Al-Rawi: TT facing FATCA on steroids

ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi has compared the need to pass income tax legislation to fulfil international obligations as “FATCA on steroids.”

He was speaking on Friday as Parliament debated the adoption of the report on the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018.

He said the minority report of the JSC based to wait for a Caricom-requested meeting with the Global Forum but the meeting was blanked.

“There is no meeting and there will be no meeting. Either you comply or you don’t.”

Al-Rawi stressed if this country did not comply it would be at the same risk faced with FATCA. He said the minority report also called for a debate on three pieces of legislation – also the Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters Bill, 2018 and the Tax Information Exchange Agreements Bill, 2018 – but the deadline to remove the secrecy provision was for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was November 2018. He added one of the other bills is 134 pages long while this bill was ten clauses.

He reported he had to appear before the FATF’s International Co-operation Review Group in Paris and one of the matters he rose was that this bill was coming in November. “Had we not passed the Anti-Terrorism Act we would have been in desperate trouble.

He said it took two years to get the FATCA legislation done and that directly relates to the Global Forum. He also said the Opposition was concerned about the lack of equivalent safeguards with the exchange of information but said there was not this concern in FATCA. Al-Rawi stressed it was not TT citizens disclosing information but the tax information exchanged was for citizens subject to tax laws in other countries.

“It is not TT citizens en masse being affected.”

Al-Rawi asked what was the issue and what would require more time to be taken with another committee.

He said the Global Forum deadline is real and “to cure the incompetence of the UNC regime in 2010 to 2015 with respect to the Global Forum...(and) to cure that incompetence where we should have done 13 agreements with different countries we doing a fast-track approach with a multi-lateral convention. “We cannot sign the multi-lateral convention unless we amend this law. we have to amend this law for FATF, for FATCA and for Global Forum. And now. This cannot wait for the other two bills.”

He said the Global Forum sat with the Government in the drafting of this legislation.