British Virgin Islands: No extension to FATCA and CRS reporting deadline for reporting Financial Institutions

The BVI ITA announced yesterday that the FATCA and CRS reporting deadline for all reporting Financial Institutions (FIs) other than Trustee Documented Trusts (TDT) remains 31 May 2019. TDTs with CRS reportable accounts have until 28 June 2019 to complete their CRS reporting for the 2018 calendar year.

Notification deadlines are unchanged and have already passed (they were 1 April 2019 for US FATCA and 30 April 2019 for CRS). This deadline applied to all new FIs that were formed since 2018.

The ITA advisory explained that the BVI Financial Account Reporting System (FARS) is still in the process of being updated and had provided guidance for CRS nil returns and the registration and reporting for TDTs.

CRS Nil Returns Mandatory

FIs with CRS reporting obligations are reminded that a nil return is mandatory where the FI does not maintain any CRS reportable accounts. FIs should follow the instructions as outlined in the FARS user guide on filing nil returns by XML schema. A copy of the FARS User Guide can be found on the BVI ITA website and the section relating to nil returns is on page 51 paragraph 3.4.

For FATCA reporting, although it is not mandatory, it is recommended as a practical measure that FIs file ‘nil returns’ in respect of their FATCA reporting if they have no US Reportable Accounts as positive proof of compliance with the FATCA regulations.

FIs should file all returns (including those outstanding from years 2014 through 2017) as soon as practicable as access to FARS may be affected by increased activity closer to the filing deadline.

TDT Filings

All FIs that qualify as TDTs under CRS are required to register on FARS. However, as a temporary measure pending the updates to FARS being released, trustees are advised that where they have not yet registered their TDT on FARS, they should submit the TDT CRS filings via the Trustee’s own FARS account, inserting the TDTs information in the Reporting FI section on the report. This provision for TDTs to report via the Trustees account is for the current reporting cycle and will be removed once FARS has been updated. Trustees who have already registered their TDT on FARS should submit CRS filings via the TDT account when FARS reopens.

Key dates

1 April 2019: FATCA notification deadline for all new Reporting FIs – now passed
30 April 2019: CRS Notification deadline for all new Reporting FIs – now passed
31 May 2019: 2018 FATCA and CRS reporting deadline including NIL reports for CRS
28 June 2019: 2018 CRS reporting deadline for TDT

Please get in touch your usual Harneys contact if you would like advice on any aspect of the BVI AEOI regime and how to comply with it.