Friday, September 14, 2012

United Kingdom Signed Bilateral FATCA Agreement



WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced today that it has signed a bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom to implement the information reporting and withholding tax provisions commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
 
Enacted by Congress in 2010, these provisions target non-compliance by U.S. taxpayers using foreign accounts. The bilateral agreement signed this week is based on the model published in July of this year and developed in consultation with France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom and marks an important step in establishing a common approach to combatting tax evasion based on the automatic exchange of information.
 
These provisions target noncompliance by U.S. taxpayers using foreign accounts. Signing the bilateral agreement sets forth a way to tackle tax evasion based on the automatic exchange of information.

“Today’s announcement marks a significant step forward in our efforts to work collaboratively to combat offshore tax evasion,” said Treasury Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Mark Mazur.
 
“We are pleased that the United Kingdom, one of our closest allies, is the first jurisdiction to sign a bilateral agreement with us and we look forward to quickly concluding agreements based on this model with other jurisdictions.”
 
The Treasury Department is in communication with several other governments who have expressed interest in concluding a similar bilateral agreement to implement FATCA and expects to sign additional bilateral agreements in the near future.
 
The Treasury Department and the IRS also are continuing to work towards finalizing the regulations implementing FATCA in the near term.
 

If you have Unreported Income From Foreign Banks, contact the Lawyers at Marini & Associates, P.A. for a FREE Consultation at www.TaxAid.usorwww.TaxLaw.msor Toll Freeat 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).
Call US before Uncle Sam finds you!

Source:

US Treasury




1 comment:

  1. David Treitel • David Treitel, Director of London based American Tax Returns Ltd, notes that the agreement:

    1. Requires every tax and financial adviser in the UK with clients who happen to be American citizens or green card holders to think much more seriously about whether all of the complicated forms that the IRS already requires are being filed, given that UK financial institutions will be providing so much more data about their clients to the tax authorities, and

    2. Inevitably will make several UK financial institutions scared of having any US persons as account holders because of extra compliance costs as well as the risk of recommending banking or investment products that are not “US tax friendly”.

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