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BVI will sign up to FATCA, says Government
Chris Hamblin
Clearview Publishing
7 April 2014
The Government of the British Virgin Islands has committed to signing a Model I Intergovernmental
Agreement or IGA with the United States and says that it "is in
discussions with the US Treasury on a continuous basis." A
Model I IGA mandates reporting by BVI resident financial institutions
(reporting FIs) directly to the BVI Government, followed by the
automatic exchange of this information with the United States. The
annual reporting will commence in 2015. One of the key benefits of
the Model I IGA is that there will be no direct reporting by BVI
entities to the United States Government. On
March 14, 2014, the premier of the islands announced that the
Government had 'initialled' an IGA which it expected to sign in the
coming weeks. This followed an announcement last summer that the BVI
had decided to negotiate an IGA with the United States. Nobody else
has signed this month.