Luxembourg Government Approves Draft FATCA Legislation

On March 6 Luxembourg's government adopted the draft legislation transposing into national law the grand duchy's intergovernmental agreement with the US and facilitating compliance by the country's financial institutions with the requirements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

FATCA, which was signed into law in 2010 but only took effect last July, is designed to identify US persons (citizens, residents, green card holders, there spouses or other individuals with a connection to the US) who may be failing to declare tax purposes investments or assets in accounts with non-US financial institutions or other entities, which can include not only banks but insurance companies, asset management firms or funds and even trusts.

The legislation is designed to compel non-US institutions and entities to report to the Internal Revenue Service on any accounts held by US persons through an information reporting and withholding regime, in addition to existing reporting and withholding rules. Institutions failing to comply face the threat of a 30 per cent withholding levied on any US-sourced income.

Since compliance with the FATCA rules would have been contrary to legal restrictions on the sharing of information in various countries, as well as to reduce the administrative burden on financial institutions affected, Washington has signed a series of intergovernmental agreements with various jurisdictions designed to circumvent the legal issues and simplify practical compliance, in most cases by requiring institutions to report to their domestic tax authority, which will forward the data to the US, rather than directly to the IRS.

Luxembourg signed a Model 1 IGA, providing for institutions to report to their home authority, with the US Treasury on March 28 last year. The government's approval of the draft legislation now paves the way for the ratification of the IGA signed with Washington...