By Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

Britain’s overseas territories, including the Crown Dependencies, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, are expected to meet UK Government officials imminently to discuss the possibility of their exchanging more information with the UK, in the wake of a report that the UK is seeking to impose its own version of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FACTA) on them.

Responding to the report, Geoff Cook, Chief Executive of Jersey Finance representing the industry on the island said: “It is well known that the principles behind the US FATCA arrangements are being looked at by the OECD, EU and UK. As part of that, we understand that the UK has approached the Crown Dependencies, including Jersey, to discuss the possibility of applying the principles more widely to an exchange of information with the UK. It is right and proper that government officials from Jersey, along with their counterparts from Guernsey and the Isle of Man, should be meeting with HM Treasury to understand exactly what the UK has in mind and to present the position of the Crown Dependencies in a coordinated way”.

Malcolm Couch, Head of the income tax division at the Isle of Man Treasury, said: “Discussions on automatic exchange of information have come to the fore,” and added: “The Isle of Man needs to determine its position appropriately as things move, but they are moving”.

It is thought that if the legislation is brought forward, it is likely to come into effect on January 1, 2014.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.tax-news.com/news/UK_May_Plan_FATCAStyle_Regime_For_Dependencies____58506.html

THE FATCA FACTS

At its heart FATCA is about disclosure. Its aim is to uncover the perceived tax abuse by U.S. persons of off-shore financial accounts. Designed to reveal the existence of U.S. money held offshore, it seeks to crack down on undisclosed earnings by U.S. tax payers at any cost.

Under FATCA’s provisions, foreign firms are required to provide the IRS with details of all U.S. persons who have foreign holdings of more than $50,000. If they fail to do so then foreign firms face a punitive 30% withholding tax on all U.S. income they receive.