Norway and Italy Sign FATCA IGA with United States

The Kingdom of Norway and the United States on April 15 signed a Model 1 type Reciprocal Intergovernmental Agreement ("IGA") under FATCA. The IGA generally follows closely the Model 1 IGA template but contains a new provision providing for coordination of the timing of each country's obligation to provide information to the other. Norway, for example, is not required to obtain and transfer information to the United States with respect to accounts held directly or indirectly by U.S. persons until the United States is able to collect and exchange similar information with Norway with respect to accounts held by Norwegians in U.S. financial institutions. Norway and the United States also signed a separate Memorandum of Understanding which provides that the U.S. will consider the IGA effective from April 15, 2013, and treat all Norwegian Financial Institutions as compliant with FATCA and exempt from withholding under FATCA at least through September 30, 2015, even if implementation legislation in Norway has not been adopted in the interim to make the IGA effective.

Italy has reportedly signed a FATCA IGA and is awaiting the final United States Treasury sign-off.

See: Norway IGA and Memorandum of Understanding.For a compilation of related recent news items, see Current Topics - FATCA.