AUSTRALIA: FIRST ROUND OF FATCA DATA SHARING

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) recently engaged in the first automatic sharing of financial account information with the tax authority (IRS) in the United States. The details of more than 30,000 Australian financial accounts of individuals with a connection to the United States were provided to the IRS under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) regime.

As part of compliance with the FATCA regime, Australian financial institutions were to undertake due diligence to identify their account holders who are U.S. citizens. In addition, to confirmation of residency status during the account opening process, financial institutions were also to look for U.S. indicia from information they have on file.

Read an October 2015 report prepared by the KPMG member firm in Australia: ATO and US IRS automatic data sharing commences