U.S. stops talks with Russia over tax information: report

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The United States has de-facto suspended talks with Russia about exchanging information on taxes under 2010’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), in a sign of a deepening rift over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, Vedomosti daily reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper, citing two Russian federal officials and a source close to the Kremlin, said the U.S. has been silent about the talks.

“They obviously took a pause in the talks,” an official said.

Scheduled to take effect on July 1, FATCA will require foreign banks to share information with the Internal Revenue Service about Americans’ accounts worth more than $50,000.

The United States and European Union have already sanctioned some Russian officials and Bank Rossiya over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, which instigated the most serious East-West spat since the end the of Cold War more than 20 years ago.

Credit: Chicago Tribune