On 18 April 2014 The Bahamas Government announced that it had
approved in principle the Model 1 Agreement with the US Government
to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act
("FATCA"). Accordingly, The Bahamas is now deemed
by the US Department of the Treasury to have a FATCA agreement
"in effect".
Background
On 17 January 2013, the United States Treasury ("US
Treasury") and the Internal Revenue Service
("IRS") released the final regulations for FATCA.
On 18 March 2010, FATCA was signed into law in the United States
of America ("US") to target non-compliance with US
taxpayers using foreign accounts. It requires US financial
institutions to withhold a portion of certain payments made to
foreign financial institutions ("FFIs") that do not agree
to identify and report information on US account holders.
