WILLEMSTAD — Apart from disadvantages the implementation of the Foreign Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)  and the necessary ‘Intergovernmental Agreement’ between the American Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the tax department of Curaçao also offers advantages. This was one of the most important points raised during the seminar ‘The impact of the Foreign Tax Compliance Act on Curacao’s international financial sector’.

The FATCA is an American regulation that will be implemented in phases between 2013 and 2017. The purpose of the regulation is to let the American clients of financial institutions worldwide identity themselves and submit (account) data from American clients to the federal tax department of the United States (IRS). The most important advantage is that all financial institutions in a country with a similar agreement are automatically ‘compliant’ and therefore don’t run the risk of ‘withholding’.

The 150+ participants of the seminar held in the auditorium of the Central Bank were informed by several speakers – including vice-chairman of the CIFA, Eric Paassen; Fred Stoelinga from the Directorate of Tax Affairs; Mark Heroux from Baker Tilly, and Varelie Croes from PriceWaterhouseCoopers – on the contents and implications of FATCA. They spoke of which companies and organizations are to comply with the FATCA, when the latter should be complaint, and what happens if a company or organization isn’t compliant’. Financial institutions on Curaçao can register as Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI’s) as from January 1^st 2013. A financial commitment is required from the sector and politics to reach an Intergovernmental Agreement. For more information visit: www.cifa-curacao.com.