The symposium on the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will feature a session on the Intergovernmental Agreements (IGA) introduced as a mechanism for implementing compliance with its demands.
Steven L. Cantor is the managing partner of Cantor & Webb P.A, a Miami-based law firm focused on representing high net worth international private clients and international businesses in the areas of tax planning and compliance, estate planning, international and domestic real estate and probate matters, general commercial and international financial matters.
He joins with local attorney Iyandra Bryan in speaking about the legal implications of the Intergovernmental Agreements at a special Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Symposium at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel on October 29.
Iyandra P. Bryan, of the Higgs & Johnson law firm, primarily focuses her practice on wealth management, trusts and estates, derivatives, corporate and commercial law, and international financial crimes.
This combination of a US and Bahamian attorney will discuss the implications that arise from the implementation of the IRS Model Intergovernmental Agreement specifically as it relates to reporting, the impacts placed upon institutions and their private clients, and the appropriateness of the Bahamas entering into an Intergovernmental Agreement with the IRS, taking into account the Bahamas’ current regulatory framework.
Comments
GilbertM 11 years, 5 months ago
Once again, the largest movement in the financial services in the Bahamas is not for competitive reasons; not the result of a niche discovery that exploits a comparative advantage. Instead, once again - this is the fourth time in 35-years - our major effort is to capitulate to external demands, which we could have - not only - anticipated, but we could have cultivated a competitive response.
The financial services in the Bahamas was founded on a whim.
In all these years, we have not exceeded that whim. As I have written elsewhere: "there is a marked difference between being a jurisdiction that offers some financial services and being a financial centre". There is not now and has never been a clear, comprehensive policy on the part of any Bahamian government on financial services. There is no Minister who understood the relationship between financial services and foreign affairs, for instance, or the securities commission and education, or the financial services model and trade negotiations; or better still, financial services and the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. This is not because our Ministers are not "smart" as we have the habit of thinking when remarks such as those above are made. It is because we have never taken seriously what financial services means, can mean and must mean for the Bahamas.
To put an emphasis on my point: We do not a have a competitive strategy that identifies which 3-5 areas of financial services will define the Bahamian model; even though it is obvious what that should be. In essence, foreign financial "players" came to the Bahamas and they told and now tell us how they will use the Bahamas. We do not have a strategic vision, which they have come to the Bahamas to share. If you go to Finland, you must join with the Finns to understand their strategy on Technologies; if you go to Singapore, the Singaporeans can tell you what they aim at in their financial services, you join them and follow their vision; if you go to South Korea, they have a plan, a vision, if you want to manufacture, you join in with their policies and their vision. They have a strategic programme that runs through all levels of government, national policy, agencies and institutions. In the Bahamas, those coming to exploit our sovereignty have no need to seek our advice on these questions: We follow their lead in our country.
In financial services - as in so many areas - we have been Eli & Esau: we can manage neither our houses nor cultivate and defend our birthrights.
Professor Gilbert NMO Morris
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