On August 11, a constitutional challenge to the Agreement between the Government of the United States and the Government of Canada to Improve International Tax Compliance through Enhanced Exchanges of Information that was signed on February 5, 2014 (referred to as the " US-Canada IGA") and the new Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) provisions contained in Part XVIII of the Income Tax Act (Canada) was filed in Federal Court in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The plaintiffs instituted the lawsuit in the hopes of stopping the Government of Canada from turning over private bank account information from more than one million "United States persons" and their families living in Canada to the Internal Revenue Service. In doing so, the plaintiffs argue, in part, that portions of the US-Canada IGA violate provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by distinguishing and prejudicing citizens and residents of Canada who are "United States persons" from those who are not.
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