Big Brother is watching YOU!

FINTRAC, our national financial transaction watchdog, introduced new regulations governing Real Estate Agents, which took effect Monday, require realtors to get identification and record the name, address, date of birth and occupation of buyers, sellers and any individual or corporation that contributes financially to a real estate transaction.

The government claims that all of these regulations tracking the flow of money are about getting on top of organized crime and terrorist organizations, and preventing the laundering of the proceeds of either type of crime.

I say its all about income taxes and tracking the flow of money, in an attempt to get control of the "grey", ie: underground economy. Over the past twenty five years, with the radical increase in various types of taxes there are an ever increasing numbers of individuals who are actively hiding their income and attempting to become invisible to CRA.

So if the government is having a hard time tracking all the various ways of masking income, they then have a need to figure out how to track the proceeds of that income. Thus, FINTRACK which gives the government enormous powers of investigation, and recruits everyone who works in the financial services industry, and now the real estate industry, into helping to enforce taxes on those who would try to avoid paying them.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think that everyone should pay their fair share of taxes, after all, we all use government services when we need to and nothing justifies someone trying to get out of their obligation, so my concern is not about the need to assess and then to collect outstanding taxes.

Rather, my concern is that governments have been using the terror attack on the World Trade Centre in 2002 as an excuse to increasingly invade what used to be considered private information and confidentiality. Not everyone is comfortable with the government having access to every nook and cranny of our private lives. Internet invasions, email scrutiny, etc. have all increased by the government in the past five years, and the agents of the government have also increased their surveilance of financial transactions.

It used to be that cash was a time honored way to pay for things. I remember in the 1970's paying the down payment for a house in cash, literally in one hundred dollar bills. Today it would be assumed that those were illegal or illegitimately obtained. In my cash the one hundred dollar bills were saved from years of doing yard work as a teenager, and yes I did file income taxes even as a teen.

My point really is that Big Brother really is watching you, and they have just increased their army of eyes by the number of realtors in the country. Should we be concerned? You tell me.