Finance Minister Colm Imbert says the Government will proceed with the Tax Information Exchange Agreements Bill, 2016, in Parliament once the 2017 Budget is wrapped up.
Debate on the bill that would see this country complete measures in alignment with the United States FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) came to a standstill Friday when Opposition members walked out of Parliament.
FATCA is a US legislation which aims to prevent tax evasion by US taxpayers who use non-US financial institutions.
The act demands banks, investment funds and other financial firms outside the US to report the details of any accounts they hold for US taxpayers.
In August, 210,057 financial institutions in more than 200 countries had registered as FATCA compliant, with 87 of those institutions located in T&T.
However, Government needs to pass legislation to bring the intergovernmental agreement into effect. The deadline to pass the legislation is September 30.
Speaking to reporters yesterday following a Day of Prayer event at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Imbert said he was hopeful he would get a response from US authorities soon regarding his request for an extension.
“Our counterpart that we deal with is returning to office on Monday. We expect a response by next week,” Imbert said.
Asked about the next step, Imbert said the Government would wait on a response from the US.
Ghany: JSC needed, legislation needs
to ber passed
In an interview yesterday, political analyst Hamid Ghany said a Joint Select Committee (JSC) would have been the ideal measure for the Government and Opposition to discuss the legislation.
“I think that the issue of a Joint Select Committee that had been promised by the Minister of Finance seems to have been overruled internally and is no longer an option that is being pursued,” said Ghany.
He said, however, a JSC would have accommodated all of the views in one setting and if Government had stuck to Imbert’s announcement of a JSC on September 12, there would have been ample time for a JSC to have met on several occasions before next week.
“A JSC is the ideal option. All entities deserve to be included in such a discussion and civil society groups can be interviewed by the JSC.”
Ghany said it was a mystery why the option to have a JSC had been withdrawn.
“I think that the legislation needs to be passed.
“The argument that is being made from the Opposition is that there are clauses in the bill that overreach the powers that should be there, that would confine it to US citizens only, and whether T&T citizens should have a minister being able to go into their bank account,” Ghany said.