The US has delayed the introduction of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) rules deferring the compliance date until June 2014.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a notice (IRS Notice 2013-43) detailing revised timelines for implementation of FATCA.

FATCA was introduced by the US in 2010 to combat tax evasion by US tax residents using foreign accounts. It requires financial institutions outside the US to pass information about their US customers to the IRS.

The US Treasury and the IRS intend to amend the final regulations to postpone the start of FATCA withholding by six months to 30 June 2014 (originally 1 January 2014), and to make corresponding adjustments to various other time frames provided in the final regulations.

The notice also contains additional guidance concerning the treatment of financial institutions located in jurisdictions that have signed intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) for the implementation of FATCA but have not yet brought those IGAs into force.

The FATCA registration website is likely to be available to financial institutions from 19 August 2013.

More details are available from the IRS