Italy commenced a consultation on 23 April 2014 on the content of the inter-governmental agreement (IGA), concluded on 10 January 2014, to carry out the requirements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) between Italy and the United States. The FATCA, which was enacted by the US Congress in 2010, comes into force on 1 July 2014, and is intended to allow the US to collect information on accounts held by US taxpayers in other countries with foreign financial institutions (FFIs). If an FFI does not disclose information on its US clients, such as account ownership, the balance held in the account and any amounts received in or sent from the account, this failure to disclose the details would give rise to a requirement to withhold 30 percent tax any payment made from the FFI of US-sourced income.
All interested Italian parties are required to submit any comments on the FATCA IGA by 8 May, 2014.