The United States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) came into full force in Cyprus this week with the island’s Tax Department and banking instructions gearing up to provide the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with financial information on US citizens.
The activation of FATCA in Cyprus was announced on Monday by Finance Minister, Harris Georgiades with the issuance of a relevant decree to that effect.
FATCA, which represents the US Treasury’s latest effort to force American citizens living in the US and abroad to report their financial accounts, was first ratified by Cyprus last December.
The new law effectively forces US citizens – including those living outside of the country – to supply yearly financial reports to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) while it also requires all non-US Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI’s) to search their records for suspected US persons for reporting their assets and identities to the US Treasury.
Congress had enacted FATCA to make it more difficult for resident and non-resident US persons to have financial assets which are not located in the United States, by adding further asset-reporting law with consequences, and thus to enable further federal tax revenues and penalties from a wider global.
