With the U.S. taxman coming after Americans living in Canada, maybe we should be going after Canadian expats living in the U.S. like Céline Dion, Seth Rogen and Jim Carrey.

That’s the suggestion from Queen’s University tax law professor Art Cockfield, who says Canada should retaliate in kind against a policy by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS is demanding that dual American/Canadian citizens living in Canada — even those who moved here as children — file U.S. tax returns.

Going after the big names first just might get the Americans to change their minds about the new policy, he said.

“If you’ve moved to L.A. like Seth Rogen, you should still be taxed here on money earned in the U.S. If they’re doing that to Canadian residents and Canadian banks, we should be doing it, too,” said Cockfield.

A new law due to come into force in 2014 would also force Canadian banks to determine their customers’ citizenship and tax status, then feed it back to American tax authorities.

If Canada unveiled a similar policy, it would be about 50-50 who’d complain the loudest, Cockfield says — U.S. banks or high-profile Canadian expats.

“The bitching and moaning would definitely be loud from the celebrities, but the banks might have a more lasting impact on policy. They wouldn’t want to act as investigators for the Canadian government, so they’d do some lobbying pretty quickly to get it changed,” said Cockfield.

And stopping the new IRS policy is what Cockfield would ultimately like to see.

“Anything which discourages mobility across the border hurts both our countries and both our economies,” said Cockfield.

Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty recently slammed the IRS policy.

“The threat of prohibitive fines for simply failing to file a return they were unaware they had to file, is a frightening prospect that is causing unnecessary stress and fear among law-abiding hardworking dual citizens,” Flaherty wrote in a letter published by several U.S. newspapers.