Cayman Islands: Extension Of FATCA Notification Deadline
On 23 February 2015, the Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation (“DITC”) announced that the Governor in Cabinet of the Cayman Islands had approved an extension to the notification deadline contained in Regulation 14(3) of the Tax Information Authority (International Tax Compliance) (United States of America) Regulations, 2014 (the “US Regulations”). Regulation 14(3) currently provides that each Reporting Financial Institution (“RFI”) must notify the Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority (the “TIA”) that it has reporting obligations by 31 March 2015. We understand from the DITC announcement that the notification deadline will be extended to 30 April 2015. A copy of the Amending Regulations giving effect to the extension have not yet been formally gazetted and are expected to follow shortly. The notification information that is required to be submitted to the TIA under the US Regulations is as follows:
The name of the RFI.
The categorisation of the RFI as determined in accordance with the US IGA.
Where the RFI has registered with the Internal Revenue Service of the United States of America (the “IRS”), its Global Intermediary Identification Number.
In addition to the above, we understand that the DITC will also require the RFI to give details of its principal point of contact together with a PDF showing the authorisation of that natural person.
Within the DITC announcement, the DITC also released an update on the status of the Cayman Automatic Exchange of Information Portal (“Portal”). The DITC confirm that notifications and reporting may be conducted by or on behalf of RFIs directly to the DITC through the Portal which is anticipated to be open in March 2015.
The DITC update further provides that: (i) the reporting format will be consistent with currently published Schemas by the IRS for US FATCA and by the OECD for the CRS and will be in XML format; (ii) RFIs will have the option of submitting reports to the DITC individually, by entering information manually on the website or via bulk submission by uploading an XML file(s); and (iii) RFIs that have registered as a sponsoring entity will have the ability to upload an XML file containing information for multiple RFIs. The DITC note that Portal User Guidance Notes will be posted on the DITC website in due course. The DITC has separately confirmed that the notification requirements under the US Regulations will need to be complied with via the Portal to ensure that the notifying RFI receives its allocated identifier, which will be generated automatically.
There are equivalent notification obligations under the Tax Information Authority (International Tax Compliance) (United Kingdom) Regulations, 2014 and the notification deadline remains unaltered at 31 March 2016.
MaplesFS can assist with an RFI’s notification and reporting via the Portal, once it becomes available.
Defined terms and abbreviations not otherwise described herein have the same meaning given to them in prior updates.
For further information or advice on the notification deadline or the Portal please speak with your usual Maples and Calder contact. For further information on FATCA services and solutions please speak with your usual MaplesFS contact. Additionally, you may speak with any one of the above members of our dedicated FATCA team.
