US lawyer Suzanne Reisman

NEW legal requirements could be imposed on trust and tax specialists if proposals are approved in the United States.

US private client lawyer Suzanne Reisman, who is based in London, told Jersey practitioners last week that proposed legislation issued by President Obama’s regime would require qualified intermediaries to identify all their US account holders and file financial information with the US tax authorities.

She said that the focus had moved on from Carl Levin’s Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act to expatriates seen to be taking revenue out of the US economy.

Notably, last month the US Congress approved an exit tax, which replaces the previous expatriate tax regime.

Ms Reisman said that this would place more of a burden on advisers who were not based in the US than on those who were US residents.

She said it was important that qualified intermediaries carried out checks to make sure that they knew if they were taking on client who had a US passport or green card.