AEOI Updates: April 7-21

Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) legislation is constantly evolving worldwide as the standard is rolled out around the world. The Sovos research team continually monitors new regulations and updates across the globe and publishes them in our Taxport Compass tool. Here are some important changes that occurred in recent weeks:

Germany Releases FATCA Schema Files & Guidance

Germany’s Federal Tax Office (BZSt) released both FATCA schema files (XSD files are provided in the zip file), and guidance (Communications Manual Part III, version 2.0). Both provide important information on how to properly create FATCA returns.  Information about the releases can be found in the latest Infobrief.

In addition, Germany published guidance on notifications (“Verarbeitungsprotokolle FATCA”) and a sample notification XML. Previously, Germany released an Abbreviation Index/Glossary and Business Rules.

Reporting financial institutions should review these files to prepare for FATCA reporting this upcoming August. Germany has already released guidance on CRS filing.

Malaysia Delays FATCA Reporting Another Year

Malaysia recently announced that it will, once again, delay its first round of FATCA reporting until next year. Many expected this would be the case, since Malaysia has yet to officially sign the IGA with the United States.

Instead, Malaysia’s status is considered “In-Substance.” Next year, reporting financial institutions must produce returns for years 2014 through 2017 by June 30, regardless of whether or not they have any accounts to report. For more information, check out the FATCA page.

Cayman Islands Releases CRS Guidance and Extends FATCA Deadline

The Cayman Islands published its second version of CRS Guidance. This is a very important document for CRS reporting as it contains vital information for due diligence and reporting requirements. In particular, the Cayman Islands will require reporting financial institutions to send separate reports for each jurisdiction in which they maintain reportable accounts. Moreover, it is not possible to send XML nil reports. Instead, financial institutions must select a checkbox in the Cayman portal.

In addition to the Guidance, Cayman also released an Industry Notice containing important updates to FATCA, CDOT and CRS reporting this year. Financial institutions should note the FATCA deadline has been extended from May 31 to July 31. This brings it line with the CRS deadline. The Cayman Islands also expects to release a new Portal User Guide either sometime this month or early May. As a reminder, financial institutions must register for FATCA and CRS reporting by June 30.

Italy Enacts FATCA Order and Modifies Deadline

The Italian Internal Revenue Service published a newly enacted order relative to the implementation of FATCA for this year’s filing season.

his order updates the technical annexes, replacing the previous ones used for filing Tax Year 2015 account information. The new specifications are meant to reflect the changes to the IRS FATCA XML Schema that went into effect in January (v2.0). In addition, the order changes the filing deadline for Tax Year 2016 account information from April 30 to May 31, 2017.

There have been several revisions to Italy’s technical specifications, which may be found on pages 7-11 in the Method of Data Transfer and Completion under FATCA 2.0. XML and XSD files for the updated specifications are also available for download.