On September 13, 2021, the Guernsey Revenue Service (GRS) posted FATCA and CRS legislative and regulatory changes stemming from the July 15, 2021 approval of the Income Tax (Guernsey) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021, (the Ordinance). Onsite Visits The Ordinance provides the legal basis for GRS to undertake onsite visits to review a financial institution’s (FI’s) FATCA and/or CRS compliance. If GRS does not obtain consent from the FI or provide at least seven days written notice t

The Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) announced the due date to submit FATCA and Common Reporting Standard (CRS) reporting to the MRA has been extended from July 31, 2021, to August 16, 2021. To contact the MRA FATCA/CRS unit directly: +230 207 6000 or via email at fatcacrsunit@mra.mu. For assistance, please contact me via my contact page or at elizabeth@elizabethmcmorrowlaw.com. #Mauritius #FATCA #CRS #Reporting

If you missed the July 1 deadline for submitting a FATCA Responsible Officer (RO) Periodic Certification, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may change the registration status of your Foreign Financial Institution (FFI) to “Agreement Terminated”. This will result in your FFI’s Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN) being removed from the IRS FFI List. GIIN Removal An important aspect of registering an FFI in the IRS FATCA portal is obtaining a GIIN. For those partic

Given that FATCA and CRS have been in place for several years, Financial Institutions (FIs) should be prepared for examinations and penalties. The information sheet just released by Guernsey’s Revenue Service is a further indication of this point. The document discusses several topics including Guernsey’s review process, compliance pointers, governance, and training. Guernsey Revenue Service Review Guernsey expects FIs to have embedded robust controls and procedures to achiev

The Isle of Man announced Financial Institutions (FIs) who miss the FATCA and CRS reporting deadline will be liable to an initial late filing penalty of £300 and daily penalties of at least £60 per day until the outstanding returns are filed. The filing deadline for Y2020 FATCA and CRS data is June 30, 2021. The daily minimum £60 penalty will begin to accrue immediately regardless of whether the initial late filing £300 penalty has been issued. Additionally, using the wrong s

The Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) recently issued two communiques regarding Common Reporting Standard (CRS) reporting errors and FATCA missing tax identification number (TIN) codes. As a reminder, CRS and FATCA reporting is due July 31, 2021. CRS Common Errors The MRA identified five common CRS reporting errors and reminded Financial Institutions (FIs) they may face penalties if they submit inaccurate CRS reports: Wrong Interpretation of Undocumented Accounts An account s

As part of a Financial Institution’s (FI’s) FATCA obligations, an FI must conduct due diligence that includes collecting a non-U.S. Person account holder’s tax identification number (TIN). But what if the account holder’s tax residence jurisdiction does not issue TINs? Must you declare the withholding certificate invalid? Not necessarily. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides exceptions to obtaining foreign TINs for certain categories of account holders. An FI is n

In April 2021 and again on June 3, 2021, the Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC) warned financial institutions (FIs) to ensure that they have properly classified their entities under FATCA and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). Classification Consistency Both FATCA and CRS have anti-avoidance / anti-circumvention rules. It is important for FIs to realize that each jurisdiction is cross checking information submitted by the FI across portals wi

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) International Tax Authority (ITA) announced its Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and FATCA reporting deadline is now extended from May 31, 2021 to June 30, 2021. Previously, the ITA had announced scheduled interruptions during January and February 2021 to its BVI Financial Account Reporting system (BVIFARs) to make system changes to accommodate the CRS version 2.0 schema. The ITA took BVIFARs down again from March 10, 2021 through March 16, 202

Have you collected a U.S. tax identification number (TIN) from each of your U.S. account holders? If you were not able to, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wants to know the reason and has created reporting codes to use on your Y2020 FATCA reporting. FATCA TIN Reporting As part of a Foreign Financial Institution’s (FFI’s) FATCA obligations, it must report the U.S. TIN for each specified U.S. person who is an account holder or a controlling person. The IRS extended the

