NZ To Negotiate FATCA Agreement With US

7 thoughts on “NZ To Negotiate FATCA Agreement With US”

1. @Northern Strike…

   Thanks for posting this.  There is also this one from this weekend with a lot of active comments you would be interested in reading. 

   New Zealand will seek to negotiate tax information agreement with US over ‘FATCA’ law NZ banks had feared would cost them NZ$100M

   These posts are also updated in this Thread on New Zealand…

   New Zealand Government position on FATCA

2. Tax evasion harder now – NZ Government

   https://twitter.com/FATCA_Fallout/status/263500120664965120
   https://twitter.com/FATCA_Fallout/status/263498548136513536

   Tax evasion has become “significantly more difficult” now the Government has signed an international convention which allows Inland Revenue to ask for information from tax authorities in other countries, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne says.

   The Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters also allows IRD to ask for help in collecting tax from absconding taxpayers who have moved overseas.

   “International co-operation in tax matters is critical to ensuring that everyone pays their fair share of tax,” Mr Dunne says. “Being a signatory to this convention is one more nail in the coffin for tax evasion.”

   The convention was drafted by the OECD and the Council of Europe.

   So far 42 countries have signed it and 10 more have formally signalled their intention to sign it.

3. @Just Me and perhaps others

   Thank you for this. Just to make my own position clear, I very much support agreements to curb tax evasion. My problem is with the opportunistic and predatory actions of the IRS to destroy the lives of non-tax evaders whose crime is to have ordinary bank accounts and investments.

4. *Just Me and Northern Shrike

   Schubert1975 sent a letter to Flaherty many months ago about this convention and got a personally blue ink signed response. Basically Flaherty said that Canada has signed the convention(and in fact has signed it twice once in 2004 and again in 2011). However Flaherty told Schubert that Canada would take a full reservation upon ratification of the treaty to provide any assistance in collection activities on behalf of other signatories. There is absolutely no sign as to when Canada may bring forward legislation to allow for ratification. I highly doubt it will be this fall.

   To earlier point it is interesting that NZ seems far more eager to sign up for this treaty than Canada and Flaherty do. In his letter to Schubert Flaherty did not at all seem to praise or the “sell” the treaty as a good thing to Canada. You got the impression that again it would be a long time before Canada actually ratifies this agreement. The US Senate actually ratified an earlier version way back in the early 1990s under Democratic Control. Technically a newer version of the treaty is up for Senate approval but my sense it is highly doubtful there will be a US Senate vote anytime soon. The key thing in this treaty is actually the assistance in collection provisions that in fact the US and Canada appear to have rejected/reserved against. It is unclear whether any future signatories intend to reserve on Assistance in Collection also.

    

5. *There have been previous discussion on this treaty at Brock. I believe Eric did some research regarding the original ratification in the US.

   https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/02/13/3200/

   http://isaacbrocksociety.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/post-re-flaherty4.pdf

6. BTW,  

   Moby has been putting up some very good comments on the story on Interest.co.nz on IGAs…

   Read the latest here..

   New Zealand will seek to negotiate tax information agreement with US over ‘FATCA’ law NZ banks had feared would cost them NZ$100M

7. *I love the text where the government says if the banks enter into agreements they violate HUMAN RIGHTS LAWS. But the government gets to violate human rights laws instead???