We have been following the New Zealand FATCA IGA developments via several IBS threads. Many of these are listed here for your historical reference.
Much of the information has been provided to us by Kiwi Osgood who comments here on IBS from time to time. We are indebted to him for his dogged pursuit of this issue where FATCA is even less known than it is in America or Canada. Although some Americans must be getting the word, as Phil Hogden reports increased renunciation activity in Auckland.
Osgood has been diligently communicating with the IRD and NZ Revenue Minister, as their ‘FATCA working group’ is doing the negotiation with U.S. Treasury. He has now completed an analysis of the legislation over the Christmas holidays (rotten way to spend a vacation) which will follow after the jump.
In summary he says of the Stealth:
The conclusion is depressing. I think I now see why they are putting the legislation through before the IGA has been signed. The legislation is generic and simply compels NZFIs to comply with “foreign account information sharing agreements”. The contents of those agreements are not considered by the legislation. Essentially the IGAs can be signed by cabinet without further legislation. As the US IGA is still “under negotiation” a casual observer may assume that the contents are still being worked out, but as we know that is not the case. How many people will actually bother to go and look at the Model 1 IGA and look at the detail? It is all quite clever and deceitful.
Read the complete analysis below:
