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

On July 27, 2021, the Bahamas Competent Authority posted the “Updated CRS-AEOI Partner List As At July 26th 2021.” This Common Reporting Standard (CRS) exchange partner list includes 64 jurisdictions. The Bahamas FATCA/CRS portal opened for registration and reporting on Monday, July 19, 2021 and will close 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

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

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 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

Join me on June 17, 2020 at 10 AM ET for #WebinarWednesday when I will discuss: What Does Controlling Person Mean for the Unsuspecting Executive? ​​David Mesa, Head of Sales at Trans World Compliance has invited me to speak and I selected this topic based on my most popular blog post of the same name. It may be surprising for an executive to discover that she may be required to provide sensitive personal information as part of the OECD's Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and U.

The Bahamas tax authority announced that its AEOI portal will open for registration and reporting on Monday, August 17, 2020 at 9 AM EDT. The deadline for registration and reporting is Wednesday, September 30, 2020 at 5 PM EDT. Earlier this week, the Bahamas provided an updated list of CRS Exchange Partners. For assistance, please contact me via my contact page or at elizabeth@elizabethmcmorrowlaw.com. #Bahamas #CRS #FATCA #Reporting

The Cayman Islands previously extended the deadline for Y2019 FATCA reporting to November 16, 2020. Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC) has now also extended the deadline for Y2019 CRS reporting to November 16, 2020. Global Forum The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) recognized tax authorities and Financial Institutions (FIs) will have difficulty meeting their respective 2020 CRS deadlines d

The IRS announced that it is providing an automatic extension from March 31, 2020 to July 15, 2020 for Reporting Model 2 FFIs and Participating FFIs (PFFIs) to file the FATCA Report (IRS Form 8966) to the IRS. It is not necessary to file IRS Form 8809-I, Application for Extension of Time to File FATCA Form 8966. For assistance, please contact me via my contact page or at elizabeth@elizabethmcmorrowlaw.com. #FATCA #Reporting

The deadline for a Participating Foreign Financial Institution (PFFI), including a Reporting FI under a Model 2 IGA to complete its FATCA reporting to the IRS is March 31. Most reporting preparation is focused on Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and other non-U.S. jurisdictions. However, there are also a significant number of FIs who must submit their FATCA reporting directly to the IRS. EAG Leads Generally, a United States FI (USFI) is not required to obtain a Global Intermediary

The Cayman Islands announced today that the deadline for Y2019 FATCA/CRS reporting has been extended to September 18, 2020 and the annual FATCA/CRS reporting deadline for future years has been changed to July 31. The Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC) expects to launch its new portal on June 1, 2020. Until then, it will not be possible to register entities (notification), undertake reporting, amend returns or update any current data. While th

Previously, the Cayman Islands stated that its FATCA/CRS AEOI portal was offline for maintenance. [See my August 31, 2019 blog post: FATCA & CRS: Cayman Portal Closed]. However, the Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC) announced this week that it is developing a new AEOI Portal for notification and reporting purposes. The new portal is scheduled to launch in two phases over the first and second quarters of 2020. The portal will include additio

As promised in July, Singapore provided details regarding changes to FATCA reporting requirements. The changes take effect as of April 1, 2020. End of IDES Despite being a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction, Singapore has required Reporting Singapore Financial Institutions (SGFIs) to submit electronic FATCA reporting through the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) International Data Exchange System (“IDES”). Effective April 1, 2020, all Reporting SGFIs must submit all electronic FA

The Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC) announced Friday that its AEOI portal is offline to facilitate the transmission of CRS and FATCA returns to partner jurisdictions. Users will be able to login and check on previously submitted returns to address errors and submit any outstanding returns when the portal is reopened on October 7, 2019 at 2:00 PM (EST). The DITC notice indicates that the DITC updated the CRS Reportable Jurisdictions list. Ho

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) tax authority issued a notice on Friday, June 21, 2019 alerting filers that the deadline for both FATCA and CRS is July 31, 2019. The extended deadline is applicable to all reporting Virgin Islands Financial Institutions, and is also relevant for Nil filings and Trustee Documented Trusts (TDTs) with reportable accounts. The BVI posted the updated CRS Reportable Jurisdictions list on 9th May, 2019. The list can be found here: https://bvi.gov.v

The Cayman Islands AEOI Portal is currently online and open for notifications and reporting for all years. The deadline for both CRS and FATCA is July 31, 2019. The new Industry Advisory provides a number of updates regarding the portal user guide, error and status notifications, and frequently asked questions (FAQs). The industry advisory also covers the below topics. Sponsoring Entities & CRS Reporting The industry advisory emphasizes that CRS does not recognize the Spons