UK Issues Draft Guidance for FATCA IGA

The United Kingdom has issued draft regulations and Guidance Notes clarifying certain aspects of the FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement that it signed with the United States on September 18, 2012. The draft Guidance proposes, among other points, that reporting under the IGA by Collective Investment Schemes be done by the manager or operator of the Scheme, and generally the trustees, and no one else, of a trust report information with respect to property held by the trust, and that such property be treated as a custodial account. The UK also proposed that any reporting financial institution that is a partnership should be treated as a "resident" of the UK for purposes of the IGA, and therefore be required to report information under the UK IGA, if the control and management of the business of the partnership as a reporting financial institution takes place in the UK, and that all other reporting financial institutions should be considered a resident of the UK under the IGA if it is a resident in the UK for corporation tax or income tax purposes. The draft Regulations propose penalties for each failure by a reporting financial institution to comply with any obligation under the Regulations. Comments on the proposed Guidance and Regulations should be made to the UK HM Revenue Customs by February 13, 2013.

See: Summary of Draft Legislation; UK-US FATCA Guidance Notes; UK-US FATCA Regulations; Summary of Responses to HMRC Plans for FATCA Implementation (Cabinet documents).