Business entities call for FATCA support

At a news conference at Scotiabank’s headquarters at the corner of Park and Richmond Streets, Port of Spain, they all stressed the urgency of passing the legislation by the new deadline __ the end of February 2017 and said they will hold a meeting with the Opposition next Monday to try to persuade them to support the legislation.

President of the Bankers Association, Anya Schnoor, said that the association began discussing this issue with the previous government from 2012 to 2014 when the then government accepted the “Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) 1” option and entered into an “agreement in substance” with the U.S. Treasury Service, a first step toward adoption of the legislation.

She said the IGA 1 requirements were clearly spelled out by the U.S. and allowed for the reciprocal agreement between the two countries for the exchange of tax information on citizens or persons connected with the respective countries in the interest of combating tax evasion and promoting efficient systems for the collection of tax.

She stressed that “as a country, we knowingly entered into the model 1 IGA and we clearly understood the implications of doing so.