by William H. Byrnes IV and Robert J. Munro * Contributing Author: John Richardson, LL.B., J.D., www.CitizenshipSolutions.ca . Rewritten by William Byrnes with additional material included. In a FATCA and CRS world tax residency is an important concept. A tax resident is a person who is subject to the imposition of full taxation in a country. Most countries impose taxation on the worldwide income of their tax residents...

By William H. Byrnes and Robert J. Munro * Swiss banks that elected to participate in the Department of Justice Program for Non-Prosecution Agreements or Non-Target Letters for Swiss banks (the "Program") are required to identify "U.S. Related Accounts," as that term is defined in Section 1.B.9. of the Program. This article suggests a protocol (the "Protocol") for the identification of...

By Prof. William H. Byrnes IV and Haydon Perryman * Foreign financial institutions (FFIs), along with their branches and affiliates, are defined as an "expanded affiliated group." There are 3,778 Lead Entities of EAGs among the approximately 88,000 FFI registrations from 250 countries... ... FATCA EAG Definition The FFI and its branches and affiliates are defined as an "expanded affiliated group"...

* by Prof. William H. Byrnes IV and Haydon Perryman FATCA [the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act] requires that foreign financial institutions [FFIs] make regular certifications to the IRS, as well as annually disclose taxpayer and account information for U.S. persons, unless an intergovernmental agreement allows for indirect reporting to the IRS via a foreign government. How Many FFIs Must Register Globally? ...

Treasury released Notice 2014-33 on May 2. Notice 2014-33 provides aspects of temporary relief for five areas of FATCA compliance: 1. 6 month extension (from July 1, 2014 until December 31, 2014) for characterizing as “pre-existing” the obligations (including accounts) held by an entity; 2. soft-enforcement transition period 2014 and 2015 for good-faith actors; 3. modification to the “standards...

On April 30, 2014 the IRS released the new Form W-8IMY (“ Form W-8IMY ”), formally replacing its 2006 predecessor W-8IMY. This new Form W-8IMY has 28 parts, whereas the previous August 2013 FATCA draft W-8IMY only contained 26. The new 2014 Form W-8IMY is vastly different from the seven-part 2006 predecessor form. Below is a summary for the W-8IMY and W-8BEN-E. For a full compliance analysis of the new...

On Saturday, March 22, 2014 the EU Council’s General Secretariat announced that it will adopt major amendments to the EU Directive on taxation of savings income at its next meeting. The amendments will address the current loopholes, such as application to trusts, to foundations, and to investment income that is comparable to interest income. Brief Background on EU Savings Directive The liberalization of capital...

By Prof. William H. Byrnes and Dr. Robert J. Munro * Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the 2014 edition of LexisNexis Guide to LexisNexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance by William Byrnes and Robert Munro, published February 2014. Chapter 2 contributors: Jeffrey Locke, Esq. and Richard Kando, CPA. INTRODUCTION The over-arching requirements for FATCA are three-fold: obtain appropriate...

A group of Canadians has put together a campaign to explore the constitutional violations posed by FATCA in Canada. Some of these issues were raised by pre-eminent constitutional scholar Peter Hogg, in this letter to Finance . Others arise because of the adoption of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA), which bypasses data protection laws and lacks even the minor anti-discrimination clause seen in other IGAs. I've...

by Prof. William H. Byrnes IV and Dr. Robert J. Munro * Editor's Note: The following excerpts are from Chapter 4 of the forthcoming 2014 edition of LexisNexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance by William Byrnes and Robert Munro, scheduled for publication in March 2014. Chapter 4 contributors: Jason Simpson with supporting contributor Prof. William H. Byrnes, Esq. INTRODUCTION TO FATCA AND DATA QUALITY ASSESSMENT...

By Prof. William H. Byrnes IV and Dr. Robert J. Munro * ...The Joint Statement between the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom regarding an intergovernmental approach to improving international tax compliance and implementing FATCA laid the foundation for the U.S. commitment to share the same information requested from the other State s. [ U.S. Treasury Department - Joint Statement from the United...

