A Reporting Cayman Islands Financial Institution (Reporting FI)
is required to provide notification to the Cayman Islands Tax
Information Exchange Authority (TIA) of certain prescribed details,
and to identify a Principal Point of Contact (PPoC) who must be a
natural person authorised to serve as the PPoC by an appropriate
person in the Reporting FI. This notification obligation
arises in the first year in which the FI has a reporting obligation
under US FATCA or UK FATCA, as applicable, even if that Reporting
FI has nothing to report. The notification obligation does
not apply to a Non-reporting Financial Institution, i.e. a
Financial Institution that is deemed compliant under US FATCA or UK
FATCA.
US FATCA and UK FATCA. A Reporting FI for which 2015 is the
first reporting period under US FATCA will be required to provide a
notification in respect of US FATCA on or before 30 April
2016. If the Reporting FI is also a Reporting FI under UK
FATCA, it will also be required to provide a notification in
respect of UK FATCA. In practice, provided that both boxes
"UK" and "US" are checked when completing the
AEOI Portal Notification Form, only one notification is
required.
If a Reporting FI submitted a notification in respect of US FATCA
last year, it is now required to submit a notification in respect
of UK FATCA. It is not required to re-notify in respect of US
FATCA, unless any of the prescribed details or the PPoC have
changed. Notwithstanding, because the AEOI Portal
Notification Form is the same form for both US FATCA and UK FATCA,
a Reporting FI that submitted a notification under US FATCA last
year may still check both "UK" and "US" boxes
in the Form to avoid any confusion.
CRS. CRS reporting does not start until 2017
and accordingly there is no notification obligation under CRS this
year.
The Cayman AEOI Portal had been closed since the last reporting
deadline but has, as of 4 April 2016, re-opened for notifications
in respect of the 31 May 2016 reporting deadline. Click here to access the
portal. The Portal also provides access to the Cayman Islands AEOI
Portal User Guide. The User Guide (version 1.3), published on
5 April 2016, covers notification under FATCA and UK FATCA and
reporting under US FATCA. A further updated User Guide
(version 2.0), which will cover reporting under UK FATCA, is under
development and is expected to become available in late April
2016.
Click here to access the
template PPoC authorisation letter to the TIA prepared by
Ogier. Our template letter covers both US FATCA and UK
FATCA. The PPoC must be a natural person and the email
address provided in respect of the PPoC must be specific to that
user. The PPoC must be authorised to serve in that capacity
and if it is so authorised by a board resolution (or equivalent),
the resolution must contain all the relevant details of the PPoC
and must be attached to the authorisation letter when it is
uploaded. Only one PDF file may be uploaded so the letter and
the resolutions (or other authorising document) must comprise one
PDF file.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.