Minister: Russia to agree terms of joining US’ FATCA soon

MOSCOW, May 17 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Finance Ministry will soon agree with the U.S. on the conditions of joining the U.S.’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters Friday.

Siluanov said that the issue of Russia’s accession to the act was discussed at a meeting of finance ministers of the Group of 20, held in Washington in April.

“We have agreed that this issue will be discussed at the highest level very soon, our experts will meet and determine the terms of this agreement,” Siluanov said Friday.

Efforts of tax bodies to improve the tax administration will be fruitful if they are applied on an international scale, Siluanov said. “Work within one group of countries will have no effect, but will lead to a flow of tax payers from one jurisdiction into another,” he said.

Enforced in the U.S. on January 1, FATCA touches upon the interests of organizations, which carry out operations with monetary funds or other property related somehow to the U.S.

If Moscow joins the act, domestic financial organizations will be forced to reveal among its clients residents of the U.S. and hand over information about them and their transactions to the U.S. tax authorities.

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