Trinidad To Legislate FACTA Compliance
The Trinidad & Tobago government says it has prepared legislation aimed at compliance with the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
FATCA is a 2010 federal law to enforce the requirement for United States national including those living outside the US, to file yearly reports on their non-US financial accounts to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
It requires all non-US foreign financial institutions, or FFIs, to report the assets and identities of US persons to the US Treasury Department.
Stuart Young, minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, told reporters that the legislation would require the support of the Opposition since it would need a special majority to pass.
“We as government have done all that we have to do. There are two parts to it – the signing and the execution – the intergovernmental agreement which the minister of finance has been given the green light to go ahead and do, and then the laying and passing of legislation,” said Young.
“The legislation is ready. It shall be laid in time when Parliament reopens, and it is really going to come down to what position the opposition takes … it will be a great travesty if the Opposition does not support that legislation which is really … an American requirement that will then lead to effects on all of us … who want to conduct business with banks in the United States.”
Young said that the government plans to hold discussions with the Opposition on the bill.
He said the Rowley administration inherited the issue when it took office last September, after defeating the People’s Partnership led by Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
“This just didn’t happen from September 7, 2015, so they (Opposition) will be aware of all the conversations we have had, for example, with the banking sector,” Young said.
