By Ian Gobin and Matthew Taber From Appleby

The Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority (TIA) released its User Guide for the Cayman Islands Automatic Exchange of Information Portal (Portal) on 18 March 2015. Although there have been some press reports that the Portal is now open, it is not as at the date of this eAlert. Appleby is closely monitoring the situation and we will send a further alert when the Portal is live.

The User Guide

The User Guide provides detailed, practical guidance on the form of notification, the method for logging in and inputting user details, creating and submitting returns and viewing returns that have already been submitted.

Cayman reporting financial institutions (Reporting FIs) are required to name a “Principal Point of Contact” (POC), who must be an individual who has been authorised by the Reporting FI to access the Portal and create the Reporting FI’s profile. It is important to note that the appointment of the POC must be supported by a letter of authorisation to be uploaded to the Portal as a PDF at the time of registration. The letter of authorisation must be on the letterhead of the Reporting FI and must include:

the Reporting FI’s name and its GIIN (if applicable);
the full name and contact particulars of person providing the authorisation on behalf of the Reporting FI;
the full name and office address of the POC.

The POC may name other users who will have all of the same permissions (save for the ability to name other users themselves). The POC is responsible for administration of the account and monitoring of users.

The online notification will then be processed by the TIA and, if there are no issues with the application, the account will be created and a username and temporary password will be sent to the POC.

Once this username and password has been received, the POC can log in to the Portal and create and submit returns for the Reporting FI. The returns themselves can simply be uploaded as an XML file or the necessary data can be entered manually in a web form. Both processes appear simple and straightforward on the face of it.

Click to download the User Guide at: http://tia.gov.ky/pdf/User_Guide.pdf

Related stories:

Cayman Islands: FATCA Reporting: Automatic Exchange Of Information Portal Opens
Last Updated: 23 March 2015
Article by Richard D. Grasby, Tim Clipstone, Christopher Capewell, Tim Frawley, Martin Livingston, Alasdair Robertson, Andrew Quinn and Harjit Kaur
Maples and Calder

The Tax Information Authority (“TIA”) has announced the opening of the Automatic Exchange of Information (“AEOI”) portal for the purposes of Reporting Financial Institutions (“RFIs”) undertaking their “Notification” and “Reporting” obligations to the TIA. The Tax Information Authority (International Tax Compliance) (United States of America) Regulations, 2014 (the “US Regulations”) and the Tax Information Authority (International Tax Compliance) (United Kingdom) Regulations, 2014 (the “UK Regulations”) require RFIs to conduct US and UK FATCA style account due diligence with associated reporting requirements.

The link to notify/register via the portal can be found on the TIA website.1

A User Guide in relation to the AEOI portal has also been posted on the TIA website.

In connection with our prior update on notification deadlines, we confirm that the deadline under the US Regulations for notification/registration with the TIA has been extended to 30 April 2015. The deadline for notification/registration under the UK Regulations has also been changed to 30 April 2016.

In addition, we understand that the obligation for RFIs to submit nil returns on reporting (i.e. when they had no reportable accounts) shall be removed. RFIs will still be able to submit nil returns voluntarily, if they wish to do so. Despite the removal of the requirement to file nil returns on reporting, RFIs shall still be obliged to effect notifications/registrations as outlined above.

Footnote

1 On the left navigation, select “Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI)” then “Cayman AEOI Portal Initial Setup (Notification)”.

Cayman Islands FATCA Portal for TIA Notification now open
From Ogier
The Cayman Islands Department for International Tax Cooperation has launched its Automatic Exchange of Information portal (AEIO Portal) and released an accompanying user guide.

All Cayman Islands Financial Institutions with reporting obligations are required to provide notification to the Cayman Islands Tax Information Exchange Authority (TIA) of the details listed below by 30 April 2015 (the original 31 March 2015 deadline has been extended by amendment to the applicable regulations).

The information required by the TIA to be submitted via the AEOI Portal is:

the name of the Financial Institution;
the categorisation of the Financial Institution under FATCA;
where the Financial Institution has registered with the IRS, the GIIN allocated to that Financial Institution; and
details of the Principal Point of Contact – a letter is required to be uploaded from the Financial Institution to the TIA on letterhead, identifying and giving authorisation to the individual to be assigned as the Principal Point of Contact on behalf of that Financial Institution and signed by an appropriate person in the Financial Institution. The letter must include the name of the Financial Institution, GIIN (if applicable), name and contact details of both the person providing the authorisation and the Principal Point of Contact. Ogier has prepared a template form of letter for this purpose (see link below).

Reports for the period 1 July to 31 December 2014 must be submitted by 31 May 2015. Please note, however, that nil returns are no longer required to be filed but may be filed if the Financial Institution chooses. For Financial Institutions that are reporting, the reporting format will be consistent with the schemas currently published by the US Internal Revenue Service for US FATCA and those published by the OECD for the Common Reporting Standard. Financial Institutions will have the option of submitting reports to the TIA individually, by entering information manually on the portal, or via bulk submission by uploading an XML file(s). Financial Institutions that have registered as a sponsoring entity will have the ability to upload an XML file containing information for multiple Financial Institutions.

Click to access the portal at: https://caymanaeoiportal.gov.ky/VizorPortal/?utm_source=Concep%20Send&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Cayman%20Islands%20FATCA%20Update_03/20/2015

Click to access the user guide at: http://tia.gov.ky/pdf/User_Guide.pdf?utm_source=Concep%20Send&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Cayman%20Islands%20FATCA%20Update_03/20/2015

To access the template letter to the TIA prepared by Ogier go to source article at: http://www.ogier.com/News/pages/CaymanIslandsFATCAPortalforTIANotificationnowopen.aspx