Cayman FATCA/CRS Reporting Deadline December 16, 2020

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 address: donotreply@ditc.ky. This email will include steps on how to access the new DITC Portal. Given the large number of accounts, the DITC will send the activation emails in stages.

New Accounts

For new CRS or FATCA registrations/notifications, you will click “CRS & FATCA Registration” on the DITC Portal Registration and Login Page accessible via the DITC website: https://www.ditc.ky/portal/

User Guide

Once the portal is opened, the Caymans will issue a DITC Portal User Guide and updated CRS Guidelines. Questions relating to the DITC Portal, CRS & FATCA may be emailed to CaymanAEOIPortal@gov.ky.

New Cayman Islands CRS Compliance Form

The new CRS Compliance Form deadline has been bumped out from December 31, 2020 to March 31, 2021. Commencing with Y2020 data due in 2021, the form will be due annually by September 15.

The form is akin to the IRS FATCA Responsible Officer (RO) Certification and must be completed by Reporting FIs and Trustee Documented Trusts. There are five sections to the form:

• Section 1 - Financial Institution Profile Data

• Section 2 - Financial Account Data

• Section 3 - AML/KYC and Accounting

• Section 4 - CRS Process

• Section 5 - Declaration

It should be noted Section 5 - Declaration of the form includes the following statement regarding the signatory:

"Acknowledges that there are sanctions for providing inaccurate information to the TIA and for contravention of the CFI’s compliance and due diligence obligations."

FIs should have an internal discussion prior to submission to ensure that the person who submits the data in the DITC portal has appropriate authority or permission to do so.

For assistance, please contact me via my contact page or at elizabeth@elizabethmcmorrowlaw.com.