Facilitating tax grabs.... FATCA

The cost of cutting ties with Uncle Sam soar: Tim Harper

OTTAWA - Thomas Jefferson is famously believed to have defined the price of freedom as eternal vigilance.
 

The price of freedom from Uncle Sam is a lot steeper.
 

Faced with a historic number of Americans renouncing their U.S. citizenship, Washington has decided to grab some cash from their one-time citizens on their way out, raising the processing cost to sever ties from $450 (U.S.) to $2,350.
 

It appears a fivefold increase will not slow the stampede.
 

At the U.S. consulate in Toronto, where an appointment to renounce citizenship was usually available within two-to-four weeks, the next opening is now mid-February, 2015.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/08/31/the_cost_of_cutting_ties_with_uncle_sam_soar_tim_harper.html

This move to cut the string is not based on U.S. foreign policy, its feckless gun laws or any of its social ills.
 

It’s all about taxes and the long reach of Washington, the only nation that taxes its citizens regardless of where they live or where they earned their income.

And in Canada, it is fuelled by a tax grab known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a policy which came into effect July 1, not only aided and abetted by the Conservative government, but enshrined in Canadian legislation.
 

Under the Canada-U.S. agreement, Canadian banks will provide account information on anyone deemed an American “person” to the Canada Revenue Agency, which will in turn pass it on to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.