldn't collect SS in Canada and be a non-USC. But who knows, the land of the flee in their desperation might just erect another wall there too.
      For more info: http://americansabroad.org/issues/social-security/social-security-payments-after-renunciation-of-us-citizenship/

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    3. Allison, I really appreciate your work and the Legalese Paper you linked. I'm going to be talking with the US embassy in Vancouver and also making a trip south of the border to talk with Social Security. Alas, bubblebustin, I've looked at that Web site and know what you're saying...although right now it appears I could still collect Social Security, Uncle Sam could change his mind.

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    4. Cathryn, I would also urge you to be noisy about what is happening to you, as I suggested to Jen below. There is no reason to be quiet about this. Demand some government accountability here.

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  10. Thanks for speaking on CBC. I have both Canadian and US citizenship, but haven’t lived in the US in 30 years. After hearing about the requirement to file US taxes on CBC a few years ago I decided to try to file. It has been a mess. Expensive phone calls to the IRS and somehow a $15,000 tax bill that has taken me a year to clear up. I don’t owe anything and make well under the exclusion limit. I always wonder at what point they would have started taking money out of my bank account. There must be a better way to find American tax cheats than hurting the 99% of people who don’t owe anything.

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    1. Jen, you're right, this is a disgraceful way to carry out a campaign that is supposedly designed to catch offshore tax cheats. I urge you not to accept it in silence. The state in which you last resided is still your state of representation in the US. I encourage you to contact your congress person and senator with your story and ask them why they are doing this to US citizens abroad. And then I encourage you to contact your MP here in Canada and do the same. I suspect the US congress will not be moved on this subject but that does not mean that US citizens must accept this injustice quietly or meekly.

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  11. There is a new article in Maclean's discussing FATCA and the Toronto Centre Byelection.

    http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/11/18/on-being-canadian-and-how-freeland-could-have-responded-to-mcquaig/

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  12. I hope that this interview isn't the last, momentum is key right now!

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  13. Here you are on CBC's world at 6:

    http://podcast.cbc.ca/w6/worldatsix.mp3

    The item starts at about 14:48 and goes to 17:37

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    1. Thanks--a half hour interview yields a three second sound bite.

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