Global transparency and the foreign account tax compliance act

Abstract

Today's globalised economy has spurred the need for jurisdictions to better adapt to the needs of the modern world. The process of tax collection has been complicated by this new found reality. Throughout the past decades, secrecy jurisdictions have enabled persons to move their assets to another jurisdiction, away from the detection of the tax authorities of their resident jurisdiction. This has led to a number of domestic and international efforts aimed at mitigating the profound consequences of secrecy jurisdictions. This thesis will delve into a number of these efforts including the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, the European Union Savings Directive, the Mutual Assistance Directives as well as the publications and proposed co-operative measures of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The study will evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts and a critical analysis will be given. Furthermore, Malta's efforts will also be discussed. Malta has been consistently successful in co-operating with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development whilst implementing the European Union Directives. Recently Malta has also embarked on negotiations with the US with the aim of complying with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.