(September 25, 2015)

On September 24, 2015 the IRS issued a press release announcing that the U.S. signed Competent Authority Arrangements with Australia and the United Kingdom in Accordance with the FATCA Intergovernmental Agreements.

Yesterday we already reported  on the Competent Authority Arrangement that was concluded between the U.S. and Australia (See our article from September 24, 2015). In this article we will focus on the Competent Authority Arrangement that was concluded between the United States and the United Kingdom.

On September 12, 2012 the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland signed an intergovernmental agreement to Improve International Tax Compliance and to Implement FATCA (Hereafter: the IGA).

Article 3(6) of the IGA provides that the Competent Authorities of the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the “Competent Authorities”) shall enter into an agreement or arrangement under the mutual agreement procedure provided for in Article 26 of the Convention between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital Gains, signed at London on December 31, 1975 (hereafter the DTA), in order to establish and prescribe the rules and procedures necessary to implement certain provisions in the IGA. (Article 26 of the DTA permits the Competent Authorities to also address other matters regarding implementation of the DTA).

The Competent Authority Arrangement includes a.o. arrangements with respect to the following matters:

·         Object and scope

·         Registration of United Kingdom Financial Institutions

·         Time and manner of Exchange of Information

·         Remediation and enforcement

·         Confidentiality and data safeguards

·         Costs

·         Effect, consultation and modification

·         Publication

In the press release the IRS states that the Competent Authority Arrangements with Australia and the United Kingdom are the first such arrangements to be signed. It is also stated that the U.S. Competent Authority expects that numerous other Competent Authority Arrangements with additional competent authorities in IGA jurisdictions will be signed in the near future.

Click here to be forwarded to the Competent Authority Arrangement between the Competent Authorities of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States, as published on the website of the IRS, which will open in a new window.

Click here to be forwarded to the Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Improve International Tax Compliance and to Implement FATCA as available on the website of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which will open in a new window.

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