The OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and FATCA in the United States are long-winded. So the OECD published on August 7 a much shorter and lighter guide: the “Common Reporting Standard Implementation Handbook” (the CRS Handbook). The CRS and FATCA represent a sweeping change toward automatic information exchange and away… – Continue reading
The Georgian side has taken responsibility to inform the Revenue Office of the United States (US) about the financial assets of US residents living in Georgia. From September 18, when Parliament of Georgia ratified an agreement on Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) with the US, all Georgian financial institutions,… – Continue reading
A new wave of global tax compliance regulation is a game changer in the way asset owners and investment management companies report activities. Globalization of financial markets has made it increasingly simple to make, hold and manage investments outside an asset owner’s own tax domicile. A standard on automatic exchange… – Continue reading
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is ranked third in the world for the number of financial institutions per-country that have now signed up to report under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). IRS figures report 8,525 Luxembourg firms have registered with the FATCA portal, and the total is surpassed… – Continue reading
1. What is CRS? “CRS” or Common Reporting Standard is a regime developed by the OECD to facilitate and standardise the exchange of information on residents’ assets and income, primarily for taxation purposes, between numerous jurisdictions around the world. Officially referred to as the OECD Standard for Automatic Exchange of… – Continue reading
The IRS today released an advance version of Notice 2015-66 announcing that the Treasury Department and IRS intend to amend regulations under sections 1471-1474 to extend the time that certain FATCA transitional rules will apply. The notice also addressing the reporting of 2014 information under a Model 1 IGA. Notice… – Continue reading
The Caribbean has just 18 congressional working days from Sunday September 20 to try to have the US Congress or the District of Colombia address an act naming 17 Caribbean nations as “tax havens”. If passed without amendment it could have the effect of reputationally damaging the countries concerned with… – Continue reading
A small office shared with three other companies deep in the bowels of the Outsource IT Tower on Auckland’s Khyber Pass Road opposite a reservoir isn’t necessarily where you’d expect to find the global headquarters of a financial service provider that claims to be following in the footsteps of three… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service has issued a notice extending the time under which certain transitional rules for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, will apply. FATCA was included as part of the HIRE Act of 2010 and requires foreign financial institutions to report on the assets of U.S…. – Continue reading
HMRC has today published new draft guidance notes to cover the automatic exchange of financial account information under the International Tax Compliance Regulations 2015 (SI 2015 No. 878) (the Regulations), which were made in the spring. The main document is a new draft HMRC guidance manual covering the Regulations. The… – Continue reading
“I want to commend the government for bringing this bill to parliament,” said Opposition Leader Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas said today of the government tabled Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (USA) (Implementation and Enforcement) Bill 2015. During his presentation on the bill’s debate in the National Assembly today (Sept 15),… – Continue reading
More than 90 jurisdictions, including all 34 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) and the G20 members, have committed to implement the Common Reporting Standard for automatic exchange of tax information (“CRS”). Building on the model created by FATCA, the CRS creates a global standard… – Continue reading
Banks are threatening to close accounts of British expats living in the USA if they fail to complete piles of paperwork to comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Millions of US expats worldwide are already caught by the law which requires foreign financial institutions to supply details… – Continue reading
Concerns were raised in parliament Tuesday about the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act – FATCA, and its likely impact on the federation. The act, described as a tax act of the American government that the federation is being asked to enforce was being debated in the National Assembly Tuesday,… – Continue reading
A federal court judge dismissed an attempt to put an early stop to a controversial program in which the Canadian government agreed to share financial information of an estimated one million “U.S. persons” living in Canada with the Internal Revenue Service. Particularly troubling to some opponents is that the agreement… – Continue reading
The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia in September 2015 issued guidance concerning the requirements for compliance with an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to implement the FATCA regime. The FATCA guidance notes provide guidelines and practical information for Malaysian-based financial institutions, businesses, their advisers, and officials dealing with application of the FATCA… – Continue reading
(ZIZ News) — Tuesday’s sitting of the National Assembly featured heated debates on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance (United States of America) (Implementation and Enforcement of InterGovernmental Agreement) Bill 2015. Prime Minister, Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris, who sought leave to have the bill read a first and second time, was… – Continue reading
