Opening of DITC Portal
The Department for International Tax Cooperation ("DITC") Portal is now open for CRS and FATCA purposes, as anticipated in our previous advisory and the DITC's latest industry advisory.
Users at clients who held a User Account on the former AEOI Portal will receive an account activation email from donotreply@ditc.ky with steps on how to access the new DITC Portal. For new CRS and FATCA notifications, the DITC portal is accessed by clicking "CRS & FATCA Registration" on the DITC Portal. Reporting Financial Institutions ("RFIs") must register on the DITC Portal if not already registered previously on the AEOI Portal. Users are encouraged to access the DITC Portal and commence reporting in line with the revised reporting deadlines discussed below
Functionality for economic substance and country-by-country reporting is being launched in subsequent phases.
AEOI 2020 Deadlines
The 2020 deadlines are extended as follows:
- the new entity registration deadline for CRS and FATCA is extended to 16 December 2020 (instead of 30 April);
- the reporting deadlines for CRS and FATCA are extended to 16 December 2020 (instead of 31 July); and
- the CRS Compliance Form filing deadline is 31 March 2021 (instead of 15 September).
New DITC Portal User Guide and CRS Guidelines v.4
A new DITC Portal User Guide and CRS Guidelines v.4 are now available on the DITC's website.
Economic Substance
It is anticipated that the DITC will soon release the economic substance return, which will need to be completed by all "relevant entities" that conduct "relevant activity". An entity that is not considered a "relevant entity" by virtue of an exemption is not required to complete the economic substance return. For further information, please see our advisory providing an overview of the economic substance regime.
To the extent that "relevant entities" conducting "relevant activity" have not yet taken steps to put economic substance in place, such steps will need to be taken as soon as possible.
Where an entity is claiming an exemption from being a "relevant entity" by virtue of being tax resident overseas, the entity will need to complete a form to claim the exemption. A template form is currently available on the DITC's website. We recommend entities claiming the exemption for being tax resident overseas prepare responses to the questions in this template form in advance, as there may be a short window for filing once it become possible to submit economic substance forms on the DITC Portal.
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