U.S. Treasury ‘actively engaged’ with Malta in bid to curtail offshore tax evasion

In a statement issued tonight in Washington, the US Treasury Department announced that it is "actively engaged" in talks with the Maltese government to improve international tax compliance, and implement the information reporting and withholding tax provisions commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

The Treasury said that besides Malta, it has launched talks with more than 50 jurisdictions around the world to curtail possibilities of tax evasion by US citizens.

"Treasury's engagement with this broad coalition of foreign governments to efficiently and effectively implement FATCA marks an important milestone in establishing a common intergovernmental approach to combating tax evasion," the statement said.

"Global cooperation is critical to implementing FATCA in a way that is targeted and efficient," assistant secretary for Tax Policy Mark Mazur said, and added that "by working cooperatively with foreign governments and financial institutions, we are intensifying our ability to combat tax evasion while minimising burdens on financial institutions."

The Treasury Department has already concluded a bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom. Additional jurisdictions with which Treasury is in the process of finalizing an intergovernmental agreement and with which Treasury hopes to conclude negotiations by year end include: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Guernsey, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Norway.

The Treasury Department will continue its outreach to interested jurisdictions that wish to consider an intergovernmental approach to implementing FATCA, including participation in a meeting hosted by the Qatar Central Bank in early December to provide information about FATCA and the intergovernmental agreements to invited senior government officials and financial institutions in the Gulf Cooperation Council.