Beyond FATCA: An Evolutionary Moment for the International Tax System

64 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 2012 Last revised: 16 Feb 2012

See all articles by Itai Grinberg

Itai Grinberg

Georgetown University Law Center

Date Written: January 27, 2012

Abstract

The international tax system is in the midst of a novel contest between information reporting and anonymous withholding models for ensuring that states have the ability to tax offshore accounts. At stake is the extent of many countries’ capacity to tax investment income of individuals and profits of closely held businesses through an income tax in an increasingly financially integrated world. Four incongruent initiatives of the European Union, the OECD, Switzerland, and the United States together represent an emerging international regime in which financial institutions act to facilitate countries’ ability to tax their residents’ offshore accounts. The growing consensus that financial institutions should act as “tax intermediaries” cross-border represents a remarkable shift in international norms that has yet to be recognized in the literature. What remains is a contest as to how financial institutions should serve as tax intermediaries cross-border, and for which countries. Different outcomes in this contest portend starkly different futures for the extent of cross-border tax administrative assistance available to most countries. The eventual triumph of an information reporting model over an anonymous withholding model is key to (1) allowing for the taxation of principal, (2) ensuring that most countries are included in the benefit of financial institutions serving as tax intermediaries cross-border, and (3) encouraging taxpayer engagement with the polity and supporting sovereign policy flexibility, especially in emerging and developing economies. The article closes with proposals to help reconcile the emerging automatic information exchange approaches and produce an effective multilateral system.

Keywords: Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, tax law, offshore accounts, tax evasion, international tax cooperation, automatic information exchange, anonymous withholding

JEL Classification: H26, K34, K33

Suggested Citation

Grinberg, Itai, Beyond FATCA: An Evolutionary Moment for the International Tax System (January 27, 2012). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1996752 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1996752

Itai Grinberg (Contact Author)

Georgetown University Law Center ( email )

600 New Jersey Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20001
United States
202-661-6615 (Phone)

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