Wisdom

The U.S. Treasury signed off on separate joint statements with Japan and Switzerland to improve government-to-government cooperation in combatting international tax evasion by removing legal impediments to compliance with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The approach taken under joint statements with Japan and Switzerland permits foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to report information directly to the IRS. This differs from an earlier approach that called for FFIs to report information directly to their governments that would ultimately be shared with the U.S. on an automatic exchange of information basis. The model statements are available from the U.S. Treasury:  U.S.-Switzerland FATCA statement and U.S.-Japan FATCA statement. Updates and further information on FATCA can be found by visiting the FATCA page on www.IRS.gov.