Fri, Mar 27, 2015

FATCA update: Cayman Islands open Automatic Exchange of Information Portal

The online Automatic Exchange of Information Portal (the Portal) has been opened by the Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation. The Portal will allow Cayman Islands financial institutions (FI’s) and investment funds to register and report under the U.S Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

In the future, the Portal’s functionality is expected to extend to cover similar reporting obligations of FI’s in other jurisdictions. This Portal will also prove beneficial for reporting under the upcoming Common Reporting Standard for automatic exchange of tax information set out by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The registration procedures were recently provided in the User Guide (the Guide) published by the Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority. The Guide requires the representative of the FI, who is the principal point of contact to complete and provide identifying information of the FI and of him or herself. The representative will also be responsible for supplementing certain documentation to demonstrate that the representative is authorized by the FI to be the principal point of contact in order to complete registration.

The submission deadline for registration is 30 April 2015. In order to meet this deadline, Cayman Islands FIs are strongly encouraged to begin gathering the requisite documentation and draft the required letter to be uploaded for registration through the Portal. The first FATCA reporting through the Portal is due on or before 31 May 2015.



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