Proactive guidance needed to help entities meet FATCA deadlines

The first reporting cycle for the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) kicked off with the 31 March deadline set by the US Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) for countries and territories such as Hong Kong that have a Model 2 Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA). Although the IRS has granted an automatic 90-day extension until 29 June for this first reporting cycle, many entities worked towards meeting the 31 March deadline.

Unable to enrol

One obstacle that clients encountered was the fact that an entity that applied for a global intermediary identification number (GIIN) in the beginning or middle of March were not able to enrol into the International Data Exchange Service (IDES) system due to the GIIN number not being recognized by the system. As confirmed with IDES technical support, this was because the GIIN has not been included in the IRS GIIN list, which is published on monthly basis.

The IDES web application is a secure managed file transfer service that is available to both financial institutions (FIs) and jost country tax authorities (HCTAs) to automatically exchange FATCA data with the US.

While several countries were proactive in setting up or adapting proprietary systems to accommodate FATCA reporting, or issued guidance to assist their FIs in complying with IRS requirements, many jurisdictions – including China, which has agreed in substance a Model 1 IGA – do not yet have systems or guidance in place. However, Model 1 countries must report to the IRS by 30 September.

Roman Ipfling is a director and global co-lead of the international tax compliance group at DMS Offshore Investment Services and is based in the Cayman Islands