Evidence of meeting #32 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was accounts.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
It's our colleagues at the Canada Revenue Agency that would ask and answer that question. Again, the question would be whether it's relevant to U.S. taxation and the taxes covered by the Canada-U.S. tax treaty.
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
They would need to satisfy themselves that the U.S. explanation as to why they were requesting the information was cogent. Yes, I think that's right.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Has the government sought and received an opinion from the Privacy Commissioner regarding the sharing of personal information with the U.S. government or the IRS?
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Is your question, again, about what they've been doing for the past 50 years?
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Has the government sought an opinion from the Privacy Commissioner in terms of sharing this information?
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I don't believe so. As I say, it's been going on for a long time.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
In the case where these accounts have more than one owner or beneficiary or where only one owner or beneficiary is a U.S. person, is the entire account subject to U.S. taxation or just a part of it?
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Is your question about taxation or is your question about the reporting of the account?
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
For a joint account, do we know if the full amount is possible?
4:55 p.m.
Kevin Shoom Senior Chief, International Taxation and Special Projects, Department of Finance
In the case of a joint account, the full value of the account would be reported for the person who is subject to reporting. The personal information would relate only to the person who is identified as a U.S. person.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
The federal government held some public consultations on the agreement earlier this year. Does the government intend to publish the submissions as they have with past consultations?
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
That isn't the plan. Our general practice with consultation on potential action items is that we'll say that we'll be asking for permission to post them if people are willing to allow that. If they do, it's posted on our Finance website. We generally don't do that with draft legislation, which this was, and haven't in this case.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Would you agree that the exemption of certain accounts—RRSPs, RDSPs, and TFSAs—from FATCA reporting only applies to Canadian banks but not to the dual citizens?
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
No, it applies to the dual citizens if you're talking about the terms of the report under the intergovernmental agreement.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Are you saying that the dual citizens are exempt from reporting those to the IRS?
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I'm saying that the intergovernmental agreement exempts those accounts from reporting—
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Yes, the banks are the only ones—well, financial institutions more generally are the ones with the potential obligation to report, and they don't have an obligation to report registered accounts such as the ones you've listed.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Does the intergovernmental agreement exempt dual citizens from the reporting to the IRS of these accounts?
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
A dual citizen who is a U.S. citizen under one of their—
4:55 p.m.
General Director, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
As I say, they've had for a long time already an obligation to comply with U.S. tax law. If that's a taxable item under U.S. tax law, they'd be required to report it.