Austria Signs Model 2 FATCA IGA with the U.S.; Israel and Others Agree "In Substance" to Model 1 IGAs

The U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") released the text of the Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") under FATCA with Austria that was signed on April 29th.The IGA is a Model 2 Form of Agreement whereby Austria directs and enables its financial institutions to register with the U.S. IRS under FATCA and to comply with the terms of an FFI Agreement with the United States, including with respect to due diligence, reporting and withholding. Under the Model 2 IGA, Austrian Financial Institutions will report information with respect to accounts held directly or indirectly by U.S. persons directly to the U.S. IRS. Austrian Financial Institutions must also provide to the U.S. aggregate information with respect to certain payments to Non-Consenting U.S. Account Holders and Nonparticipating Financial Institutions. Austria agrees to exchange information with respect to such accounts upon the request of the United States.

Treasury also recently announced that the IGA with Mexico has been revised to reflect recent changes to Model 1 IGAs. Mexico was one of the first nations to sign an IGA with the United States. The revised agreement reflects and extends exemptions granted to other countries in other recent IGAs to Mexico.

In addition to the newly signed IGAs, Treasury announced that Israel, Bulgaria, Colombia and Curaçao had each reached agreements in substance with the United States over the terms of Model 1 IGAs. Pursuant to Announcement 2014-17, these countries will be deemed to have IGAs in effect until at least December 31, 2014.

This brings the total number of countries with signed and "in substance" IGAs to 60.

See: IGA Between U.S. and Austria; Revised Mexico IGA.See also: Cabinet FATCA Materials (for Cabinet subscribers only).For more information, please contact Daniel Mulcahy and Mark Howe.