Starting on July 15, 2013, the U.S. is scheduled to begin registering foreign financial firms with U.S. customers for a new anti-tax evasion law know as FATCA.

The IRS still has not finalized sign-up instructions for the new online portal, due to open by July 15 in one of the last steps toward implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) of 2010.

Hundreds of thousands of:

•  Banks

•  Insurance Companies and

•  Investment Funds with US Customers

are required to register with the IRS by October 25 to avoid FATCA penalties starting on January 1, 2014.

In an effort to address some foreign concerns, the United States has signed FATCA deals with nine other governments so far that allow firms to report U.S. client information via their local tax authorities rather than directly to the IRS.

About 80 countries are in negotiations with U.S. Treasury officials about such pacts, known as intergovernmental agreements (IGAs), analysts said.

Germany on Friday passed legislation to implement its IGA with the United States. The United States aims to get as many countries as it can behind the legislation.

Chinese government officials have so far been publicly dismissive of FATCA, throwing into question whether financial firms in Hong Kong will be able to comply with the FATCA law. Hong Kong is said to be “initialing some preliminary discussion” with U.S. officials.