Guyana, US to sign important reciprocal agreement

Aug 12, 2016 News

–    aim at ill-gotten wealth in overseas accounts and tax evaders
For years, Governments around the world have tried to prevent major players from evading taxes. To avoid certain measures attached to reporting their wealth, some persons have resorted to placing their ill-gotten wealth in accounts outside of their respective countries.
This is the very situation before tax chiefs in countries like Guyana and global superpower, the United States of America.
Acknowledging that international ways of hiding money, lawfully and unlawfully attained, and evading taxes, call for international ways of stopping it, the US in 2010, implemented the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, during the Post-Cabinet Press Briefing yesterday, stated that Cabinet has approved the request made by the Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, for the Government of Guyana to sign Reciprocal Model Level ‘A’ One, Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the USA Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon briefing the media yesterday

He explained that the signing of this IGA will allow for the service agreement with the software provider for the installation of reporting software relating to the FATCA which will strengthen Guyana’s Anti-money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act (AML/CFT) thrust.
He added that the agreement will allow financial institutions in Guyana to identify and disclose the details relating to the holders of United States-dollar accounts.
Cabinet has noted that since 2014, Guyana had considered an inter-governmental agreement and as a consequence, local financial institutions were required to submit reports for 2014, but were unable to do so, because the agreement was not in place. Therefore, reports for 2014 and 2015 are now due and expected to be submitted by September 2016, Harmon said.
FATCA, according to previous reports, is generally regarded as the beginning of the establishment of a central worldwide clearing house for the exchange of taxpayer information amongst countries. FATCA was instituted by the United States of America to combat tax evasion by U.S. individuals holding investments in foreign accounts.