Updates to BVI Financial Account Reporting System Electronic Portal

The BVI ITA recently issued new information relating to the use of its Financial Account Reporting System.  These changes are summarized below.

Introduction of Annual Fee

Effective 1 September 2022, the BVI International Tax Authority (“ITA”) will introduce a fee of $185 for the use of the BVI Financial Account Reporting System electronic portal for each entity that is required to submit reports to comply with Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”), Common Reporting Standard and Country-by-Country Reporting requirements.

This fee is intended to cover enrolment in the portal, review and transmission of reporting submissions to partner jurisdictions, as well as support and maintenance.

We will provide further communication on this subject when the implementing guidance has been published.

US Tax Identification Numbers ("TINs") for FATCA Filings

The electronic portal has been updated to accept FATCA filings that do not have a US TIN. Previously these would have generated an error notification.

For filings that contain a Passive NFE Account Holder with a substantial US owner, and both are considered Specified US Persons, the filing should contain the US TINs for each. If only one is a Specified US Person, then it will not generate an error message as long as the filing includes a validly formatted US TIN in the TIN element for the Specified US Person and the foreign TIN for the foreign person.

If there is no foreign TIN available for the foreign individual/entity, the filing may include its country code in the “TIN Issued by” element and the characters “NA” in the TIN element (to indicate “Not Available”). 

If the filing omits the TIN element entirely for either the Account Holder or Substantial Owner, or inserts blank spaces in the TIN element, it will trigger a "TIN Not Populated" error, regardless of whether the other TIN field is populated with a US TIN.

Further Information

The BVI ITA’s notices on these subjects may be accessed on the BVI ITA website here and here.

If you have any questions or need further information, please contact your usual Trident representative or Mary Kimberly Cua at mkcua@tridenttrust.com.

Read our briefing note for more information.