GERMANY: FINAL GUIDANCE NOTES, IMPLEMENTING FATCA

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance on 3 November 2015 released final guidance notes for implementation of the FATCA regime.

An intergovernmental agreement (IGA) signed by Germany and the United States follows the Model 1 IGA. Accordingly, financial institutions in Germany are required to report information concerning assets held by U.S. persons with the German tax authorities (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern) which will then transfer the information provided to the U.S. tax administration (IRS).

A draft version of the FATCA guidance notes was circulated in June 2015. The final version of the guidance has been issued (the final guidance notes currently are available only in the German language).

Read a November 2015 report [PDF 66 KB] prepared by the KPMG member firm in Germany: KPMG FATCA Alert