The U.S. is the only country that requires its citizens to file a tax return and report their worldwide income, no matter where they live and what other citizenship they hold.
Not for everyone, apparently...
$10K for every year you didn't file a report saying you have no US income or assets? Cracked.
Basicly, every other country treats citizenship, residency-for-tax-purposes, and country-of-origin-of-income as different things. For 99% of people the value of these attributes is the same. There are agreements set up to help handle cases where they are different, generally Double Taxation Agreements between pairs of countries.
In the mean time, there are people who have no conscious memories of ever being in the US being told "you owe us hundreds of thousands of dollars for not telling us IN WRITING that you owe us no money".
If I spoke a second language, I would totally look into travelling north... sadly as of now, for my husband and I to immigrate, it would be purely on his ability to support us according to your immigration rules.
Strangely, a friend of mine with Canadian citizenship who'd moved to the US when he was a little kid had the exact reverse situation, a few years ago. I believe his response was 'come and take it, then.'
Unlikely, since the CRA does not require you to file if your taxable income in zero, does not tax income earned out-of-country while living out-of-country, and doesn't impose penalties for non-filing in this way.
What they MIGHT have done is sent him a letter saying that he hadn't filed a return in years and what's going on with that? - to which he responds "no taxable income" and they're all "oh, right then".
Oh, and: If you *do* owe money, they assess late fees on it that are capped at a significant-but-fractional percentage of the owed money. Like, I think it's 20% on money owed after 5 years, but I'd have to look it up to be sure. There's non-filing penalties if you demonstrate likely-taxable income and don't file, but those *go away* when you file.
It's sure as hell not "owe zero? Pay a quarter of a million in fines for not owing us any money and not doing anything even remotely taxable. And the quarter mill happens whether you pay us or not."
Quite possible that you may be right, though I have no idea, and he did mention that the letter explicitly stated that income earned in the US was still taxable. He received the letter maybe a year into his first ever job, though, and it was probably tossed out as soon as he was done laughing.
So, correction, I suppose. Same deal reversed, minus a mention of an absurd quantity of penalties.
Income earned outside Canada is partially taxable if you're a Canadian resident. If you're neither earning from a Canadian source nor resident in Canada, you pay no taxes. (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/ndvdls/nnrs-eng.html)
It's also worth noting that you have no legal obligation to file a tax return unless you: A) owe money or B) want a refund. - so even then, it's impossible to get into the article's bullshit situation where a nonresident who owes nothing gets "fined" hundreds of thousands for failing to report that they owe nothing to a country they are no part of.
So no, not the same situation. I'd need to see the letter your friend got to figure out what's wrong there - whether it's CRA's error because they think he's a Canadian resident, or your friend's error because he didn't understand the letter.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 01:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 01:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 01:37 am (UTC)$10K for every year you didn't file a report saying you have no US income or assets? Cracked.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 02:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 02:10 am (UTC)Backwards third-world banana-republic theocratic kleptocracies, yes. Worthwhile countries, no.
In the mean time, there are people who have no conscious memories of ever being in the US being told "you owe us hundreds of thousands of dollars for not telling us IN WRITING that you owe us no money".
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 02:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 03:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 04:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 05:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 05:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 06:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 06:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 11:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 12:08 pm (UTC)What they MIGHT have done is sent him a letter saying that he hadn't filed a return in years and what's going on with that? - to which he responds "no taxable income" and they're all "oh, right then".
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 12:13 pm (UTC)It's sure as hell not "owe zero? Pay a quarter of a million in fines for not owing us any money and not doing anything even remotely taxable. And the quarter mill happens whether you pay us or not."
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 03:11 pm (UTC)So, correction, I suppose. Same deal reversed, minus a mention of an absurd quantity of penalties.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-21 03:44 pm (UTC)It's also worth noting that you have no legal obligation to file a tax return unless you:
A) owe money
or
B) want a refund.
- so even then, it's impossible to get into the article's bullshit situation where a nonresident who owes nothing gets "fined" hundreds of thousands for failing to report that they owe nothing to a country they are no part of.
So no, not the same situation. I'd need to see the letter your friend got to figure out what's wrong there - whether it's CRA's error because they think he's a Canadian resident, or your friend's error because he didn't understand the letter.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-22 03:01 am (UTC)