Minister of Financial Services Ryan Pinder said yesterday that the Ministry of Financial Services is on a "tight timeframe" to pass the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Agreement Bill of The Bahamas and the United States before the end of the calendar year.
Pinder told Guardian Business that the government planned to pass the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)-related bill in short order despite its crowded legislative slate, stressing that getting the legal framework for FATCA in place is a priority issue for the industry.
"We will continue to solicit comments from the industry for the next week or so to finalize the legislation and to try to be as thorough as we can possibly be with the goal to have it debated before the end of the calendar year, which puts us in a rather tight timeframe," he said.
Following a brief consultation period with members of the Bahamas Association of Compliance Officers (BACO), Pinder noted that the ministry would seek additional consultation from other organizations throughout the week before debating the legislation.
The ministry released the legislation to wide consultation last week following discussions with a small private sector working group. The industry consultation focused on the pending legislation and the provisions of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) that the Bahamian government signed with the U.S. last month.
The minister said that much of BACO's questions related to certain reporting mechanics within the legislation, such the ability for third parties, essentially head offices for global institutions, to do FATCA reporting on behalf of local branches.
"A lot of the multinational institutions are taking that route, where head office wants to spearhead the reporting," said Pinder, noting that this would involve a non-Bahamian entity reporting on behalf of a Bahamian entity.
The Bahamas must meet certain FATCA obligations by early 2015, with full reporting to the U.S. government expected by September 2015.
The FATCA regime will require local financial institutions to disclose offshore account information for U.S. persons abroad, or face a 30 percent withholding tax on U.S. sourced income for failure to comply.
Despite the short time window, Pinder remained confident that the country would be prepared for FATCA moving into 2015.
"Right now everybody understands FATCA, most institutions have FATCA representatives within their institutions, and now it's a function of mechanics of reporting and some of the interpretation provisions within the legislation," he said.

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