@All
See below: “U.S. Treasury to miss deadline on tax crackdown – sources” (Reuters)
So much for the FATCA juggernaut – another delay! This also signals IGAs are not falling into place as fast as they need to. Another reason CANADA must not rush to sign an IGA.
Impacted interests (FFS, foreign governments) need to stop preemtive surrender and wake up to the fact that Treasury is shooting blanks — and STOP negotiating IGAs with Washington. Instead, they need to support FATCA repeal in DC!
Media need to stop acting as bulletin boards for government releases and see that there’s a big story here: FATCA IS IN TROUBLE.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/20/us-usa-taxes-fatca-idUSBRE8BJ0T320121220
Exclusive: U.S. Treasury to miss deadline on tax crackdown – sources
10:16am EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Treasury Department will miss a year-end deadline to publish final rules for a new global tax enforcement regime targeting the offshore assets of U.S. taxpayers, sources familiar with the timing said on Wednesday.
The rules represent one of the last implementation steps for the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, which is scheduled to take effect in 2014.
The accounting industry sources, who asked not to be named, said the rules are on track to be released in January.
A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department on Tuesday would not confirm whether the year-end deadline will be met.
“We are still working to issue the final regulations and they will be released soon,” the spokeswoman told Reuters.
Treasury has already missed one deadline for the publishing the final rules. It came and went in September.
FATCA was enacted in 2010 after an outcry over a Swiss banking scandal that revealed U.S. taxpayers had hidden millions of dollars in assets overseas from the Internal Revenue Service.
The law requires foreign financial institutions to tell the tax-collecting IRS about Americans’ offshore accounts worth more than $50,000.
International businesses ranging from Western Union Co to BlackRock Inc are waiting anxiously to see the rules so they can figure out how to comply with the law.
Delays mean businesses will have less time to prepare for compliance. Multinational firms have said they need at least 12 months to prepare for FATCA’s 2014 start date.
“It is critically important that final FATCA regulations are issued as soon as possible,” said Barbara Angus, a principal at Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP.
Treasury efforts on the rules may have been slowed by a number of government-to-government FATCA information-sharing deals it started pursuing earlier this year, tax experts said.
The United States has completed FATCA deals with the UK, Denmark and Mexico. Switzerland and Spain also have “initialed” agreements with Treasury.
Meanwhile, negotiations are continuing for deals with at least 50 other countries, according to the Treasury Department.
These deals represent a shift in FATCA implementation. While not envisioned as part of the 2010 law, the agreements are seen as a more practical way to implement the law.
Rather than forcing all foreign financial institutions to deal directly with the IRS, in some cases the agreements will allow the banks and funds to report information about American accountholders through their home governments to the IRS.
(Reporting by Patrick Temple-West; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh)
@Medea .. and would that be in the German the US translators learned at school, or the German the Swiss speak which even the Germans can’t generally comprehend? … I sure as hell can’t when I hear it, and have about four years of high-school and university “hochDeutsch” under my belt though it’s awfully rusty. I know the Swiss Germans can read standard German, if they want to and you ask them politely, but …
The mind doth spin and giggle at some of the thoughts this raises.
@Medea Fleecestealer
The poor French, but they are used to it. Their airline pilots have to speak English when they make contact with any Air Traffic Control operator in the world, so the Americans think nothing of requiring the Financial world to do everything in English. Everyone speaks it and reads it of course. If your Bank, can’t do it, that is their problem. That’s the attitude you are dealing with. 🙁
*Interestingly enough in Montreal “Center” Airspace which is primarily Quebec and Ottawa Macdonald Cartier Airport English or French can be used in ATC communication. However, most air carrier operations out of Quebec City, Montreal Trudeau, and Ottawa all communicate to ATC in English but Nav Canada requires all air traffic controllers covering this area to be proficient in both French and English.
In terms of FATCA and Canada all tax forms and official government communication must be in both English and French. My guess is Kevin Shoom being from Kingston, Ontario on the linguistic boundary probably speaks relative good French. Within the public service of Canada bilingualism is strongly encouraged at the higher levels I don’t know to what to degree Flaherty’s people are billingual. I know Flaherty’s rep at the Canadian Embassy in DC is a native francophone speaker which may not be helpful to the anti FATCA cause.
*Schubert1975, I believe that all documentation is in High German because until very recently you couldn’t write down or read Swiss German. It varied, just as Romansch varies. Romansch was worse though because it varies often from one valley to another. However, both are being standardised now so you can actually buy books to help you learn Swiss German. Before that it was very much an oral learning system only. That’s my understanding anyway.
From Mexico…
FATCA: U.S. imposes extraterritoriality
Wonder how that other Laboratory experiment has worked out for Mexico, the War on Drugs?
Notice that Jim Jatras is quoted.
Repost for Ask your FATCA Question Thread.
In Preparing For FATCA, American Government Relations Specialist Tells Jamaican Firms: Stop Wasting Your Money
James as inspired me to push back a bit harder against the FCC on linkedin,
Posted this this morning…
The China Post: “Treaty needed before FATCA will be honored: KMT lawmaker”
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/foreign-affairs/2012/12/28/365496/Treaty-needed.htm
From the article:
“Taiwan’s government has no obligation to meet tax-reporting requirements under Washington’s 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) until it has signed a tax information exchange agreement with the United States, a ruling lawmaker said yesterday.”
“’It is a matter of sovereignty,’” Lai said during a legislative session yesterday in Taipei.”
“The act requires foreign financial institutions to tell the IRS, which is under the U.S. Treasury Department, about offshore accounts held by American citizens worth more than US$50,000. It is expected to affect thousands of green-card holders and U.S. citizens in Taiwan.”
John BrownDecember 28, 2012 at 4:34 am
iExpats.com: “Interview: James Jatras, Lawyer and Anti-FATCA Lobbyist”
A great interview with James Jatras.
http://www.iexpats.com/2012/12/interview-james-jatras-lawyer-and-anti-fatca-lobbyist/
Best quote:
“….expats will be damaged, and, indeed, already are being damaged, according to numerous news reports, is their increasingly leprous status in the eyes of FFIs….”
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