The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has started its meeting with chairmen of banks and officials of compliance departments, headed by CBE’s sub-governor Gamal Negm, to discuss the final preparations for Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) slated to be in effect by the beginning of next year.
The U.S. law aims at combating offshore tax invasion through forcing banks and institutions in other countries to disclose data and information of U.S. citizens to pay the due taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It requires banks and institutions to enter into an agreement with the IRS to identify their U.S. account holders and to disclose the account holders’ names, TINs, addresses, and the accounts’ balances, receipts, and withdrawals.
USA is in talks with about 75 countries to conclude FATCA information sharing agreements. Countries which will oppose this law will be subject to a 30% withholding requirement on U.S. accounts.
