HMRC has launched an online service for UK financial institutions to register and report financial information on behalf of US customers in accordance with UK/US legislation under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)
The department is also providing guidance for anyone who submits a FATCA return on behalf of a financial institution, who will now need to register with HMRC using this online service. Registration opens from mid-October 2014.
On registering, individuals will be given a FATCA ID, plus an HMRC registration identification number for each financial institution they register. Financial institutions will also need to register with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and obtain a Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN).
FATCA returns for each year are due by 31 May, with the first return due by 31 May 2015.
For simple returns information can be entered manually using the FATCA online service. For those reporting more than 200 accounts per submission, there is the option of making multiple manual submissions, or of downloading and using HMRC’s FATCA schema to create the returns.
The FATCA schema should also be used in cases where the account holder is a non-financial foreign entity (NFFE) with more than 30 reportable controlling persons, or where the account holder, or any controlling person of an NFFE, has multiple tax residencies.
HMRC guidance states that a return should be submitted even if there are no accounts to report and warns that submissions must use the latest version of the HMRC schema and not the IRS US schema.
Details of FATCA online submissions are here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/FATCA/reporting.htm.
