More than 4,000 Taiwan bank accounts affected by FATCA
Taipei, Nov. 13 (CNA) Taiwan’s financial authorities have found that there are 4,273 bank accounts in Taiwan whose holders are obligated to report assets to the United States tax authorities, Taiwan’s top financial regulator said Thursday.
Tseng Ming-chung, chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, said most of the account holders in Taiwan — those who meet criteria like having been born in the U.S., having U.S. phone numbers and bank accounts with more than US$50,000 — have agreed to act in accordance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
Tseng and Ministry of Finance officials visited the U.S. Nov. 2-5 to finalize an inter-governmental agreement (IGA) on FATCA. However, as a Chinese-language translation of the agreement is still pending, its signing has been delayed.
In response to criticism that such an IGA is unfair to Taiwan because Taiwan would be providing information to the U.S. without getting anything in return, Tseng said Taiwan is seeking a “mutually beneficial” agreement with the U.S. under which exchange of information will be done in a reciprocal way.
As to reports that some U.S. tax payers in Taiwan might have moved some of their assets to banking institutions of farmers’ or fishermen’s associations, Tseng said he has not discovered any “substantial” flows into banking institutions that are not under his FCC supervision.
Banks or cooperatives run by farmers’ and fishermen’s associations are under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Agricultural Finance under the Council of Agriculture — which Tseng asserted “knows its duties in this regard, too.”
Tseng also explicitly said that none of the 4,273 accounts belongs to President Ma Ying-jeou, who held a U.S. green card that he says expired long ago.
FATCA targets tax non-compliance by U.S. taxpayers with foreign accounts, focusing on reporting of certain financial accounts and offshore assets, according to U.S. government websites.
The law also focuses on reporting by foreign financial institutions of financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers or foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest.
The objective of FATCA is the reporting of foreign financial assets at the risk of assets otherwise being withheld by U.S. authorities.
