The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ accession to full World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership, and compliance with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), are among the “big ticket items” currently being tackled by the Ministry of Financial Services.

Hope Strachan, minister of financial services, in a recent interview with Tribune Business, said: “One of the bigger ticket items is our accession to the World Trade Organisation. That is one of the big ticket items being dealt with.

“We are at the stage where we are basically reviewing what we call our factual summary. It’s a document which will provide the basis for our negotiations. Once we sort of complete that review, we take it to Cabinet, and Cabinet approves it. Then that will be filed with the organisation (WTO).

“We will then prepare for what they call their meetings, where we have to sit down with our prospective trading partners and go through our factual summary and answer questions, and present ourselves as to what it is that we have to offer.”

 As for FATCA, Mrs Strachan said: “One of the other big items which we are presently engaged in is the registration for FACTA.

“The legislation is drafted and is just being tweaked in the Attorney General’s Office. I’m hoping I will be able to receive that document over the course of the next few days to a week or two.

“Once we’re able to get that then we are able to put that legislation before the House of Assembly. It comes basically with what we call guidelines and a  system of reporting, which is also in train with the Ernst & Young accounting firm. They are working on that currently.”

FATCA, which was brought into law in March 2010, is a set of rules set out by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) designed specifically to limit tax evasion by US persons living abroad.

Under FATCA, US taxpayers holding financial assets outside the US must report those assets to the IRS or face penalties. FATCA will also require foreign financial institutions to report directly to the IRS certain information about financial accounts held by US taxpayers, or by foreign entities in which US taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest. The Bahamas has signed a Model I FATCA inter-governmental agreement (IGA).