What is FATCA?
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ( FATCA) is a global legislation implemented by the United States Government to help counter US Tax evasion by encouraging better reporting information.
FATCA seeks to prevent US persons from using non-US accounts and non-US businesses to avoid US taxation on their income and assets.
What is the impact of FATCA?
On an annual basis, banks and other financial organisations will be required to report information on financial accounts held either directly or indirectly by US persons.
Banking Circle is committed to being fully FATCA compliant in all countries and territories in which we operate. Banking Circle will, therefore, be reviewing our existing customer base to confirm the FATCA statuses of our customers and where appropriate we may have to contact our customers for further information and documentation.
What is required by FATCA for legal entities?
FATCA requires financial institutions to:
- identify the FATCA status of their customers (legal entities)for which one of the following U.S. indicia are found:
- the registered office or place of business is in the United States of America
- the current (operating, mailing, post office box or c/o) address is in the United States of America.
- document customers via the self-certification form. This means that customers have to sign a form imposed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS, the United States tax agency) to confirm their FATCA statuses.
Report on:
- the identity of the U.S. entity, its U.S. owners, and any U.S. person able to influence or take decisions on behalf of this entity
- their accounts and account balances; and
- the financial income on these accounts.
For additional information on tax residence, please talk to your tax adviser.
Is FATCA applicable in Luxembourg?
Luxembourg, like most European Nations, has agreed to enter into an Inter-governmental Agreement (“IGA”) with the U.S. and to render FATCA applicable in its domestic legislation. As a consequence, Luxembourg financial institutions must report this information to the “Administration des Contributions Directes” “the (ACD)” (local fiscal authority). The ACD will supply this information to the IRS.
For more details on FATCA please refer to the US Internal Revenue Service page:
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/foreign-account-tax-compliance-act-fatca