The Bahamas FATCA/CRS portal will open for registration and reporting on Monday, July 19, 2021 at 9 AM EDT. The portal will close for 2021 on Friday, August 27, 2021 at 5 PM EDT. As we have seen in past years, the Bahamas Competent Authority is prompt in closing its portal so ensure you complete your reporting well in advance. For assistance, please contact me via my contact page or at elizabeth@elizabethmcmorrowlaw.com. #Bahamas #FATCA #CRS #Reporting

For those financial institutions (FIs) who submit their FATCA reporting directly to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the March 31, 2021 deadline is approaching. Have you downloaded the IRS’ new public key and checked to see if your digital certificate is current? What Is IDES? Certain FIs transmit data directly to the IRS through the International Data Exchange Service (IDES). Depending on the amount of data to be submitted and an FI’s in-house staffing, the FI will e

The Guernsey Revenue Service announced Financial Institutions (FIs) must submit Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and FATCA Compliance Statements as part of their Y2020 reporting. Through the Compliance Statement, an FI will confirm all reports submitted (including nil reports) comply with the relevant Guernsey regulations. Assurance Points The yet to be shared Compliance Statement will pose a series of questions requiring a Yes or No answer. If the FI answers No to a particula

The Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC) issued an Updates Bulletin dated December 10, 2020 with a number of important updates. Problems with the Portal & Flexible Deadline Given the technical problems users are experiencing with the DITC portal, the DITC announced that it will not be automatically issuing penalties to Financial Institutions (FIs) who are unable to complete their Common Reporting Standard (CRS) reporting by the December 16, 2020

The IRS issued a reminder today re: FATCA RO certifications. "For the certification period ending December 31, 2019 (generally entities that were initially approved in 2016), FATCA Responsible Officer (“RO”) certifications are due no later than December 15, 2020. If an entity that is required to certify does not submit its certifications by the due date, the entity will not be in compliance with its obligations under FATCA. The consequences of being non-compliant may include

The Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation’s (DITC) new portal is now open. The DITC has also issued its 43-page DITC Portal – User Guide and 46-page new CRS Guidelines Version 4.0 dated November 6, 2020. CRS Guidelines Version 4.0 replaces the previous Version 3.0 issued March 15, 2018. DITC Portal: https://ditcportal.secure.ky/login DITC Portal – User Guide: https://www.ditc.ky/wp-content/uploads/DITC_Portal_User_Guide.pdf CRS Guidelines Version 4.0: h

The Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC) announced its new portal will open in early November 2020 and the new deadlines are as follows: New Entity Registration December 16, 2020 CRS Reporting & CRS Filing Declaration December 16, 2020 FATCA Reporting December 16, 2020 CRS Compliance Form March 31, 2021 Account Activation Email For those that had a User Account in the former AEOI Portal, keep an eye out for account activation emails from the addr

Recently the Cayman Islands launched its new website with the promise that the new portal would be launched in Q3 2020. However, the Cayman AEOI Portal Team at the Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC) has moved out the launch time frame to Q4 2020. Currently, the FATCA/CRS reporting deadline for the Caymans is November 16, 2020. Given that the portal will open October 1, 2020 at the earliest, the reporting deadline may change. This is especially likely given th

The Bahamas Competent Authority has announced an additional extension to FATCA/CRS reporting. Instead of closing the portal on September 30, 2020, the portal will now close on Friday, October 2, 2020 at 5 PM EDT. As we have seen in past years, the Bahamas Competent Authority is prompt in closing its portal so ensure you complete your reporting well in advance. For assistance, please contact me via my contact page or at elizabeth@elizabethmcmorrowlaw.com. #Bahamas #FATCA #CR

The Bahamas FATCA/CRS portal will be offline for maintenance on Saturday September 19, 2020 from 4 AM to 1 PM EDT. The portal is scheduled to reopen at 1 PM EDT on September 19. The portal will close for 2020 on September 30, 2020 at 5 PM EDT. As we have seen in past years, the Bahamas Competent Authority is prompt in closing its portal so ensure you complete your reporting well in advance. For assistance, please contact me via my contact page or at elizabeth@elizabethmcmorro