Israel is to seek a deal with the US over the pending FATCA regulations that increasingly have begun to concern Israeli banks, many of which have a large number of American clients, an Israeli media organisation is reporting.
A FATCA partnership with the US may not be as frightening as it may sound at first to those in Guernsey and similar other smaller jurisdictions, a KPMG Guernsey tax expert says, noting that, in terms of scope and commitment, it could be relatively similar to the EU Savings Tax Directive (EUSD).
Guernsey’s income tax authorities are looking at whether the island should join the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain by joining forces with the US to exchange information on individuals with accounts within its borders, a Guernsey newspaper reported yesterday.
The American Citizens Abroad, a Geneva-based group which represents the interests of expatriate US citizens, has called on the US government to join most of the rest of the world in taxing its citizens on the basis of where they live, rather than where they were born, or the nationality of their parents.
Despite revisions to the proposed FATCA rules, significant work lies ahead for firms who want to comply, write Nick Matthews and Matt Haddow of Kinetic Partners.
The European Fund and Asset Management Association today called on the US to further refine the rules it is proposing for the implementation of FATCA, although it acknowledged that the most recent set of draft regulations aimed at cracking down on offshore tax evasion addressed “many” of its original concerns.
Kristin Konschnik, a partner in the London office of Withers, the international law firm, looks at the IRSs latest proposal for implementing FATCA.
Responding, it said, to pressure from foreign financial institutions, the US today unveiled a less onerous version than it has previously of regulations covering the implementation of FATCA, its controversial new law aimed at cracking down on offshore tax evasion.
As FATCA watchers around the world keep checking their smartphones for news that the final guidance on the incoming US legislation has been issued, some experts are doubtful that the US Treasury will be able to keep to its recently-stated vow to try to make things easier for foreign financial institutions that will be affected.
Bowing to pressure from foreign governments, financial institutions and expatriate Americans around the world, the US is seen to be planning to make significant changes to its unpopular FATCA reporting requirements, which are due to take effect in 2013.
Tax experts who have been studying Frances new tax regime for wealthy individuals are likening its treatment of trusts to elements of Americas much-criticised FATCA regulations.
The Internal Revenue Service said that it plans within days to release new forms intended to enable Americans to begin complying with some of the new reporting requirements being brought in by the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act.
