Automatic exchange of information (FATCA and CRS) - Basic principles

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) constitute key tax transparency regulations that came into force respectively in 2014 and 2016. Both regulations have been transposed into the Luxembourg laws and have been amended by the law of 18 June 2020 known as "the FATCA and CRS governance law".

Since the 1st January 2021, all Luxembourg Financial Institutions ("FIs") are required to establish a FATCA/CRS compliance programme which includes various requirements (e.g. IT infrastructure, written policies and procedures, oversight in case of delegated functions). A second important pillar of this compliance programme requires FIs to implement proportionate effective controls on the respect of the FATCA and CRS due diligence and reporting obligations.

While presenting all important FATCA and CRS key principles with concrete examples, our expert will also present you some best-market practices to get an efficient FATCA/CRS operating model and reduce the challenges faced by FIs.

This training also provides with some insight about the recent regulatory updates (if any) and the controls and inquiries performed by the Luxembourg tax authorities.

By the end of this training, the participants will be able to:

• explain the purpose and the mechanism of the FATCA and CRS rules and their general impacts (incl. the FATCA and CRS governance requirements);
• understand the main synergies and differences between FATCA and CRS;
• determine how to review self-certification from individual and corporate clients (including U.S. forms);
• explain the procedures to identify controlling persons of entities;
• list the main elements to be reported and the associated timeline;
• have a clear action plan to set-up an efficient FATCA and CRS operating model;
• explain the main risks involved.

• FATCA/CRS – Introduction
• Main obligations under FATCA and CRS for FIs
• FATCA and CRS governance
• New clients/investors on-boarding process
• Reporting

This training is coordinated by Pierre Kirsch, Tax Partner in charge of CRS/FATCA related tax consulting, PwC Luxembourg. The team of trainers consists of experienced PwC specialists who are specialized in CRS/FATCA related issues.

As the Team is intensively dealing with CRS, FATCA as well as QI from the very first beginning, we have gained far reaching technical as well as practical expertise in this respect. He is the responsible Partner at PwC Luxembourg for CRS, FATCA and QI and heavily involved in projects assisting financial services clients to understand and implement CRS. PwC is an active member of FATCA/CRS working groups of Luxembourg professional organizations. Furthermore, PwC supports similar initiatives of EFAMA (“European Fund and Asset Management Association”) with respect to CRS and FATCA.