Articles

Gain deeper insight with articles that give our considered opinion and predictions of where the industry will go next.

Nationality, domicile, residency, citizenship and beneficial ownership

We often find that linguistic issues can cause problems for firms looking to establish the correct withholding rate for their clients. In particular, we have seen the distinctions between nationality, citizenship, domicile, residency and beneficial ownership cause a degree of avoidable consternation. In this post, we present a quick reference guide.

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CorpActions2018 (London)

TConsult's chairman, Ross McGill, will be appearing as a panelist at CorpActions2018 in London on Wednesday 3rd October alongside Mariano Giralt from BNY Mellon and Paola Deantoni from SG Securities Services to discuss tax and reporting, including inefficient withholding tax collection procedures, communication flow issues across cross-border capital markets, tax evasion regulation, where the responsibility for failures lies, and entitlements.

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Tax Congress for Financial Institutions (London)

TConsult's chairman, Ross McGill, will be appearing as a panelist at the Tax Congress for Financial Institutions in London on Wednesday 19th September alongside Peter Grant from KPMG and Kevin Custis from Rathbones to discuss KYC, AML, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion in the Digital Age.

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FATCA Failures: Holistic compliance or just full of holes?

In the last eighteen months we’ve conducted compliance reviews in five countries on twelve Tier 2 and Tier 3 financial institutions. In this post, we unpick the strategies we have seen firms use to approach their QI and FATCA obligations, and highlight the problems we have observed when firms fail to take a holistic approach to compliance.

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Your ‘Bible’ to Compliance

The road to compliance is never ending and the IRS have certainly given us some interesting scenery to admire as we traverse the QI regulatory landscape.

In this post we discuss the importance of a living compliance program, and highlight some of the IRS announcements that need to be reflected in your policies and procedures if you want to remain fully compliant.

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Validating W-8 Forms: Cultivating an Eye for Detail

We are often asked what constitutes a consequential or an inconsequential error when validating a W-8 form. Some errors are obviously consequential, but what happens if an error appears relatively trivial, such as an incorrect date format? In this post, we explore how you can assess the risks involved and make a judgement about whether to reject or validate a W-8 form.

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I speak English, French and FATCA

Acronyms have two main uses: to facilitate efficient communication between professionals within a given discipline where the long form of technical terms would be unwieldy, and to create a barrier to communication - a secret language that you can only understand if you are within the profession. In this post, Ross McGill gives a quick guide to the acronyms of FATCA.

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GATCA: A Practical Guide to Global Anti-Tax Evasion Frameworks

TConsult's subject matter experts Ross McGill, Chris Haye and Stuart Lipo have written a new book providing a practical guide to global anti-tax evasion frameworks. In this post, Stuart describes the context for the book...

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Are FATCA’s Dissenters Tilting at Windmills?

Like Don Quixote, FATCA’s dissenters may have misidentified their enemy. So what is the problem with FATCA and what might happen if the anti-FATCA movement succeed in getting it repealed?

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  • Why Am I Being Asked For a W-8?

    One of the most common questions I hear from investors is ‘why am I being asked for a W-8’? It’s […]Read more

  • The FASTER Directive Is Coming Up Fast – Are You Ready?

    By now, many of you should have heard about a new proposed EU Directive called FASTER. It stands for Faster […]Read more

  • W-8 – W-8驗證的險境

    美國的稅收制度是世界上最大的制度之一,意味著其變動將會對更廣大的市場帶來連鎖反應。FATCA是近期史上最大的變革之一,且對其他稅務市場的運作造成許多根本性的改變。特別是,確保金融機構需要使用一些美國W-8系列表單來收集客戶的FATCA(美國稅務)狀態訊息。 W-8系列表單是美國國稅局(IRS)不定時更新的紙本表單,有以下幾種類型: W-8BEN 給個人使用 W-8BENE 給實體與某些類型的信託使用 W-8ECI 給與美國商業貿易有效連結所得的客戶使用 W-8EXP 給政府或國際機構客戶使用 W-8IMY 給中介機構或某些類型的稅務透明信託使用 W-8表單為IRS做了一些事,任何時候有大約9億份W-8表單在流通。它們都有一個共通點 – 需要被驗證。 W-8有什麼作用 W-8表單涉及美國國內稅收法(或IRC) – 第4章(FATCA)與第3章(QI/NQI). 我特別按次順序說明,因為那是IRS法規要求遵循的盡職調查與驗證法規。這兩章都有對支付給客戶的美國來源FDAP所得課徵稅款的可能性。在第4章中稅率是30%,而第3章下稅率為30%或較低的租稅優惠協定稅率。這些法規基於非重複徵稅原則(亦即,如果第4章中有預扣稅款,則第三章無需預扣稅)。如果在第4章沒有需要預扣的稅款,那麼在第3章中的預扣稅款則依據W-8所聲明的正確稅率預扣 […]Read more

  • US Reporting Tax – How Does It All Work?

    As we get to the end of March, most of you will probably be fussing over your reporting obligations and […]Read more

  • The W-8 Web – Perils OF W-8 Validation

    The US tax system is one of the biggest in the world, which of course means that changes will have […]Read more

  • There Might Be A Problem With Your TCC – And You Need To Act Now

    Now that we’ve all relaxed after the IRS notification that electronic filings of US tax returns (Form 1042) have been […]Read more

  • Periodic Review Certifications – A Beginners Guide

    After my last article about periodic reviews, a few people asked questions about the types of certifications submitted to the […]Read more

  • Periodic Reviews – Essential Oversight for QIs

    I just know that a lot of you groaned and put your heads in your hands when you read that […]Read more

  • 1042-S Reporting – A 9-Month Activity You’re Already Behind On

    It’s that time of year again – US 1042-S reporting season! It’s a financial institution’s worst nightmare, and many aren’t […]Read more

  • Muinmos and TConsult ink deal over digital investor tax self-declarations

    Muinmos and TConsult have signed an agreement to integrate TConsult’s Investor Self-Declaration platform (ISD) into Muinmos’ Client Onboarding Platform, enabling Muinmos’ clients, typically financial institutions, to automatically obtain ISDs instead of using multiple paper tax certification forms to document the tax status of their clients.Read more