With the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) set to go live on July 1, 2014, many financial institutions will not be prepared due to starting the compliance process late or a failure by their governments to have signed intergovernmental agreements (IGA) with the U.S. in time, officials said. Some of the remaining issues included uncertainties over whether and which model of IGA would be signed by jurisdictions, how to deal with non-compliance and the reconciliation and upgrading of processes in order to meet IGA standards. These included automated client on-boarding and reasonableness checks, and local compliance program requirements and enforcement under IGAs, they said. More guidance from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the collection arm of the U.S. Treasury Department, and national governments was still needed, said Jim Calvin, a partner with Deloitte in Singapore, following a webinar on FATCA hosted by Deloitte. "Focus must be on the 'must haves' for
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