On 12 July 2019 the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) introduced two new validation rules related to the reporting of sponsoring entities
-
The new rules require
- If sponsor details are provided, the reporting financial institutions taxpayer identification number (TIN) has to be provided in a global intermediary identification number (GIIN) format and the reporting financial institutions TIN issued by attribute must be set to either ‘US’ or left blank;
- If sponsor details are not provided, the reporting financial institutions filer category code must be set to FATCA602.
The updated code will be deployed to the external vendor testing environment (EVTE) and published on the standard business (SBR) website on 18 July 2019 and in the production environment on 30 July 2019.
Reference to official announcement.
June 2019
On 27 June the OECD released updated versions of
- the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) XML Schema User Guide Version 3.0 (June 2019).pdf
- the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) Status Message XML Schema Version 2.0 (June 2019).pdf
The updated versions reflect a number of technical changes following the input from jurisdictions and financial institutions using the schema.
-
The main technical changes relate to
- the use of the Message Reference ID
- the indicator for the message type and
- the length of string elements.
The schema can be used for nil reporting/zero data messages between tax authorities. In addition, the ISO country and currency lists have been updated to reflect the most recent developments in this respect.
Taking into account the implementation time needed, these Schema will be used from 1 January 2021.
On or after that date, the current version of the CRS XML Schema and CRS Status Message XML Schema should no longer be used. Financial Institutions should plan sufficient time to implement and test the new requirements to ensure their CRS compliance beyond 31 December 2020.
May 2019
The South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) issued a reminder on third party data submission for the period of 1 March 2018 to 28 February 2019, for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) and the Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”)
The submission process was opened on 01 April and will close on 31 May 2019. Details on submission dates and the various reportable data types can be found in the table provided on the SARS website (SARS Notification).
To find out how Dion’s Tax reporting and compliance (TRAC) solution can support your CRS and FATCA Reporting requirements please contact our experts.
April 2019
The IRS reminded under FATCA News & Information Issue Number 2019-4 that for the certification period ending December 31, 2018 the FATCA Responsible Officer (“RO”) certifications are due no later than July 1, 2019.
If an entity that is required to certify does not submit its certifications by the due date, the entity will not be in compliance with its obligations under FATCA. The consequences of being non-compliant may include the revocation of an entity’s FATCA status and, ultimately, the entity’s GIIN being removed from the FFI list.
If you like to find out how Dion Global and his Team can help you to stay FATCA compliant, please contact us
22 October 2018
On 22 October 2018, the OECD confirmed “that jurisdictions are taking further action to prevent the misuse of RBI/CBI schemes by account holders by putting in place an exchange of information mechanism that will ensure that the information on applicants of RBI/CBI schemes will be made available to their jurisdiction(s) of tax residence.” Link As a consequence of this action, the OECD has removed following RBI/CBI schemes from the guidance.
- Columbia
- Mauritius
- Montserrat
OECD RBI/CBI Schemes
October 2018
The Swiss Parliament in their Autumn Session approved the arrangements about Automatic Exchange of Information on Financial Accounts (AEOI) with Hong Kong and Singapore.
The AEOI agreements between Hong Kong and Switzerland was signed on 13 October 2017.
The AEOI agreement with Singapore had been signed on 17 July 2017.
These arrangements provisionally apply from 1 January 2018 with a first reporting in 2019.
Dion’s TRAC-CRS Solution is built to support your fiscal reporting requirements under FATCA and CRS.
If you like to find out more about TRAC-CRS, please feel free to contact us for more information
February 2018
The Government of Hong Kong gazetted on 02 February 2018 the (Amendment) Ordinance Inland Revenue (Amendment) Ordinance 2018. Section 5 to 11 in the Bill will come into force on 01 January 2019.
Beside technical amendments on certain provisions, the Ordinance enhances the definition of a “Controlling Person” by introducing Senior Management Officials and Enforcer (in case of a Trust).
Additionally, Investment entities held by, or through an entity, that is a passive NFE with Controlling Persons that are reportable persons will not be treated as “Exempt collective investment vehicle”.
Finally, the Ordinance provides further details on information returns. The information returns should not cover any period that is earlier than the date on which a jurisdiction becomes a reportable jurisdiction.
January 2018
Hong Kong based Financial institutions (FI’s) are required to comply with due diligence and reporting requirements defined in the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112) (IRO) to meet their obligations under the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEoI).
Inland Revenue Department has launched a Compliance website addressing IDR’s
- Supervisory activities on reporting and non-reporting financial institution;
- On-side Reviews Procedures;
- Review areas; and
- Criminal sanctions.
Director Regulatory & Tax Programs
