The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) on June 23, 2014 posted much anticipated guidance for Canadian entities that could find themselves subject to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which took effect on July 1, 2014.

Entitled Guidance on enhanced financial accounts information reporting - Part XVIII of the Income Tax Act, the document, which consists of 158 pages divided into 12 chapters, was prepared with the stated purpose of helping financial institutions, their advisers, and CRA officials with the due diligence and reporting obligations relating to the Canada-United States Enhanced Tax Information Exchange Agreement, which was signed on February 5, 2014 (the "Guidance").

According to the Guidance, "[a] Canadian financial institution that is in compliance with Part XVIII will not be subject to any U.S. withholding tax on U.S. source income and gross proceeds (both on its own investments and those held on behalf of its customers) under section 1471 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (IRC). However, the Agreement requires that procedures be followed by Canadian financial institutions seeking to secure that outcome."

Of particular interest, it is noted that an entity must meet two conditions before it is considered to be a  "Canadian financial institution." The entity must be a Canadian financial institution as defined under the IGA and it must be a "listed financial institution" for the purposes of Part XVIII of the Income Tax Act. Subsection 263(1) of the Act defines a "listed financial institution" for that purpose and limits its meaning to 13 categories of entities. The Guidance explains that certain investment vehicles which, for example, may not be promoted to the public if they do not seek external capital (to illustrate, a personal trust used as a means for an individual or a family to hold investable assets), are not intended to be included in the term "listed financial institution" and will be viewed as passive Non-Financial Foreign Entities (or NFFE) under Canadian law.

The CRA has indicated that it is open to further comments and that the Guidance will be updated to take into account any developments, as appropriate.

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