FATCA – GUIDANCE TO MEMBERS ACTION （FATCA,指导成员行动）.pdf

FATCA – GUIDANCE TO MEMBERS ACTION REQUIRED August 2014 1. INTRODUCTION This paper summarises the key aspects of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and alerts members of professional firms to the action needed at various points over the coming months to ensure that your firm, its partners and its associated entities are properly meeting their obligations under the new rules and that you are able to discuss them with your clients. A timetable of key dates is included in Appendix I. Who is affected? • Any person who acts as a trustee. • Any firm which is a Foreign Financial Institution referred to hereafter as a Financial Institution (FI) (there is a wide definition of this, see Section 2). • Any accountant or lawyer who is or has clients who are in these categories. What is FATCA? FATCA is part of a larger piece of legislation (Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act) introduced in the United States in 2010 to ensure that that country’s citizens are fully disclosing their worldwide income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It has spawned a number of international agreements being adopted primarily in the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, while the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is also working on an international disclosure process. There will be further developments in this area of disclosure but in this Guidance Note we concentrate on FATCA. The key point to be clear about is that as a result of the UK-US intergovernmental agreement (IGA), the legislation is now part of UK law through s222 Finance Act 2013 and the regulations issued under that section. There ar