Cayman Islands: CRS and FATCA Amendment Regulations

The Department for International Tax Cooperation (DITC) announced on 20 February 2020 that the Cayman Islands Cabinet has approved amendments (with immediate effect) to theTax Information Authority (International Tax Compliance) (Common Reporting Standard) (Amendment) Regulations, 2020 and the Tax Information Authority (International Tax Compliance) (United States of America) (Amendment) Regulations, 2020.

The amendments make two primary changes:

• the annual reporting deadline for both FATCA and CRS is now 31 July
• it is no longer a requirement for the Principal Point of Contact and Authorising Person to be a natural person. This means an entity can now fulfil these roles, though separate parties still need to be appointed to each role, unless the entity is licensed by CIMA in which case it may act as both the Principal Point of Contact and Authorising Person

The DITC has confirmed that 6 new jurisdictions have been added to the list of CRS Reportable Jurisdictions as published in the Extraordinary Gazette No. 14 of 2020 which can be found here.

The DITC portal is currently offline and is being revamped in anticipation of the Economic Substance reporting later this year. The new portal is expected to launch on 1 June 2020. In acknowledgement of this, the DITC have announced that the reporting deadline for the 2019 reporting period is extended to 18 September 2020.

The DITC’s News & Updates page provides further relevant information.

If you have any questions, please contact Hazel O’Brien or your usual Harneys contact.