The number of banks with deferred prosecution agreements with the U.S. government keeps growing. The subject is tax evasion involving American account holders. Today, under FATCA, banks everywhere want to know if you are compliant with the IRS. And the IRS keeps updating its list of foreign banks where offshore… – Continue reading
On July 9, 2015, India and the US signed an agreement to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) that will facilitate exchange of information between the two countries starting on October 1, 2015. FATCA was signed by Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das and US Ambassador Richard Verma in New… – Continue reading
Belgian financial institutions have more time to comply with their reporting requirements under the FATCA regime. FATCA reporting for 2014 must be completed prior to the 10th day following the publication of the Belgian FATCA law in the Belgian official gazette. Currently, the law has not been enacted, but it… – Continue reading
An increasing number of Americans renounced their citizenship and cut-off long term residencies during the initial three months of 2015 due to a crackdown in the foreign tax rules. The exit wave went down a little in the second half, but has continued. The Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department… – Continue reading
Note: This article was published by Bloomberg BNA in Tax Planning International European Tax Service Vol. 17 No. 7 July 2015 Introduction The recent LuxLeaks scandal has once again focused political attention on tax planning practices of multinationals (“MNEs”). It comes in the wake of the European Commission investigation of… – Continue reading
The decree of 2015 in accordance with the Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law (Exchange of Information within the framework of the Agreement for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) has been issued and published in the official Gazette of the Republic of Cyprus dated 28th August 2015 (Decree 281/2015)… – Continue reading
The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is like a global think tank for advancing ideas and policy for the leading developed nations. Based in Paris with 2,500 staff, the OECD gathers social and economic data from member states which is analysed, discussed and edited into digests with recommendations… – Continue reading
BARBADOS’ OFFSHORE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR is again under threat. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), G20 and the European Union (EU) are acting in concert, armed with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). Once implemented, the confidentiality which once protected financial… – Continue reading
Panama in May 2014 indicated its intentions to enter into an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the United States, for purposes of implementing the FATCA regime. The Panama agreement would follow the Model 1 IGA. As of early September 2015, Panama has yet to sign the IGA. In preparing for implementation… – Continue reading
PwC has acquired software company Ellis Financial Systems in a bid to more rapidly meet new tax information reporting required under such regimes as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). It has been re-named PwC Tax Information Reporting, and will operate from London. The acquisition represents one of many… – Continue reading
An initiative intended to catch tax dodgers could have a negative impact on those with perfectly legitimate bank accounts. Tax expert Howard Bilton offers advice The draconian Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), introduced by the US Government to tackle tax evasion by its citizens, has already affected Britons living… – Continue reading
India’s Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue (Foreign Tax and Tax Research Division) on 31 August 2015 released guidance notes with respect to implementation of the reporting requirements under rules 114F to 114H of the Income tax rules. Rules 114F to 114H implement the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between India and… – Continue reading
As traders are set to stage a strike on Wednesday (today) following a call given by the All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajran against the withholding tax on banking transactions, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has supported the traders and decided to join the strike. Traders’ leaders warned that the protest could… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: To ensure compliance with FATCA — the new US law to check offshore tax evasion — regulator Sebi today asked all market intermediaries to follow reporting requirements prescribed by Income Tax Department in this regard. Under Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), foreign financial institutions that fail to… – Continue reading
The US State Department has issued an interim final rule that would extend the increase in its processing fees payable for renouncing US citizenship to those who relinquish their US nationality through other methods. While the majority of individuals giving up their US citizenship do so by “making a formal… – Continue reading
(CNS Business): US taxpayers and Caymanian status holders Lee and Sheila Aronfeld are seeking a judicial review of a decision by the Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority (CITIA) to give their information to the IRS in the United States in connection with a criminal tax probe. Shareholders in three Cayman… – Continue reading
