On 14 November 2013, the US and France signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), in order to improve international tax compliance and to implement the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
The FATCA legislation aims to ensure that US citizens pay tax on their investments in US companies through foreign financial institutions and funds. This requires detailed record keeping by financial institutions so that they can identify US citizens holding investments. For this reason FATCA agreements are being signed by the US with the governments of countries where these financial institutions and funds are based.
This is the eighth FACTA bilateral Model I agreement to be published so far; the previous seven were signed between the U.S.A. and, individually, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Mexico, Ireland, Norway, Spain and Germany.
