With Manafort, President Trump's ex-aide, facing up to 80 years prison after being found guilty of 8 counts of tax evasion, including failing to report foreign income, it is clear that Tax Authorities globally now have both the information and motivation to act on breaches that FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) and CRS (Common Reporting Standard) were set up to identify.
Make no mistake, foreign tax compliance is not a theoretical exercise, and it needs to be taken seriously.
August 2018
With Manafort, President Trump's ex-aide, facing up to 80 years prison after being found guilty of 8 counts of tax evasion, including failing to report foreign income, it is clear that Tax Authorities globally now have both the information and motivation to act on breaches that FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) and CRS (Common Reporting Standard) were set up to identify.
Reporting Financial Institutions are equally exposed to penalties, both criminal and financial. Under the current penalty regime in the legislation, even with relatively low reporting error rates, our major financial institutions could have potential exposures in the many tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. And in Singapore and Hong Kong, there are criminal penalties of up to 2 and 3 years respectively per misreported account in addition to financial penalties. This journey of "tax fairness" has only just begun. And with technology driven innovation provided by platforms like FACS, that automate the identification of reportable accounts, the correct enforcement of these compliance obligations will only accelerate.
Reference Articles:
- The Manafort trial: Guilty on 8 counts, CNN, August 21, 2018
- Did FATCA Reporting help catch Manafort and Gates?, Stanley I. Foodman, CEO and President, Foodman CPAs and Advisors, January 8, 2018
For more information, contact:
Stuart Growse
Chief Digital Officer, GCS Agile
+61 451 121 774
sgrowse@gcsagile.com.au
Supporting Information
Compliance is complex and costly for the Financial Services Industry
- Compliance costs the global financial services industry over $270B annually.
- Fines alone have cost global lenders at least US$321B since the 2007-08 financial crisis.
- CBA’s AML compliance breach announced on August 3, 2017, has resulted in C-Level role changes, a greater than 10% share price drop in the month following the announcement, and a $700 million fine.
- Based on ATO published penalty rates, a breach of 10,000 non-reported CRS accounts (error rate less than 1%) by a financial institution earning more than $1 billion in revenue will be liable for fines of up to $5.25 billion.
FACS (FATCA and CRS Service)
www.crs-fatca-reporting.com.au
- Complete end to end service that covers Data Preparation, Identify & Classify, Due Diligence, Reporting, and Audit.
- Highly flexible and configurable.
- Real time dashboard reporting with full work flow views.
- Complete, continuous audit trail and ongoing monitoring.
- Rapid implementation.
- ATO supported functionality and have completed ATO partner program.
- Only FATCA and CRS solution to be registered in ATO ABSIA (Australian Business Software Industry Association).