Greece is determined to cooperate with the US government and US authorities in order to fully enforce the US’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FACTA), which has ordered that all credit institutions operating outside the US will have to inform American authorities of their transactions with US citizens concerning their accounts and investment products. This obligation applies as of July 1.
Greek Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis has informed Washington that he intends to personally undertake the completion of a bilateral state agreement, expected to be completed by the end of the year. Hardouvelis has already contacted his American counterpart, Jack Lew, in order to get the process started.
According to the provisions of FACTA, US citizens who open a bank account in Greece are obliged to inform their country’s authorities of their actions. This concerns both accounts in Greek or non-US banks as well as those in branches of US lenders that may operate in Greece.
About 77,000 banks around the world have already agreed to comply with the new US law and 70 countries have pledged to cooperate with the US to enforce it. These countries include Greece, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, but also well-known tax havens such as Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and Singapore.
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