ACCA: Focus on FATCA

ACCA focused on FATCA at a breakfast discussion lead by Dr Kenneth Henry, ACCA Council member on 4 November 2016.  BDO also participated as part of the panel, which explored a number of compliance, financial management and IT security issues relating to this legislation.

The United States have set the deadline for Trinidad and Tobago to pass the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which they say will help them catch persons who hide millions of US dollars in offshore accounts annually in an effort to avoid paying taxes.

The core of the act is its requirement that Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) disclose the details of any account worth more than $50,000 that is held by a US citizen.  Firms that fail to comply will be labelled 'disobedient' and a 30% withholding tax slapped on all their income and asset disposal proceeds from the US.

This would be enough to bar any uncooperative financial firm from capital markets in the US - a very severe punishment indeed.

Harun Abdul-Haqq, BDO Risk Advisory Services gets things started.

You can also feel free to contact Harun Abdul-Haqq, Risk Advisory Services if you would like to obtain a copy of the event slides, or to discuss your organisation's IT, tax and compliance posture in relation to potential FATCA obligations.