Submitting reports on financial account information in accordance with the FATCA agreement

Source: BUS Rheinland-Pfalz

The FATCA agreement obliges financial institutions (e.g. banks or insurance companies) to submit reports on financial account information with the aim of improving the completeness and accuracy of the tax bases of investment income. The reportable information includes, among other things

Name and address of the account holder
US tax identification number
address
Date of birth
account number
Account balance
Income
Name and identification number of the reporting German financial institution

Financial institutions are obliged to comply with certain due diligence obligations for the identification of reportable financial accounts. This also includes obtaining self-disclosures. By obtaining a self-certification, financial institutions aim to determine the tax residency of their customers. Account holders must complete and sign the self-disclosure form and send it to their financial institution. If the financial institution has possible indications of a reportable account and the customer does not provide the necessary information after being requested to provide self-disclosure, the financial institution should also report this data.

The financial institutions report the accounts identified as reportable to the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) in electronic form on an annual basis. An online form or a mass data interface is available for transmitting the data. The transmission can also be carried out by a service provider.

The data collected is exchanged between the United States of America (USA) and Germany. In Germany, the BZSt is responsible for receiving and forwarding the financial account data. The data collected from German financial institutions subject to reporting requirements is sent directly to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by the BZSt.

Reporting financial institutions are obliged to check their financial account data for the tax residency of account holders or controlling persons in a reporting country according to defined criteria.

If a financial institution has information in the existing customer data that indicates a possible US tax liability of a customer, the financial institution is obliged to initiate a corresponding report to the Federal Central Tax Office. Possible indications may be
- US citizenship
- a US address
- a US telephone number
By obtaining a self-certification, the financial institution wishes to give customers the opportunity to either confirm or refute the indication and to provide meaningful evidence of the country in which they are resident for tax purposes.
The financial account data determined in accordance with the due diligence obligations must be transmitted annually in electronic form to the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) by the financial institution subject to the reporting obligation.
Prior to the first transmission, the reporting financial institution must register with the IRS and the data sender (financial institution or contracted service provider) must register with the BZSt for the FATCA specialist procedure.
The reports are submitted via the BZSt online portal (BOP) or the mass data interface (ELMA). This requires a certificate issued by the BZSt (BOP and ELMA) or a certificate issued by the Elster procedure (only possible with BOP). The exact procedure is described in manuals and videos on the BZSt website.
The data reported and transmitted by the financial institutions to the BZSt is forwarded by the BZSt to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
For each transmission, the reporting financial institution or the reporting service provider receives technical feedback on the processing results of the BZSt and the IRS. If data has been rejected, the errors must be corrected and the data resubmitted.

A U.S. Reportable Account is a Financial Account maintained by a Reporting German Financial Institution whose Account Holder is

a specified person of the United States of America or
a non-U.S. entity that is controlled by at least one specified U.S. person within the meaning of the Agreement.

Financial institutions must comply with the reporting and due diligence obligations defined in the Agreement when identifying and reporting US reportable accounts.

Submitting reports on financial account information in accordance with the FATCA agreement

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