Hong Kong’s banks, in the midst of adapting to the new US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), are now facing a tax headache on a global scale.
In July, the month where FATCA became a reality for the region, the OECD published guidelines on the adoption of a much broader and more ambitious set of rules.
Common Reporting Standards (CRS), or GATCA as the rules have been dubbed, effectively require all participating countries to share tax information with each other.
Unlike FATCA, no timeframe has been given for adoption — Hong Kong has yet to sign up — but there is a similar level of confusion; and the burden on the city's regulators and banks has intensified.”
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