BATT urges Opposition

In a statement, BATT said it spent the past five years working with both the former and present government on the implementation of the FATCA regime. It says the issues surrounding the TIEA bill have been reviewed extensively by the recently concluded Joint Select Committee (JSC), which the Opposition requested .

BATT said having ventilated all the issues, the time for debate has now come to an end and the TIEA bill must be implemented to allow the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) time to begin the implementation process for the FATCA reporting requirements due by September .

According to the statement, the consequences of non-compliance with this country’s international obligations have been reported on extensively and Trinidad and Tobago cannot run the risk of damage to its reputation .

“As BATT has indicated, the FATCA reporting requirements will impact US persons only who already have an obligation to report their tax obligations to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) .

This requirement is therefore not new and does not impose any new requirement on US persons .