The Foreign Account TaxCompliance Act (FATCA)is a new set of U.S. tax rules that will affect many aspects of theday-to-day activities of the corporate treasury function. FATCA wasenacted by Congress in 2010 to detect and deter tax evasion by U.S.citizens and businesses hiding money in foreign countries.

The legislation, which has a general effective date of January1, 2014, is creating a new tax information reporting andwithholding regime through which foreign financial institutions(FFIs) are expected to identify their U.S. account holders andreport their account balances and other information.

For corporations with operations, activities, business partners,or counterparties outside of the United States, FATCA is creatingan array of issues, starting with the fact that some of theirentities may qualify as FFIs under the law.