“In the classic “Christmas Wish” Saturday Night Live skit, Steve Martin relays his holiday wish list:
“If I had two wishes that I could wish this holiday season, it would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace. And the second, would be for $30 million a month to be given to me, tax free, in a Swiss bank account.”
If Swiss bankers had an early holiday wish list, it might be for the children of the world to join hands… and for FATCA to go away.
Long prized for their stability and secrecy, Swiss banks have built up a sort of folklore around discretion and tax avoidance. Effective this July, that reputation will meet its first real challenge when the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) comes into effect.
The issue has reached a fever pitch as we get to within three months of the FATCA implementation date, with many financial firms saying they are still not certain on how they will handle FATCA compliance. A panel of financial compliance executives weighed the issue at the OpRisk North America conference in New York this past week, and, as Risk magazine reported, the logistical challenges are immense:”
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