Voyageur 119
That Recruiter on LinkedIn Might Be Chinese Military Intelligence, and Your American Spouse Might Not Want Your TFSA.
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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That Recruiter on LinkedIn Might Be Chinese Military Intelligence
A young recruiter with a great title and an even better offer slides into your LinkedIn messages. According to the Five Eyes, there's a real chance they work for China's military intelligence.
This week the spy agencies of Canada, the US, Britain, Australia and New Zealand all put out an alert together with the title "Safeguarding our Secrets" (maybe their secrets - it seems likely that they already know most of ours). It says Chinese intelligence officers are working LinkedIn, Indeed and Upwork to get in touch with current and former government and military staff. They set themselves up as consultancies, think tanks or HR firms and post ads for foreign-policy and defence analysts. The profile photo is usually an attractive person with a common name. Usually young, but somehow holding a senior title.
The catch comes later (those rascals). People who bite soon enough get pressed for "non-public" information for clients they never get to meet. The agencies say the scheme has already cost people jobs, security clearances and, in some cases, landed them in court.
If you left a posting in Ottawa for a contract overseas, you might have exactly the resume that’s being hunted for.
Read more: National Post / Canada's National Observer
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A photo from the old country:
Your American Spouse Might Not Want Your TFSA
Leaving your tax-free savings account to your American husband or wife seems like it should be the simplest thing in the world. The IRS, perhaps unsurprisingly, may have a different view.
Washington doesn't recognize the TFSA as a tax-free vehicle and it treats the account as an ordinary foreign investment account, which means that a surviving spouse can get dragged into years of US filing and disclosure. Worse, the Canadian mutual funds and ETFs that sit inside most TFSAs are considered to be PFICs (passive foreign investment companies), and the IRS usually taxes those as harshly as it taxes anything.
The fix that cross-border advisors suggest is small but it might be helpful. Name your US spouse as the beneficiary, not the successor holder. A successor holder inherits the account itself and every filing headache that comes with it, but a beneficiary gets the cash, which can then move into something the IRS looks upon more favourably.
The estate forms that your Canadian bank may have slid across the desk to you were built for couples who both live in Canada, but if you marry across a border, it would be wise to stop signing them on autopilot.
Read more: MoneySense