Appellant Reply Brief in Florida/Texas Bankers Case

This brief, filed by attorney Jim Butera on behalf of the Florida Bankers Association and Texas Bankers Association will be of interest to all as it demonstrates the objections any foreign bank would naturally have to the reporting requirements of FATCA administered via the IGA’s. Of course and more importantly, the case is one of the main attacks on FATCA legislation and if won, would be a major victory for our side.

One thing caught my attention immediately; whether or not there had actually been exchanges between Canada and the U.S. of actual tax information. This exchange would occur through “a non-productive program designed and instituted by the IRS in 1996 to allow for the exchange of individual bank deposit information held by the nonresident citizens of the U.S. and Canada (26 C.F.R. §1.6049-4.).”  Interesting, the date of 1996, shortly after HIPAA if I am not mistaken.

 

At the District Court level and in Appellant’s Brief (at 26 – 27), Appellants
consistently explained that the IRS has put forth no evidence that 15 years of
experience under the Canadian NRA reporting program has produced any
additional collection of tax revenue to the United States Treasury’s coffers

Our main brief further noted that th administrative record failed to confirm whether or
not the tax authorities of the U.S. and Canada had ever exchanged the information
they have been collecting for 15 years on domestic ban accounts held by the other
country’s non-resident individual citizens (at 7).

Perhaps I misread/read into some of this info but I was astonished at the actual idea that there may never have been any exchanges.I have a friend who was formerly with the CRA and asked about this. Information was exchanged but far more than just simple interest. I was told that any information the IRS asked for, was given. I would like to find/read what statute provided for the level of information that authorized the exchange. I am assuming there is something in addition to the Treaty. Does anyone know what that would be? It would also be interesting to know how much information CRA has actually exchanged and if any revenue has been received.

Brief was filed October 27, 2014 and is here:

Butera

 

 

 

About trishmoon

CDN citizen, Secretary-Treasurer of Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty. Focus on challenging those in the government and compliance industry to do more than rubber-stamp the IGA. Also focus on providing information to CDN "US Persons" to empower them to make their own decisions.

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How the #FATCA IGA has made U.S. citizenship a disability in Canada and highlighted the issue of law firm trust accounts ›

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