An Official Website of the Barbados Government.
Barbados says it has completed a review of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Inter-Governmental Agreement with the United States.
The Special FATCA Negotiating Team, chaired by the Secretary of the Central Bank of Barbados, Elson Gaskin, has submitted a detailed report to the Minister responsible for International Business, Donville Inniss.
“In the interim, however, the Team has signaled to the USA that Barbados is ready to proceed to initial the Agreement once the approval of Cabinet is obtained,” according to an official statement issued here.
The statement said during the negotiation process, the team made several enquiries of the USA along with suggested amendments but the USA, while acknowledging these suggestions, declined to make them, citing the need to have uniformity in their documentation.
“In addition, detailed issues raised by the Special Negotiating Team received comprehensive responses from the USA which may be utilised to assist Barbados’ financial institutions should these matters arise in the coming months as they seek to ensure FATCA compliance. “
Last week, Washington indicated that it would confirm its readiness to Barbados this week and “thereafter the agreement will be finalised and initialed by both parties”.
“The Treasury Department of the USA has indicated that once Barbados initials the documents and Barbados consents, Barbados’ name will be placed on the published list of countries with which a FATCA IGA is deemed to be in place. The formal execution will take place at a subsequent date,” the statement said.
In February, Inniss indicated that Barbados would be ready to execute the inter-governmental agreement y April 30.
“This deadline was largely complied with. While some intervening time has been expended on the formalities of the execution process, it is expected that the same will be completed well in time for the June 30 deadline,” the statement added.
The FATCA requires nationals of the United states, including who live outside the United States to report their financial accounts held outside of the country and requires foreign financial institutions to report to the Internal revenue Service (IRS) about their American clients. Congress enacted FATCA to make it more difficult for U.S. taxpayers to conceal assets held in offshore accounts and shell corporations.
