The U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division and the Internal Revenue Service have been ramping up an intense crackdown on offshore tax evasion, and the IRS’s reduced resources due to new budget cuts is having no effect on IRS enforcement initiatives in this area. The government’s reach has extended far beyond Switzerland, where it is […]

It seems as though Tax Evaders Don’t Have a Prayer now that the Vatican has signed an agreement with US authorities to report information about overseas accounts under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), more taxpayers must be on their best behaviour. This is believed to be the first intergovernmental agreement between the United […]

YOU HAVE just been named by your financial firm as a responsible officer under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA for short. Should you hand in your two-week notice, take the job in stride, or brace– and protect yourself — from hefty operational and legal liabilities? Those are the decisions and options […]

On Tuesday 11 March, UK HMRC announced significant changes to the classification of Financial Institutions (FIs) and the annual FATCA reporting obligations. HMRC has confirmed that UK FIs will not be required to file ‘nil returns’ for FATCA purposes. Previously all UK FIs were required to file a return even where there were no reportable […]

On February 2, 2015 the Obama Administration acknowledged the plight of certain US citizens residing abroad and proposed limited relief. In the “General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2016 Revenue Proposals”1, known as the “Green Book,” the Administration proposed a change to US law (the “Proposal”) that would allow certain dual citizens to renounce their […]

Channel Island Businesses still have a lot to consider for the next stages of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) implementation, delegates heard at a recent breakfast seminar hosted by EY. The event, led by Wendy Martin, EY’s Tax Executive Director, highlighted: The recent updates made to the FATCA guidance notes and the imminent […]

As if new requirements around the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act are not complicated enough, several new acronyms are also being piled on us making the complex regulations even more difficult to follow. To help you keep up with the verbiage, we defined the top 10 troublesome acronyms around FATCA. FATF – Financial Action Task […]

Jersey’s financial institutions are now able to register in Jersey in preparation for US FATCA, which commences this year. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requires financial institutions outside the USA to report information on financial accounts held by their US customers to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). A test platform has been available […]