In Fla. Bankers Ass'n v. United States Dep't of Treasury, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3521 (D.D.C. 2014), here , the court sustained the IRS regulations "the regulations requir[ing] U.S. banks to report the amount of interest earned by accountholders residing in foreign countries." The Court says in its opening [ enhanced version available to lexis.com subscribers ]: The Bankers Associations contend...

by Henry Christensen III * The events involving Union Bank of Switzerland ("UBS") have resulted in federal criminal prosecutions, a deferred prosecution agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and UBS and a separate global settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice, the Swiss Government and UBS. The U.S. Congress responded to the scandal by enacting a new host of anti-abuse and anti-avoidance...

On October 29, 2013, the IRS released the long awaited FFI draft agreement and an accompanying notice incorporating updates to certain due diligence, withholding, and other reporting requirements released earlier this year ( click the FATCA topic on the left for previous coverage ). The FFI draft agreement provides the proposed guidance for FFIs to comply with the information reporting and withholding tax provisions of...

By Professor William Byrnes , - co-author of LexisNexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance ; co-author of Foreign Tax & Trade Briefs FATCA Registration Portal Open for Business F ATCA requires that FFIs, through a responsible officer (a.k.a. “FATCA compliance officer”), make regular certifications to the IRS via the FATCA Portal, as well as annually disclose taxpayer and account information for U...

In a major U.S. Treasury announcement about FATCA on the morning of July 12, 2013, titled “Engaging with More than 80 Countries to Combat Offshore Tax Evasion and Improve Global Tax Compliance.” Treasury extended by six months the start of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) withholding and account due diligence requirements. Treasury stated that “ due to overwhelming interest from countries...

by Denis Kleinfeld * The U.S. Treasury announced on July 12, that due to overwhelming concern from countries around the world, the implementation of FATCA (the Foreign Account Compliance Tax Act) would be deferred from January 1, 2014 to June 30, 2014. IRS Notice 2013-43 provides that this additional time is to: revise timelines for implementation of FATCA; and provide additional guidance concerning the...

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Chapter 11 of the LexisNexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance * by William Byrnes and Robert Munro. The title is now shipping to customers world-wide. SUMMARY Importance of the Income Source In cross-border transactions, the U.S. tax system, as well as the tax systems of most other nations or jurisdictions, contains rules to determine and identify items of income...

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the LexisNexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance * by William Byrnes and Robert Munro. ... The over-arching requirements for FATCA [the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act] are three-fold: obtain appropriate due diligence information and documentation for account holders, investors and payees; report on relevant parties such as U.S. account...

Norway signed an IGA with the US Treasury on April 15. I blacklined the Norway agreement against the Model 1 FATCA, (you can download the comparison here ) and note that some of the regular features appear, including deemed-compliance status for pension funds and "local" banks* but want to address in this post what I'll call the " you first, no you first " provision in Article 4, paragraph 6. Some...

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Chapter 6 of the forthcoming LexisNexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance by William Byrnes and Robert Munro, scheduled for publication in May 2013. Types of Entities The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ("FATCA") provides for withholding taxes to enforce reporting requirements on specified foreign accounts owned by specified U.S. persons or by U.S. owned...

The final Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) regulations, issued on January 28, 2013, expand the categories of foreign financial institutions (FFIs) that are deemed to be in compliance with FATCA. In general, under FATCA, U.S. withholding agents are required to withhold tax on certain payments to foreign financial institutions (FFIs) that do not agree to report certain information to the Service about their...

In a Tax Notes International article [ gated ] today [ News Analysis: Who Is A Manager Under FATCA? , tax analysts ® Worldwide Tax Daily , March 4, 2013] , Lee Sheppard discusses remarks about FATCA by Jesse Eggert, Treasury associate international tax counsel, at a March 1 IFA meeting. The most troubling aspect for me comes in the last part, when Sheppard describes a Q&A over the intergovernmental agreements...

As the world becomes "smaller," the dynamics of global financial transactions are intensifying. This is why the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is one of the most important awareness issues in today's tax policy and compliance arena. As new developments emerge almost daily in this ever-changing environment, the importance of working knowledge is increasingly pronounced. The LexisNexis® Guide...

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Chapter 19 of the forthcoming LexisNexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance by William Byrnes and Robert Munro, scheduled for publication in May 2013. In General On June 21, 2012 the U.S. and the Swiss government released a joint statement regarding a "Framework for Cooperation to Facilitate the Implementation of FATCA" (Model II Agreement"). The template...