Italy Confirms FATCA Data Instructions
The Revenue Agency has confirmed that it has finalized its instructions for Italian financial institutions (FIs) to transmit their data to comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) inter-governmental agreement (IGA) between Italy and the United States.
FATCA, enacted by the US Congress in 2010, is intended to ensure that the US obtains information on accounts held abroad at foreign FIs by US persons. Failure by a foreign FI to disclose information on their US clients will result in a requirement to withhold 30 percent tax on payments of US-sourced income.
Under the terms of the IGA between Italy and the United States, Italian FIs are required to report their account information to the Revenue Agency, which will then automatically exchange it with the US Internal Revenue Service.
The Italian legislation ratifying the IGA authorizes the Italian Ministry of the Economy and Finance to issue regulations to set up collection of the required FATCA data, and the timing of its transmission to the Revenue Agency.
Following completion of a consultation with the financial sector, the Revenue Agency has now issued to Italian FIs its detailed instructions on how they will transmit their information by way of the existing online financial data exchange platform.
It has also confirmed that the deadline for such transmission will be August 31, 2015, for the information on accounts held in 2014, and that the due date will be April 30 for each reference year thereafter. For example, the deadline for the transmission of 2015 data will revert to April 30, 2016.
