The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is part of the tax legislation package that came into effect in the United States (US) in 2010. FATCA is aimed at preventing tax evasion by US taxpayers receiving income from foreign financial institutions. FATCA requires foreign financial institutions to enter into an agreement with the US tax authorities that obligates them to disclose all material data on their US clients to the US tax authorities. Intergovernmental agreements are also being negotiated with many countries, including Austria. Some countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, have already concluded such agreements. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) once again deferred the effective date of FATCA by half a year to 1 July 2014. FATCA affects VIG and some of its Group companies because they are considered to be foreign financial institutions based on their company object and/or product portfolio. VIG is aware of this. Measures are being prepared to implement a Group-wide FATCA compliance strategy that takes into account the different statutory frameworks in the VIG markets concerned.
