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

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The Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) held its annual press conference on September 3, 2021. Among the issues discussed were anti-money laundering (AML) initiatives and international taxation. The highlights of the conference demonstrate financial institutions must ensure they have a strong compliance program in place if they choose to do business in Mauritius. AML Mauritius established the AML/CFT Unit in the Fiscal Investigations Department in February 2020. The goals of th

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 .

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

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, 20

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 .

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

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 Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC) announced the deadline for the first ever CRS Compliance Form is now September 15, 2021. This means that you will submit one form for your Y2019 data on September 15, 2021 and one form for your Y2020 data on the regularly scheduled deadline of September 15, 2021. Portal Adjustments The DITC extended the deadline to give itself more time to finalizeing the bulk upload feature. For those FIs who do not require the bulk upl

For those not familiar with the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, hearing the term Politically Exposed Person for the first time might conjure up recent headlines of a U.S. Congressman being seduced by a foreign agent or a former U.S. Senator working for a Chinese surveillance company. However, a Politically Exposed Person or PEP does not include U.S. public officials and can include completely ordinary people who happen to work in foreign governments. What is a PEP? A PEP can be an ind

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) International Tax Authority (ITA) announced scheduled interruptions to its BVI Financial Account Reporting system (BVIFARs). The reason for the disruptions is system changes to accommodate the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) version 2.0 schema. Offline: December 31, 2020 through January 7, 2021. Online: January 8, 2021 through January 13, 2021. Potential access interruptions: January 16, 2021 – February 5, 2021. Please note that if you do not

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