Wealth & Risk Management Blog

Same 64 IGAs Published or in Effect since Friday May 9th … 

2 IGAs “agreed in substance” have been added last week, importantly Hong Kong and Armenia.  See my weekend update at 2 new IGAs brings it to 64 brides, 148 bridesmaids remain in waiting … and other important FATCA updates

What about the other 148 Non-IGA countries?  

FATCA Portal registration remains open, but the formal IRS deadline for inclusion on the June 2nd GIIN list of participating foreign financial institutions (“PFFI”) passed May 5th. See my previous article about the May 5th deadline and consequences of its passing that applied to all FFIs in the non-IGA states and jurisdictions.

Did all the FFIs that are in the 148 countries and jurisdictions that do not have an IGA register for a GIIN?  There is not one reliable number of how many financial entities in the world qualify as a financial institution requiring FATCA registration.  Industry experts have put forward a reasonable range of 20,000 to 30,000 such entities that qualify as FFIs that still need to register or complete registration for a GIIN, though figures as high as 80,000 have been suggested (probably such estimates include branches in the count of financial institutions).  The list of FFIs requiring registration includes by example trusts companies, investment funds, and banks.

It is possible that on July 1st an unregistered FFI is considered non-participating (NPFFI) for purposes of FATCA withholding, but by example, on August 1st its country agrees an IGA in substance that Treasury announces on its FATCA site and the NPFFI goes back to FFI non-withholding status because of the extension related to IGAs, at least until that final December 22 deadline mentioned in Announcement 2014-1.  Model 1 IGA FFIs with a GIIN are classified as “Registered Deemed-Compliant Foreign Financial Institutions” (RDCFFI) on the new W8-BEN-E (see previous article) instead of as Participating Foreign Financial Institutions (PFFIs) pursuant to the regular FATCA FFI agreement and Model 2 IGA.

Was the May 5th Deadline a Hard Deadline?

Probably Not.  The IRS states the following on its FATCA Registration Portal: “the IRS believes it can ensure registering FFIs that their GIINs will be included on the July 1 IRS FFI List if their registrations are finalized by June 3, 2014.”  (See Notice 2014-17, page 6: “FFIs that finalize their registrations after May 5 or June 3 may still be included on the June 2 or July 1 IRS FFI List, respectively; however, the IRS cannot provide assurance that this will be the case. The IRS will continue processing registrations in the order received; however, processing times may increase as the May 5 and June 3 dates approach.”)  

Moreover, the IRS built in a 90 day safeguard for FFIs when a GIIN has been applied for but not yet received: