Glossary & Acronyms

Glossary and list of common acronyms, in alphabetical order

Acronym	Meaning
A
Accidental Americans
AFI	Australia Financial Institutions (often referred to as Foreign Financial Institutions in US FATCA documentation
A-REIT
ATO	Australia Tax Office, Australian bureaucracy responsible for taxation reporting, collection and compliance
E
ETF
F
FATCA	Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is a 2010 United States federal law to enforce taxation requirements for United States persons, including those living outside the U.S.
FB	Facebook
FFI	Foreign Financial Institutions, see AFI
FTT	Let’s Fix the Tax Treaty! Organisation
I
IGA	Intergovernmental Agreement; generally the basis for implanting FATCA. Note this agreement is not a treaty in a strict sense as generally does not require full government ratification & approval.
IRS	Internal Revenue Service, US bureaucracy responsible for taxation reporting, collection and compliance
L
LIC
N
NIIT
P
PFIC	Passive Foreign Investment Company - for purposes of United States income tax, U.S. persons owning shares of a passive foreign investment company (PFIC) are subject to extremely strict, onerous and complex tax regulations that, in effect, make it prohibitive to invest in mutual fund type investments outside the USA.
S
SMSF	Self-Managed Super Fund
Superannuation	Partly compulsory government mandated system where money is placed in a fund to provide for a person's retirement; Often referred to as Super
SWOT	Strengths / Weaknesses / Threats / Opportunity - structured planning method that evaluates these four elements of a project