July 13, 2010 - B.I.S.S. Research and Globe Tax Services have formed a joint venture to launch Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) accreditation, which aims to assist financial companies and their treasury departments in achieving FATCA compliance across an enterprise by identifying strengths and weaknesses in their systems and procedures and establishing a corporate standard.

The accreditation is also expected to attract software suppliers that are marketing technology solutions for the US supranational tax avoidance rules. The accreditation will include a series of benchmark tests developed by the joint venture partners, and both the FATCA accreditation and tests will be reviewed and updated to incorporate future changes to FATCA, its implementing regulations and interpretation plus any comparable tax information regimes introduced outside of the US.

"FATCA is a moving target, but is on a firm course for implementation," said Gary Wright, chief executive officer (CEO) of B.I.S.S. Research, who created the initiative. "The B.I.S.S. accreditation and benchmark process is designed to be flexible and evolve with FATCA and can be adapted to fulfil the requirements of other international markets should similar regulations be introduced.

"Financial services firms in all international markets have been confused and concerned by FATCA, and the introduction of these benchmark tests and accreditation should bring a high degree of certainty and comfort that their system, processes and procedures are able to comply."