The Bahamas Investor

...ring its exchange commitment under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA ) with the IRS. The first CRS exchanges of information by The Bahamas to partner jurisdictions will occur in September 2018 and continue each year thereafter. “The Ministry of Finance is upgrading its digital infrastructure in a number of areas to strengthen its international compliance activities. This new software platform will enhance substantially our capacity to......

...assessed as Largely Compliant. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA was adopted by the United States Congress in 2010, and of course, The Bahamas made the necessary legislative and procedural changes to meet the FATCA requirements. By September 2014, the G20 and leaders of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development had endorsed the Common Reporting Standard, or CRS. The CRS facilitates automatic exchange of account info......

...ces. The US opted for the creation of Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which it later amended in light of the Panama Papers, while the Council of the Organization of Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD) approved The Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters July 15, 2014. The Bahamas moved swiftly to address FATCA stipulations and it has just finished its second reporting cycle, using the......

...ration in Tax Matters; • TheBahamas is Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) compliant. On November 3, 2014, The Bahamas and the US signed an Agreement to Improve International Tax Compliance and to Implement FATCA based on the Model I IGA. To accommodate the non-direct tax system in The Bahamas, the IGA is a model 1B (non-reciprocal) IGA; and • The Bahamas is committed to the Automatic Exchange of Information/Common Reporting Standard and th......

...that we are seeking to enact since the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) which put into effect an inter governmental Agreement for the automatic exchange of tax information between The Commonwealth of The Bahamas and The United States of America. The United States required us to automatically exchange tax information on its citizens and their financial transactions here in this country and now we seek to fulfill the same obligation to our......

...ollars resulted in the creation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), alongside pressure from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the G20 member countries for more information sharing through Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs). “FATCA is settling down now and everyone is getting more comfortable with information sharing,” says McCartney. “There are lots of things going on in terms of internat......

...dustry include: exchange controls; the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA); capital management; government policy; technology; internal/offshore expansion; and the convergence of banks and insurance companies, among others. Although the European Partnership Agreement (EPA) calls for a level playing field and free trade in some services inclusive of insurance, Cooper said the local insurance sector remains restricted by exchange controls. “T......

...es set for this year including: the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the domestic value added tax (VAT). In regards to FATCA, the government has negotiated an Inter-Governmental Agreement that provides the best treatment for Bahamian structures that are tax compliant including trusts and funds. As regards VAT, there is zero rating of financial services provided to persons who are designated non-resident for Exchange Control purpos......

...on reporting regime resulting from the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will go into effect. Thousands of foreign financial institutions will begin to report to the IRS the foreign accounts held by U.S. persons. The current Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program was launched in 2012 and is the successor to prior voluntary programs offered in 2011 and 2009. Since the launch of the first program, more than 45,000 taxpayers have come into co......

...ational regulatory standards heralded by the revised FATF recommendations, FATCA and other initiatives require a balanced approach — one that recognises that clients operating in a compliant manner have the right to financial confidentiality. Indeed, The Bahamas has been fully engaged in the multilateral organisations’ work in ensuring compliance with international standards. As a result, The Bahamas achieved a largely compliant rating in the Phas......

...d country led initiatives, such as the Foreign Account tax Compliance Act (FATCA) , anti-money laundering standards, tax base erosion and profit shifting and exchange of information standards. Rudranath Indarsingh (pictured, middle) Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the Economy, Trinidad and Tobago, during his opening remarks, stated that they have “intensified efforts to diversify the economy, identified the financial services indu......

...reaucratic process. How do you see the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) impacting the financial service sector? SMITH: FATCA is quite interesting. There has been a lot of discussion about it recently. From my perspective, it is going to have an administrative burden, but that has yet to be determined, depending on which model the policy makers decide to go with. It is an issue of administrators doing all the reporting, and making sure th......

...ter Ryan also took the opportunity to speak about Bahamas deliberations on FATCA, described as a game changer, and the success that The Bahamas has had in securing “sponsored exemptions” under FATCA for key financial services products, having chosen to comply via a government-government deal (IGA Model 1). In summary, panelists stressed the Bahamas Advantages relating to robustness of regulation, innovation aided by strong public-private sector pa......

...ctions given the imminent onset of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), more US friendly foreign trust companies with an eye to developing a niche in this area are buying these very same inventories. Purchasers of foreign trust inventories should be warned that many complicated tax issues may be lurking in the history of these trust structures, with US beneficiaries, some not too far below the surface. Such issues include identification......

...e core business are under pressure from a variety of forces, these include FATCA compliance which will impact on wealth managers. According to Minister Strachan: “The Bahamas has developed a strong reputation for leadership in international financial sector issues and will always strive to remain at the forefront of complying with international best practices and regulatory standards.” An evaluation also needs to be conducted on the products and s......