Monday, December 14, 2015

Update to Canada's FATCA litigation

The grassroots group responsible for launching the FATCA-based litigation in Canada has issued a public call for witnesses. They are looking for "a Canadian who has been somehow harmed by this FATCA legislation, are interested in helping out by becoming a Witness in our lawsuit, and are willing to have your affidavit statements and name go public." The group is up front about the risks involved in coming forward: being a witness is to expose oneself to public scrutiny, some of which is decidedly hostile, as well as of course the risk of ruinous consequences deriving from US tax rules as they apply to noncompliant nonresident persons' lives.

1 comment:

  1. I wonder what the aftermath would be like, if the Canadian courts agree with that the CRA can't turn over information to the IRS.

    The U.S. government would be angry that it wouldn't be getting any more information from Canadian banks. What if it decides to make good on its promise to impose 30% withholding on USD-based transactions? It would probably cause the Canadian economy to crash, but the U.S. would come out of the whole scenario looking like a bully. This event may trigger other countries to use a different currency, say the euro, for transactions, which would probably cause the USD and thus the U.S. economy to collapse. There would be no real winners, only that the group of nations could make the U.S. lose worse.

    And what would happen to U.S. politics in the aftermath of an economic collapse? Would we see someone like Trump, but even worse, come to power? Given the military forces and nuclear weapons possessed by the U.S., that would be a scary scenario and it could lead to World War III.

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