LexisNexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance (Chapter 1, Background and Current Status of FATCA)

Abstract

The second edition of the "LexisNexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance," discussing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2010 (FATCA), has been vastly improved based on over thirty in-house workshops and interviews with tier 1 banks, company and trust service providers, government revenue departments, and central banks. The enterprises are headquartered in the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the United States, as are the revenue departments and the central bank staff interviewed.

Chapter 1 of the book, "Background and Current Status of FATCA," is available here for free download on SSRN, and also from LexisNexis. The full book is available for purchase from LexisNexis. See weblinks provided in attached PDF. Chapter 1 is primarily authored by Associate Dean William H. Byrnes, IV, of Thomas Jefferson School of Law's Walter H. & Dorothy B. Diamond International Tax & Financial Services Program, with contributions by Professor Denis Kleinfeld and Dr. Alberto Gil Soriano. The lead author and editor of the overall book is Dean Byrnes (with Dr. Robert J. Munro).

The second edition of the book has been expanded from 25 to 34 chapters, with 150 new pages of regulatory and compliance analysis based upon industry feedback of internal challenges with systems implementation. The 25 chapters in the previous edition have been substantially updated, including many more practical examples, to assist a compliance officer in contextualizing the relevant regulations, provisions of inter-governmental agreements (IGAs), and national rules enacted pursuant to IGAs.

The nine new chapters in this second edition include, for example, an in-depth analysis of the categorization of trusts pursuant to the regulations and IGAs, operational specificity of the mechanisms of information capture, management, and exchange by firms and between countries, insights as to the application of FATCA, and the IGAs within new BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and European country chapters.

This second edition will provide the financial enterprise's FATCA compliance officer with the tools needed for developing and maintaining a best practices compliance strategy, starting with determining what information is needed for planning the meetings with outside FATCA experts.

Keywords: FATCA, offshore, international tax, tax haven, intergovernmental agreement, IGA, tax compliance, GATCA, Common Reporting System, OECD

JEL Classification: H26, H20, K34, K33, H25