Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)
FATCA is a US law designed primarily to identify and disclose the identity of specified US persons, both individuals and entities, who hold financial assets and accounts outside the US through foreign financial institutions, non-financial entities or other investment structures.
FATCA requires financial institutions such as Lombard International Assurance to report information on all policies held by a specified US person or by an entity, with a US owner or US controlling person, to the local tax authorities on an annual basis who, in turn, will exchange this information with the U.S. tax authority (the IRS).
In order to obtain the required information for account holders*, the Self-Certification Forms/ US tax forms (see below) are required:
- Select our Self-Certification Form for Individuals (below) or the US tax form W-8BEN if you are not a Specified US person (Download from the IRS website).
- Select the US tax form W-9 including your Tax Identification Number (TIN) if you are a Specified US person.
- Select the US tax form for entities (e.g. W8-BEN-E) if you represent an Entity or Trust account holder. If the account holder has indicated in the US tax form that it is a Passive NFFE, please complete in addition the section within the form with respect to Controlling persons**.
Please do not hesitate to contact your usual Lombard International Assurance Partner & Client Services representative for any questions or clarifications.
* An “account holder” under CRS/FATCA is defined as any natural person or entity that is entitled to access the cash value or change a beneficiary of a policy. An account holder, can be a policyholder (PH), cession holder (CH) (except if they have renounced both the right to access the cash value and to change the beneficiaries), pledgee, assignee or trust.
** A “controlling person” under CRS/FATCA is a natural person who exercises control over an entity or trust. In the context of a trust the settlor(s), trustee(s), protector(s) (if any), beneficiary(ies) or class(es) of beneficiaries, and any other natural person(s) exercising ultimate effective control over the trust are “controlling persons” under the CRS/FATCA.