The case
In June 2018, the IRS announced its plans for launching the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) Certification Portal in late July or early August. Speaking at the International Tax Withholding and Information Reporting Conference in New York, Trevon Singh, Senior Analyst (Foreign Payments Practice), IRS Large Business and International Division, confirmed that the deadline for submitting the required certifications will be at least three months after the portal has been opened. He went on to state that the agency plans to notify financial institutions of the official certification deadline via the FATCA registration home page between one and two weeks after the FATCA portal has been opened. The IRS will also be providing an updated user guide to accompany the portal’s launch.
More information regarding the FATCA Certifications can be found on the IRS Draft FATCA Certifications webpage.
Source: PWC; 2018 RSM US LLP and IRS
The commentary
Despite the additional time upon launch of the portal, Responsible Officers should ensure that they have all the necessary information to complete the RO FATCA certification filings, including the FI’s FATCA classification, which will be required to use the portal, as soon as possible in order to be ready when the portal has been made available.