Friday, March 2, 2012

IRS Working to Issue Final Rules on FATCA by End of Summer.

The government hopes to issue final regulations under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act by the end of the summer, Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs Manal Corwin said March 1.

In addition, the government will be working to “operationalize” government-to-government information sharing agreements under FATCA, she said at the USA Branch of the International Fiscal Association conference.

The United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom jointly announced they were working toward such agreements Feb. 8, the same day the Internal Revenue Service issued nearly 400 pages of rules that individual banks could use to report U.S.-owned accounts to IRS.
Corwin stressed the government-to-government agreements are not exceptions, but an alternative approach, to FATCA.

She said the United States is currently in discussions with many other jurisdictions on a similar approach.

1 comment:

  1. FATCA Rules, Participation Pact Likely `Well Before' End of 2012, Wilkins Says

    Posted March 2, 2012, 1:38 P.M. ET

    The Internal Revenue Service plans to unveil both final regulations under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and a draft agreement banks can use to participate “well before the end of 2012,” IRS Chief Counsel William Wilkins said today.

    Both Wilkins and Tara Ferris, an attorney in Branch 2 of the IRS Associate Chief Counsel (International), stressed the government is working to provide the guidance and agreement as quickly as possible. Each spoke at the Federal Bar Association Section on Taxation 36th Annual Tax Law Conference.

    Ferris, one of the principal drafters of the proposed regulations, said the draft agreement and procedures that financial institutions can use to sign up to participate in FATCA will be available in the first half of 2012.

    In other developments under FATCA, Ferris said IRS plans to issue a draft Form W-8 that U.S. withholding agents can use to document and identify payees who may be subject to the statute, which requires foreign financial institutions to report U.S.-owned accounts to IRS or face, in some cases, a 30 percent withholding tax.

    Ferris also said the government is seeking comments on the process by which FFIs would verify that they are compliant with FATCA.

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