“Reversing earlier moves taken this summer and fall, a major international bank is ending its cooperation with the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts to prevent investors from investing money in foreign countries with more amenable tax structures and policies, such as Ireland or Switzerland.
During a Zurich speech, Barclays bank executive Francesco Grosoli announced that the firm’s Swiss operations had “recently exited the program,” after evaluating its legal options. Grosoli declined to reveal additional details, but said that the bank had decided to end compliance with the U.S. extra-territorial enforcement actions at some point within the last “three or four months.”
The program, organized under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), requires foreign banks to provide confidential information to the IRS. Non-compliance carries heavy penalties levied upon foreign firms, with fines as high as half of the value of the American assets in question.”
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