The Guernsey Association of Compliance Officers (GACO) chair, Mark Dunster, has urged those affected by the introduction of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), and other exchange of information regimes, to attend a free seminar hosted by the association next Monday.

Guernsey Income Tax office compliance and international manager, Lee Harris, will speak to the specialist audience about the introduction of the Information Gateway Online Reporter (IGOR) used by Guernsey’s income tax office for the exchange of information for FATCA.

Mr Harris will discuss various issues that have come up following the first reporting for FATCA on 30 June 2015. He will also address the future uses of the office’s reporting systems for other exchange of information regimes including the UK Inter-Governmental Agreement, the Common Reporting Standard (GRS) and domestic interest reporting.

Mr Harris, who has been with the Income Tax Office since 1989, is responsible for the day-to-day working of the compliance and investigation unit, has oversight of in-depth legal investigations into compliance and manages requests received from other jurisdictions under international agreements and from domestic agencies. He has been on the working parties for both the introduction of FATCA and the CRS into Guernsey and is the project manager for IGOR.

GACO chair, and Carey Olsen regulatory partner, Advocate Mark Dunster said: “I would recommend all those working in compliance and dealing with international and domestic tax reporting to attend this free session.

“The processes by which the Guernsey Tax Office handles tax reporting are a crucial issue for the business community particularly as tax is at the heart of many offshore structures.

“IGOR is a great example of the kind of innovative procedures that must be put in place to ensure that they meet the legal requirements for these processes.”

The GACO is the recognised body for compliance professionals in the island, promoting the sharing of knowledge and experience of procedures around anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist funding, compliance and risk management processes.

You can book you place, free of charge for GACO members, on the GACO’s event’s page by close of business on Thursday 1 October: http://www.gaco.org.gg/Events/?eventid=29 or alternatively by contacting Mark Dunster directly via mark.dunster@careyolsen.com.

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