The Internal Revenue Service has released the new 2014 Form W-8BEN-E (2-2014) that coincides with FATCA (Foreign Tax Compliance Act) and QI entity classification reporting requirements.

The newest version of Form W-8BEN-E must be used by entities that are beneficial owners of a payment, or of another entity that is the beneficial owner. The form has thirty parts, whereas the draft form only had twenty-seven.  All filers will complete Parts I and XXIX.

Part I of the form requires general information, the QI status, and the FATCA classification of the filer.  Question 4 of Part I requests the QI status. If the filer is a disregarded entity, partnership, simple trust, or grantor trust, then the filer must complete Part III if the entity is Read More

Fatca Flag[1]We posted on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 “FACTA Registration is Set To Begin in July!” which discusses that starting on July 15, 2013, the United States is scheduled to begin registering foreign financial firms with U.S. customers for a new anti-tax evasion law know as FATCA. Today the IRS issued Notice 2013-43, which provides Six-Month Extension for FATCA Withholding!  This notice provides a six-month extension for when withholding will begin (i.e., payments after June 30, 2014) and for implementing new account opening procedures as well as related requirements to comply with FATCA.

In the preamble to the final regulations, Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service announced their intent to create a FATCA registration website, which would serve as the primary way for FFIs to interact with the IRS to complete the required registration, agreements, and certifications. The preamble stated that the FATCA registration website would be accessible to FFIs no later than July 15, 2013.

After approval of its registration, each PFFI and registered deemed-compliant FFI would be assigned a global intermediary identification number (GIIN), which would be used both for reporting purposes and to identify the FFI’s status to withholding agents. The preamble provided that the IRS would electronically post the first list of PFFIs and registered deemed-compliant FFIs (IRS FFI List) on December 2, 2013, and would update the list on a monthly basis. To ensure inclusion on the December 2013 IRS FFI List, FFIs would need to register by October 25, 2013.   Read More