Whilst many in the finance industry are bemoaning
the administrative burden that FATCA will bring in its wake, it seems that some
UK politicians are keen to follow in the footsteps of the US and impose a
similar requirement for the automatic disclosure of information on UK citizens
by foreign institutions and tax authorities.
The International Development Committee, a
cross-party committee of British politicians, has recommended that the UK government
should take the steps in order to stem global cross-border tax evasion.
Under Europe’s Savings Directive, if an EU resident
holds an account in another member state, the home tax authorities must be
notified. The IDC has now suggested that
if the UK went further and required tax authorities everywhere automatically to
exchange information related to British citizens or corporations with overseas
interests, it would establish a standard of transparency and reduce tax evasion.
The IDC has also recommended the UK government should
use its influence "to persuade other governments to follow suit".
From a political perspective, it would be
surprising if the UK government agreed to the proposals unless a significant
number of other key financial centres do so at the same time, because it has
always been wary of anything that may harm its own lucrative financial services
sector. Furthermore, the proposals come
at a time when a number of major financial institutions have withdrawn services
to US persons in order to avoid the administrative burden of complying with
FATCA, and some experts are questioning whether the cost of compliance will
exceed any additional tax revenue generated in the US. Nevertheless, the report will be an unwelcome
development for the UK’s already beleaguered banking industry.
UK "citizens"? or do you really mean residents? There is a BIG difference. At this point in time, The US is the only major industrialized country that extends it's tax policy to "citizens" wherever they live in the world. The UK, and almost every other country in the world, taxes it's residents. The result of the US policy is making life miserable for American "citizens" living in other countries, some of whom have never lived or even visited the US, but all of whom have "foreign" (Ie non US) bank accounts in the normal course of their ordinary lives.
ReplyDeleteWhatever benefit their might be for the UK to find out about foreign bank accounts of their residents, let us hope that they have the wisdom not to make the mistake of following the US into citizenship based taxation.
That's a good question, but the IDC Report does actually recommend that the information be gathered in respect of UK citizens, not residents. It is not clear whether this is just loose language on their part, or a conscious decision to make quite a radical change from the current situation. If the latter, then we can expect a huge amount of opposition for all the reasons you state.
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