Cyprus: FATCA Reporting Deadline Extended
The Cyprus Tax Authorities have announced that the FATCA reporting deadline has been extended to 31 July 2015 (from 30 June 2015).
The FATCA Agreement between Cyprus and the United States was signed on 2 December 2014.
FATCA seeks to obtain information on accounts held by U.S. taxpayers in other countries. It requires U.S. financial institutions to withhold a portion of certain payments made to Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs) who do not agree to identify and report information on U.S. account holders. Governments have the option of permitting their FFIs to enter into agreements directly with the IRS to comply with FATCA under U.S. Treasury Regulations or to implement FATCA by entering into one of two alternative Model IGAs with the United States.
More specifically, Cyprus and the United States signed a Model 1 Agreement. Under this agreement, FFIs in Cyprus will report the information required under FATCA about U.S. accounts to the Cypriot Government, which in turn will report the information to the IRS. This agreement is reciprocal, meaning that the United States will also provide similar tax information to the Cyprus Government regarding individuals and entities from Cypriot with accounts in the United States.
