On January 20, 2017, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and U.S. Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt signed a bilateral agreement to improve international tax compliance and provide for implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). FATCA generally requires that foreign financial Institutions and certain other non-financial foreign entities report on the foreign assets held by their U.S. account holders or be subject to withholding on with holdable payments. With FATCA, the United States is aiming to ensure that all accounts of individuals who are taxable in the U.S. which are held abroad are reported. In applying FATCA in Greece, Greek financial institutions are obliged to pass information on U.S. accounts to the U.S. Tax Authorities (Internal Revenue Services, IRS) or be subject to a substantial withholding penalty. For more information on FATCA, see https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/foreign-account-tax-compliance-act-fatca.