The original online payment platform, PayPal, has decided to leave the populous island of Puerto Rico next month. The commonwealth has imposed a 2 percent take on any money transmission, forcing Paypal’s hand. So what does this mean for those who need to send money from Puerto Rico? Puerto Rico… – Continue reading
The international financial sector faces a perilous future. Major challenges loom over an uncertain global economy, while a decidedly negative political climate poses an existential threat to the offshore financial community. With each passing year, thanks to demographic changes and poorly designed fiscal policies, politicians from high-tax nations will be… – Continue reading
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to bring home millions of dollars of illicit money stashed abroad. Indians call undisclosed money ‘black money,’ and how much there is remains unclear. But it isn’t just billions. It could be hundreds of billions to more than $1 trillion. It isn’t merely offshore… – Continue reading
Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders, has written to the mayor of the District of Columbia, Muriel Brower, and several members of the US congress calling for the removal of Antigua and Barbuda from a list of alleged “tax havens”, reports Caribbean News Now. Antigua… – Continue reading
Saint Kitts and Nevis, BASSETERRE, (September 08, 2015) – The Governments of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis and the United States of America (USA) on August 31, 2015, signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) that will facilitate compliance by financial institutions in the Federation with the USA’s Foreign Account… – Continue reading
Travis Patron, a digital money researcher, explained why bitcoin may facilitate a taxation environment subversive to national governments and that cryptocurrency is already taxed by default, in an article titled, “Why Bitcoin Creates a Voluntary Tax System”, published on CoinDesk. He questions that although many jurisdictions have already declared digital… – Continue reading
SEBI on August 26, 2015 released a notification on the captioned head. It informed the intermediaries that India has joined The Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCCA). Further on July 09, 2015, the Governments of India and United States of America signed an agreement to improve international tax compliance and to… – Continue reading
THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) has advised Philippine financial institutions to start preparing for the implementation of a United States law requiring the reporting of bank accounts held by American taxpayers locally. In an advisory, the BIR said the start of reporting will not yet take place at the… – Continue reading
New York, NY, September 05, 2015 –(PR.com)– The Knowledge Group/The Knowledge Congress Live Webcast Series, the leading producer of regulatory focused webcasts, has announced today that Colleen P. Waddell, Managing Director, Outlier Solutions will speak at the Knowledge Group’s webcast entitled: “Latest Regulatory Developments Under FATCA: Best Compliance Practices Uncovered… – Continue reading
On 13 April 2015, HMRC confirmed that UK financial institutions will not be required to file “nil” returns under the UK’s FATCA regulations, if they do not maintain any US financial accounts. However, UK financial institutions that maintain only US accounts below the applicable de minimis threshold ($50,000 or $250,000,… – Continue reading
Ingenious Asset Management has formalised its offering for its transatlantic clients with the launch of IAM-US. Led by investment director Edward Allen, supported by fellow investment directors Wayne Ellis and Peter Clark, who is also chief strategist at the wealth manager, the move recognises the specialist requirements of US-linked clients… – Continue reading
Abu Dhabi: As the world powers get ready to lift sanctions on Iran, a top banker in the UAE said the banks have to carefully understand this change as they prepare to relax their systems and enable the expected business activity. “It is one of the tougher sanctions that the… – Continue reading
The number of Swiss banks that have entered deferred prosecution agreements with the U.S. government keeps growing. The subject is tax evasion involving American account holders. Today, banks everywhere want to know if you are compliant with the IRS. Under FATCA, the entire world is lending the IRS a hand…. – Continue reading
On August 31, the government of St Kitts and Nevis signed the agreement with the Government of the United States of America to implement the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), reports WINN FM. Enacted by the US Congress in 2010, FATCA targets non-compliance by US taxpayers using foreign… – Continue reading
Switzerland’s parliament will soon take up the issue of inking a crucial Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) agreement with India, a move that could help combat the menace of black money and erect a platform to enable the exchange of information between the two countries. “The domestic procedures regarding AEOI… – Continue reading
Domestic funds will now have to closely examine FATCA rules. Much ink has been spilt of late over a United States (‘US’) federal law called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (‘FATCA’) and hence we thought it fit to spend some time trying to analyse for the readers the aspects… – Continue reading
The Luxembourg tax authorities released a final version of an administrative circular and an updated administrative circular to implement provisions under the FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) regime concerning the automatic exchange of information between Luxembourg and the United States. An intergovernmental agreement (IGA), that follows the Model 1… – Continue reading
