Let's be clear that anyone who's solely a Canadian citizen is not caught up in this. Yes, if they're married to an American and they have a joint account, there's some possibility, but the reality is anyone who is solely a Canadian citizen is not caught up in this. If you're a Canadian citizen married to an American and you don't have a joint account, you're not caught up in this.
This, again, is a tax for U.S. citizens. If you're the son or the daughter of an American and you've been born in Canada outside the jurisdiction of the United States, you're not automatically a U.S. citizen. What I'm hearing from the opposition is somehow you are. You are absolutely not. You have to apply for U.S. citizenship on or before your 18th birthday and it's not a guarantee. It's an application form.
Let's be clear that without this agreement, this law is in place anyway in the U.S. These people are subject to the tax. We don't have to like it. We don't have to agree with it. That is not the point. We have to find a way to make this at least acceptable that if these individuals want to travel to the U.S., they don't get flagged and picked up at the U.S. border, that they're not subject when that happens to a 30% withholding tax in their personal bank account, and that the financial institution that holds that bank account is not subject to a 30% holding tax.
There's nothing nefarious there. This is a very complicated process that we're trying to find a reasonable way, through the FATCA agreement and through the IGA, to work through. To be fair, I think the officials have done a very good job at doing that.
In closing, Mr. Chair, I want to make it clear once again. There's a lot of talk from the other side, and I'm sure it just happens to be language, a slip of the tongue. Canadians know that only if you're a dual citizen will you be caught in this. And only in the rare possibilities of those individuals who may have a joint account are you caught in this. But as for the children of American parents, as was mentioned by Mr. Rankin, or an American mother or an American father born in Canada, they're not automatically American.