The U.S. Treasury Department’s and the Internal Revenue Service’s implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is fast approaching. Under FATCA, the IRS will obtain information from foreign financial institutions (“FFIs”) about their U.S. customers. Given that some of these U.S. customers have neglected to timely file U.S. income tax returns or Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts with the IRS in the past, these customers have expressed concern to FFIs regarding both the upcoming FATCA reporting regime and their potential past U.S. income tax liabilities.

On November 6th, Florida voters will not only vote for local, state and national candidates, but they will also determine the fate of 11 constitutional amendments.

Join Jim Soble, Dan Mackler and others at an exclusive cocktail reception October 25, at the ICSC’s U.S. Shopping Center Law Conference in Orlando.

Currently, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is involved in multiple rulemaking efforts. One or more of the latest rule developments may be of interest to you if you are responsible for an entity that:

• owns or cleans up contaminated properties
• needs an environmental resource permit for a project
• manages or transports used oil
• requires water from a public water supply to operate your business

Don’t miss tomorrow’s webinar for small public companies! Gunster’s David Scileppi will be talking about “Hot topics for smaller company legal departments” in a September 6 webinar, from 2 – 3 p.m. EDT.

Gunster, one of Florida’s oldest and largest commercial law firms, has expanded its statewide footprint yet again. The firm’s newest office opened in Key Largo, in the Ocean Reef Club, on August 1.

I recently spoke with members of the Florida Engineering Society about the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s rule making on human-health-based water quality criteria.

On Friday, August 10, President Barack Obama signed the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012, which places tighter restrictions on U.S. companies that indirectly transact business with Iran through foreign subsidiaries and adds disclosure obligations on public companies that violate Iran sanctions.

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection is considering over 40 new criteria as part of the department’s renewed rule making initiative. The effort will also make many current criteria far more stringent than they are now.