FATCA Going Worldwide

 

 

 

At G20 last year, all governments agreed to report everyone everywhere to their host countries for tax purposes. The hunt for taxes is destroying the world economy at a staggering rapid pace and this is far worse than even I had anticipated when we first forecast BIG BANG would hit 2015.75 back in 1985. Here is a email a non-U.S. citizen received from his trust company in Malta.

“The reporting charges have arisen due to the implementation of new U.S legislation known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) which has been introduced as part of a global initiative to create an International tax reporting regime. Together with the majority of the World’s major trading nations, the Maltese Government has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Authorities to implement FATCA legislation in Malta. The legislation has required all Trust Companies in Malta to evaluate all structures operated on behalf of clients and categorize them according to detailed rules set out in the FATCA legislation. This categorization process is not just limited to structures operated on behalf of U.S. clients, or clients holding U.S. assets but has to include all clients and structures irrespective of where clients and their structures are domiciled. We can advise you that has taken extensive legal and tax advice regarding the categorization of clients and which information should be reported according to various trigger reporting events since our accounting and client management systems have to be tailored to supply relevant information on a per client and  entity basis to the Malta Authorities who then report directly to the IRS.

Consistent with many other Trust Companies a decision has been taken to pass on some of the costs of this work to client structures for whom we act.Accordingly a December invoice will be issued for a one off fee of £250 that will be described in the invoice as a FATCA classification fee.“