4th FATCA and Global Tax Compliance Forum
NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwired – September 23, 2015) – With the global implementation of FATCA and anticipation of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), legal and compliance professionals within the banking industry have never seen such a regulatory overload and focus on ensuring proper compliance processes. As these multi-national regulations become implemented and processed, increased and more detailed reporting is necessary.
Dana Flynn, Group Tax Director & Tax Counsel at UBS AG, recently spoke with marcus evans about leading topics to be discussed at the 4th FATCA and Global Tax Compliance Forum, to be held November 4-6, 2015 in New York City.
The Common Reporting Standard (CRS), introduced by the OECD, is the global standard for the automatic exchange of financial information. Do you believe it is easier to implement than U.S. FATCA because it is essentially FATCA 2.0?
DF: No, not at all. In fact, I think it is more difficult. CRS is not FATCA 2.0. Generally, it is inspired by FATCA in the sense that its objective is the exchange of information but it is by no means the same as FATCA. There are a lot of interesting nuances between CRS and FATCA. Essentially, the main goal of US FATCA is to report US Specified Persons to the Internal Revenue Service. CRS is a multi-jurisdictional exchange of information with multiple local tax authorities. Essentially, the amount of information to be reported under CRS is much greater than FATCA and because of that, it will be more difficult to implement.
What is one key issue you are facing in your role as Tax Counsel that is making it difficult to provide compliance advice?
DF: I think the main issue I face, which a lot of people in the industry face, is absorbing and comprehending the amount of information that has been issued by regulatory authorities in the past few years. Years ago, you basically looked at the regulations to understand what you needed to comply with, but now information is issued not just in the form of regulations but guidance notes, form instructions, FAQs, publications, etc. It requires me to by extremely aware of all possible resources when I research and that can be challenging because of the sheer volume of information available.
What is your advice to individuals who are new to the information reporting and withholding and trying to understand FATCA and CRS?
DF: Ask for help! With the amount of information available on U.S. FATCA and CRS, one person cannot know it all. Compare notes with someone else to see what they think about a particular issue. It can be very insightful and surprising to get various viewpoints and it will definitely push you to think of solutions you may not have thought of by yourself.
Flynn will be presenting a case study on “Examining the CRS’s Impact on the U.S. and Early Adopter Countries” on the first day of the conference.
Dana Flynn is a Director in Group Tax at UBS AG. Ms. Flynn specializes in tax advisory relating to U.S. tax information reporting and withholding, including the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and Common Reporting Standard (CRS). She works with Operations, Onboarding and a variety of business divisions across the Investment Bank and Wealth Management to address their planning, implementation, and compliance issues relating to U.S. domestic and non-resident withholding and information reporting. Previously, she was a Vice-President at Bank of New York Mellon and prior to that, she was with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms. Flynn received her B.A. from Boston College and her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School. She is a member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia Bars.
