FATCA And CRS Alert Issue 2016-04

FATCA in Luxembourg

Publication of an updated administrative circular: ECHA n°3

On 18 February 2016, the Luxembourg tax authorities published a revised version of the administrative circular ECHA n°3 initially published on 31 July 2015.

The circular ECHA n§3 / n°3bis clarifies the file format applicable in Luxembourg for the purposes of FATCA reporting.

The new circular ECHA n°3bis provides, in particular, that:

Account balances or values need to be strictly above 0. This is an issue for negative balances that, according to circular ECHA n°2, should be reported as 0. Separately, there is a course of action to take for accounts that have a 0 or nil value at year-end but on which there were some movements during the applicable period. Do not hesitate to contact us if you are in this situation to discuss how to proceed. In the absence of US TIN for their US clients and US Controlling Persons, Luxembourg Reporting Financial Institutions should indicate 000000000 (nine zeroes) in the TIN section of the report. This derogation is only valid during the reporting period ending 31 December 2016. Common Reporting Standard in Luxembourg

Publication of grand ducal decree containing the list of Excluded Accounts and Participating Jurisdictions

On 15 March 2016, the grand ducal decree containing the list of Excluded Accounts under the Luxembourg law of 18 December 2015 was published, as per a previous announcement to the European Commission. The grand ducal decree also confirms the list of Participating Jurisdictions for the purpose of the implementation of the OECD Common Reporting Standard ("CRS") in Luxembourg.

Excluded Accounts

The grand ducal decree contains the list of specific Excluded Accounts under the Luxembourg law of 18 December 2015, which confirms what was previously announced by Luxembourg to the European Commission (and published in the Official Journal). The list includes:

pension schemes referred to in article 111bis of the Luxembourg income tax law, home savings schemes referred to in article 111, al. 1 of the Luxembourg income tax law, and complementary pension schemes referred to in article 110 of the Luxembourg income tax law. The purpose of this list is to explicitly name a number of products that can be considered as out of scope of the automatic exchange of information for CRS purposes. Additional products meeting the relevant generic requirements defined in Directive 2014/107/EU, as transposed into Luxembourg law, may benefit...