Four bank lobbying groups have asked the Obama administration for a six-month delay in the start of an anti-tax evasion law set to begin on July 1, 2014, saying that banks and other financial institutions need more time to prepare. The effective date of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has already been postponed twice, pushing it back 18 months. The law was approved in 2010. It is still not in full effect. But the Obama administration has yet to provide all the rules needed by banks and financial firms to comply, the lobbying groups said in a Nov. 18 letter to tax officials. FATCA requires foreign banks, insurers and investment funds to send the Internal Revenue Service information about Americans' offshore accounts worth more than $50,000. Foreign businesses that do not comply can be effectively frozen out of U.S. capital markets because of a 30 percent withholding tax on their income from the United States. Less than eight months remain before penalties start. "This
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