FATCA is undoubtedly one of the most significant pieces of extra-territorial legislation to impact Isle of Man financial services businesses in recent years.
Implemented into law in March 2010, FATCA is the commonly used acronym for the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, the primary objective of which is to prevent tax evasion by US persons.
To prepare for the impact of the legislation on its clients, KPMG has been investing into specialist training for its staff and is delighted to advise that Sinead O’Connor, a senior manager in its advisory practice, has successfully completed KPMG’s FATCA Academy.
Managing director, David McGarry, said ‘The FATCA Academy has been established to ensure that our Advisory professionals around the world have detailed knowledge of FATCA and its implications in order to assist our clients with the operational impact of this complex and far reaching legislation.
‘I am delighted that Sinead has achieved accreditation in this important area of our work and that she is now an accredited member of KPMG’s global FATCA Advisory team.
‘I am sure that this accreditation, along with the expertise of our Tax team, will be of significant benefit to our clients.’
Sinead said ‘FATCA has significant ramifications for financial service businesses with US investments or US clients.
‘The regulations to underpin it are due out imminently and I will be working closely with our global FATCA team to interpret the implications of them for our clients.’
Compliance with FATCA will include entering into a Foreign Financial Institution (FFI) agreement with the US Internal Revenue Service, if the business concludes that it needs to become a participating FFI.
In order to enter into this agreement, confirmation needs to be given to the IRS that appropriate client on-boarding procedures are in place to capture certain US indicators such as residential address.
Post agreement, there will be additional work to do to ensure that all existing clients have been reviewed for US indicators and that appropriate annual reporting is being undertaken to the IRS.