Once again, there was a variety of changes to FATCA over the past week. Take a look below to see the most recent updates, gathered by our expert compliance and research team. Ireland Revenue Temporarily Suspends Online FATCA Filing Ireland has temporarily suspended online FATCA filing. Beginning January 29, 2016, and continuing until early April, filers will be prevented from submitting their FATCA information online. The temporary suspension is meant to allow enhancement work to be done to the online portal so that it will be ready when it opens again in early April for Financial Institutions to meet the FATCA filing deadline of June 30, 2016. Ireland Releases Details of FATCA Validation Changes for 2015 Reporting Ireland released FATCA Validation Changes for 2015 reporting. A brief summary of the changes are as follows:
- XML schema element reference – MessageRefID: New naming convention to ensure the ID is populated and unique;
- XML schema element reference – DocRefID: Now conforms to IRS schema guidance;
- XML schema element reference – BirthDate: Birthdates should be included if a TIN is not available for a U.S. account holder or substantial owner and must be properly formatted per IRS Publication 5124;
- XML schema element reference – TIN: A value for a TIN data element must be either in GIIN format, nine consecutive numerical digits without hyphens or separators; nine numerical digits with two hyphens, one after the third digit and one after the fifth digit; or nine numerical digits with a hyphen after the second digit. Additionally, if supplying multiple TIN numbers, the US Tin should be the first TIN that appears in the record;
- Character Coding: All FATCA files should be character encoded UTF-8 without Byte Order Marker (BOM);
- Submitting Corrected/Amended Files: Each FATCA file should only contain one type of data. For amendments, an FI must also amend information for “DocTypeIndic”, “CorrMessageRefID”, “CorrDocRefID”, and “ReportingFI”;
- XML schema element reference – lld. Address_Type: Where the “AddressFixed” element is present, population of the City field is mandatory;
- XML schema element reference – Account Number : Files that do not validate this field will fail validation.
Belgium Releases New Business Rule Belgium has released a new business rule for the FATCA returns for tax year 2015. Under the OrganisationParty_Type element, there is a TIN_Type element requirement. This information can be found on page 3 and in red font. Colombia Releases FAQ About Corrections, Amendments, and Cancellations of Records Colombia has released an FAQ about Corrections, Amendments, and Cancellations of Records Submitted to the IRS by Colombian Financial Institutions. The publications lists frequently asked questions and provides clarification with how to file, correct, amend, or cancel records that were submitted by Colombian Financial Institutions required to report through FATCA. Switzerland Announces Extension on Reporting Non-Consenting U.S. Accounts The Secrétariat d’Etat for Switzerland has recently announced that an extension has been agreed upon by the United States Treasury Department for aggregated reporting on Non-Consenting U.S. Accounts. Per the IGA, Swiss FIs were to report that information to the IRS by January 31. The new extension will allow those FIs to report by March 31. Please be aware, the new extension does not affect Non-Consenting Nonparticipating Financial Institutions which must be reported by January 31. It also does not affect any 2017 due dates. Norway Announces No Extension for FATCA Filing Norway has recently updated one of their FATCA FAQ’s to say that there will be no possibility for an extension on reporting FATCA information. The deadline to report in Norway is March 31. France Releases New Guidance France has recently released a new version of its FATCA Guidance: Transfert D’Informations En Application de la Loi FATCA Par Procédé Informatique. The new version (2.0) replaces the previous version, (1.5). The new guidance addresses issue particular to this year’s reporting for deposit, trust and other accounts. Moreover, several of the sections have been renumbered from the previous edition. Compass has been updated to reflect these changes. Netherlands Releases FATCA Guidance/ CRS Technical Explanation of the NL IGA and the CRS Regulations On January 20, the Dutch Ministry of Finance published guidance on FATCA and CRS reporting. The guidance provides assistance to Reporting Financial Institutions on how to properly conduct their due diligence requirements. While chapter 1 focuses on clarifying differences between CRS and FATCA (referred to as “NL IGA”), chapter 2 only discusses FATCA matters. In particular, the guidance covers the following topics:
- General reporting obligations under NL IGA and CRS;
- General due diligence provisions for FIs with regard to new accounts or existing accounts of individuals and entities;
- Clarification of certain terms used in the NL IGA and CRS regulations;
- The concept of a “U.S. Person” in relation to U.S. territories;
- Registration requirements for non-reporting financial institutions;
- Obligations of FIs that are not acting as primary withholding QIs.
Germany Releases New InfoBrief Germany recently released its newest FATCA InfoBrief. The InfoBrief states that the CAA between Germany and the United States is completed. Additionally, the InfoBrief notes that it plans a future testing period and will provide more information regarding testing at a later date. Finally, the InfoBrief recommends that filers wait until after June 1 to send FATCA information (which is due July 31). This recommendations is made after considering the possibility that there may be changes or adjustments made to the schema after the testing period is concluded.
CRS Update
Also, countries are beginning to issue guidelines for the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), which comes online starting in 2017. British Virgin Islands Releases CRS Update The Financial Secretary for the British Virgin Islands has issued a press release updating BVI Financial Institutions of their obligations under the Common Reporting Standard. The updates are the following:
- There has been no decision on whether or not Guidance notes will be released. That decision will be made by the end of May, 2016.
- All Reporting FIs must notify if they have reporting obligations by April 30, 2017. More details will be released by the end of 2016.
- Reporting FIs will make their return by May 31, 2017. Instructions will be provided by the end of 2016.
- The Competent Authority will produce a list of participating jurisdictions which will be published in the Gazette, once every calendar year. The first of these lists will be published before the end of January 2016 and be available at the International Tax Authority’s website.
- Self-certification forms for both individuals and entities under CRS were developed by the International Tax Authority and are available online or by calling its office at 1 (284) 468-4415.
The press release follows an Amendment to the Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Act, 2003. The Amendment came into force January 1, 2016 and obligates BVI Financial Institutions to comply with CRS. Sign up for the Sovos blog and our monthly newsletter to get these and other important updates concerning FATCA, CDOT, and CRS.
