Top 10 Offshore Headlines from North America On October 27, 2009, Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) and Representative Charles Rangel (D-New York), chairmen of the Congressional tax writing committees, introduced the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 (the “Bill”) in the U.S. Congress. The IRS is aggressively targeting foreign companies and the U.S. companies that hire them to perform offshore services for the oil and gas industry on the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier this week, the “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009” (the “bill”) was introduced in the Senate and the House. The Tax Court of Canada (the Court) recently released two decisions affecting the use of trusts as tax planning vehicles. In Garron and Garron, Trustees of the Garron Family Trust v. The Queen, released by the Tax Court of Canada on September 10, 2009, Madam Justice Woods applied a new and novel test to determine the residency of a trust. On August 19, 2009, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement agreement with UBS regarding certain accounts held at the bank by U.S. persons. On May 4, 2009, President Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner unveiled two components of the Administration’s plan relating to US international tax reform. Guernsey’s investment fund industry is paying close attention to developments with respect to the draft EU Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM). As we reported recently, earlier this year representatives of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") indicated informally that U.S. investors in foreign private equity and hedge funds are required to report annually their fund interests on Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (an "FBAR"). The IRS has indicated that it will waive failure to filepenalties with respect to delinquent Forms 5471 and similarinformation returns, in situations where foreign income has beenreported and taxes paid, provided such filings are made bySeptember 23, 2009. | 
