JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Kamla to write PM on FATCA

by

20170101

Rose­marie Sant&nb­sp;Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar plans to write to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley ask­ing him to re­con­sid­er his Gov­ern­ment's po­si­tion on the re­quest for the For­eign Ac­counts Tax Com­pli­ance Act (FAT­CA) Leg­is­la­tion to be sent to a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC).

In an in­ter­view on Akaash Vani 106.5 FM, sis­ter sta­tion of the T&T Guardian, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of tak­ing a "roller-coast­er ap­proach" to the leg­is­la­tion. She said through Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert they had agreed to the sug­ges­tion that the bill be sent to a JSC, but sub­se­quent­ly re­neged on that com­mit­ment.

"Why are they so afraid of JSC, which is a tool utilised by Par­lia­ments around the world, and this Par­lia­ment?" she asked.

Per­sad-Bissses­sar said the leg­is­la­tion needs to go to a JSC be­cause it is com­plex and in­fringes on peo­ple's rights.

"Our Con­sti­tu­tion, which is the bedrock of our de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­ci­ety ... our Con­sti­tu­tion framers made sure that cer­tain leg­is­la­tion re­quired a spe­cial ma­jor­i­ty. You must pause for a cause and look at this leg­is­la­tion where rights are be­ing breached," she said.

"Bar­ba­dos and Ja­maica have IGAs but have not gone the route of breach­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al rights. Why are we go­ing this route?"

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Gov­ern­ment is not of­fered an ex­pla­na­tion as to why it does not want a JSC. She is of the view, giv­en what is hap­pen­ing in the Unit­ed States, that "we should have the ben­e­fit of a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee which gives us a wider ar­ray of opin­ions and greater ex­per­tise."

The FAT­CA bill re­quires a three-fifths ma­jor­i­ty for pas­sage. Since Gov­ern­ment con­trols 23 of the 42 seats in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, the sup­port of at least three op­po­si­tion MPs is re­quired for the leg­is­la­tion to pass.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the PNM claims they sup­port­ed leg­is­la­tion re­quir­ing a spe­cial ma­jor­i­ty when they were in Op­po­si­tion but the ap­proach of her Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion was dif­fer­ent.

"We tried to pass good law which re­sult­ed in the then Op­po­si­tion giv­ing its sup­port," she said.

Asked how the im­passe could be re­solved, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said ahead of the Par­lia­ment sit­ting on Jan­u­ary 6, she plans to write to the Prime Min­is­ter ask­ing him to re­con­sid­er his Gov­ern­ment's po­si­tion.

"I would not want to think the Gov­ern­ment would be so reck­less, giv­en their in­sis­tence on the im­por­tance of this leg­is­la­tion," she said.

Asked why the Peo­ples Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment did not haver the Bill fi­nal­ized dur­ing its term in of­fice, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ex­plained: "We start­ed the process by ini­tialling the IGA in June 2014."

But she said her gov­ern­ment could not bring leg­is­la­tion to Par­lia­ment un­til the agree­ment was signed, which took place un­der the cur­rent Gov­ern­ment.

"We had a six-month win­dow to bring the bill to Par­lia­ment giv­en the pro­rogu­ing of Par­lia­ment in June 2015," she said.

On the last oc­ca­sion that the FAT­CA leg­is­la­tion was be­fore Par­lia­ment, the Op­po­si­tion Leader was put out of the Cham­ber by House Speak­er Brid­get An­nisette-George and mem­bers of the Op­po­si­tion left the sit­ting in sup­port of their leader. Im­bert then wound up the de­bate and the leg­is­la­tion went to the com­mit­tee stage.

UNC of­fi­cials told the T&T Guardian they have been meet­ing to dis­cuss amend­ments to the leg­is­la­tion pro­posed by the Gov­ern­ment and will be ready with a po­si­tion this week.

The busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty has been lob­by­ing the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion to pass the leg­is­la­tion. There are con­cerns that if it is not passed by the Feb­ru­ary dead­line T&T's fi­nan­cial sec­tor and even av­er­age cit­i­zens could be neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ed.

About FAT­CA

FAT­CA, the brain­child of out­go­ing US Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma, was in­tro­duced to help the In­ter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice (IRS) track down sus­pect­ed tax cheats with se­cret mon­ey and in­vest­ments hid­den in over­seas banks.

Since the law was in­tro­duced in 2014, the IRS has con­fis­cat­ed US$10 bil­lion from near­ly 100,000 US tax­pay­ers. Thou­sands of oth­er tax­pay­ers have rushed to file late tax re­turns or amend fil­ings to avoid falling foul of fines and in­ter­est penal­ties.

How­ev­er, ex­pats, led by the lob­by group Re­pub­li­cans Abroad, claim the law is un­fair and breach­es the right to pri­va­cy giv­en un­der the US Con­sti­tu­tion. The group is op­ti­mistic that with a Re­pub­li­can Pres­i­dent com­ing in­to the White House this month the leg­is­la­tion will be re­pealed.

Al­though Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump has not com­ment­ed on his po­si­tion on FAT­CA, the Re­pub­li­can plat­form had called for the re­peal of the law and for the IRS to levy tax­es based on res­i­den­cy. The Re­pub­li­cans say FAT­CA not on­ly al­lows un­rea­son­able search and seizures but al­so threat­ens the abil­i­ty of over­seas Amer­i­cans to lead nor­mal lives.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Lesley Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Lesley Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Lesley Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Lesley Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Jesus Explosion 23: Visiting priest feeds RC faithful

Yesterday
Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Courtesy Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League

Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Courtesy Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League

Israel Khan honoured by community cricket league

Yesterday
SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa steps up Caricom collaboration after summit

2 days ago
Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

ANISTO ALVES

Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

ANISTO ALVES

Argentina wants to export world-famous beef to T&T

2 days ago