Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)

What is it?

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is United States legislation passed in March 2010. It requires non-US financial institutions to provide reports to the US regarding their customers who are US persons for US tax purposes and who hold accounts with the financial institution. US financial institutions will also have separate reporting obligations.

Please note

The UK and US Governments have entered into a reciprocal agreement, under which Virgin One Account will report US customers to their local tax authority and not directly to the US IRS. The local tax authority is responsible for sharing this information with the IRS and the bank will play no part in this process.

Need help with the Tax Status Declaration Form?

If you have received a FATCA Tax Status Declaration Form in the post and need help with it, please read our easy-to-understand Guide.

What is the impact on Virgin One Account?

Virgin One Account must review its customers, to ensure all accounts are correctly identified and reported, where required. This is because under FATCA, financial institutions must each year, report information on all financial accounts (for example, current accounts, savings accounts, deposit accounts, custodial accounts, certain insurance policies and interests in investment funds) held directly or indirectly by US persons.

Will I be affected?

We will be undertaking a review of our customers, as required by regulations, to understand who is (and is not) a 'US person' for US tax purposes.

The term 'US person' includes, but isn't limited to, the following:

• A citizen of the US, including any person born in the US but living in another country (who has retained their US citizenship).
• A person living in the US, including US Green Card holders.
• Certain people who spend a significant number of days in the US each year. *
• US corporations, US partnerships, US estates and US trusts.

* To better understand what is meant by 'certain' people' and 'significant number', please refer to our Glossary.

What does being a 'US person' mean for me?

Rest assured that being classified a 'US person' will not affect your day-to-day banking service, but will help us identify customers whose account details may need to be shared with their local tax authority. If you are identified as a 'US person' we will write to you for self-certification.

If you're an existing Virgin One Account customer, you may need to provide specific documentation, so we can apply the right FATCA classification to your accounts. If you are classified as a 'US person', we will be required to report information about you and your accounts to your local tax authority, every year.

Please note that Virgin One Account cannot offer any tax advice about FATCA, and we recommend you contact a professional and independent tax adviser to discuss your personal tax situation.

What does being a 'non-US person' mean for me?

FATCA will have minimal impact on most customers, who won't need to take any action. However, Virgin One Account may still contact you to confirm your status as a 'non-US person'.

What does being a 'US person' mean for my entity?

If your entity is classified as a 'US tax person' for tax purposes, we must pass on details of the entity's account(s) to the relevant tax authority.

About the legislation and agreements

The UK Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories have all agreed to share tax information with the UK government. This will allow for the automatic exchange of tax information for UK taxpayers.

See our Glossary for a list of the UK Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories.

What is the impact on Virgin One Account?

Classification of new customers' tax residency came into effect on 1 July 2014. The automatic exchange of information is not scheduled to start until 2016 in order to give both banks and financial intermediaries time to build and test the systems functionality to facilitate the exchange of information.

Will this legislation affect me?

As part of the agreement, Virgin One Account must write to certain customers who are or have been resident in Gibraltar or the Crown Dependencies for tax purposes. We'll write with another reminder in March 2016.