The US Internal Revenue Service is turning tax operations and compliance departments into data and paperwork geeks when it comes to meeting their requirements for FATCA and QI. Did your tax operations department withhold the correct amount of tax for the right account and file the form correctly by deadline? That’s what an IRS auditor […]
US Withholding Agents Face the FATCA Music
The US Internal Revenue Service is spreading its love for the Foreign Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) to US shores. US tax operations and corporate tax directors at US banks and broker-dealers serving as US withholding agents must now deal with the IRS’ request for more information on their compliance with FATCA. If they haven’t done […]
Love Taxes, Operations: Be a Tax Ops Director
Knowledge of processing 1099 Forms, cost basis-reporting, Internal Revenue Service Section 871(m), financial transaction taxes and corporate actions, FATCA, and issues and errors management. Over ten years of corporate tax compliance experience necessary. Those are just some of the qualifications that large global asset servicing providers — Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and JP Morgan — […]
MiFID II: Elaborate Exercise in Repapering
The second incarnation of the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) adds a whole new meaning to the song lyric “Getting to know you” as financial firms and their clients tackle the new rules of onboarding. For financial firms the increased amount of required client data and documentation will prompt changes to their […]
Equity Derivatives Withholding Tax Remains Taxing (Updated)
(Editor’s Note: On November 14, 2016 SIFMA asked the US Treasury to postpone the implementation date of IRS Section 871(m) from January 1, 2017 so that it can resolve a difference of opinion with G5 countries. The UK, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy have told the Treasury that dividend equivalent payments made outside the US […]
Northern Trust Minds the Corporate Actions Gap
A successful investment strategy is about more than just buying and selling the right stocks at the right price at the right time. It also depends on picking the best option when it comes to voluntary corporate actions or being able to recognize a bad decision after the fact. Northern Trust is helping its asset […]
FATCA, GATCA Tax Patience of Relationship Managers
Relationship managers on the front-lines of interacting with investors or customers say that complying with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and its global version Common Reporting Standards (CRS) is giving them plenty of angst. The requirement to identify the investor or customer for tax purposes may conflict with the equally important need to […]
Bloomberg Takes on KYC Onboarding for Hedge Funds
With its new offering called Entity Exchange, Bloomberg is trying to take a bite out the market share — especially among hedge fund managers — of the existing utilities for automating know-your-customer requirements. Its strategy: give the buy side more control. Regulators require financial firms to know just who they are doing business with before they […]
Still Holes in New Tax Code for Equity Derivatives?
Foreign fund managers, prime brokers, broker-dealers and banks entering into US equity derivative transactions are facing a taxing operational challenge. Worse, at this point it isn’t entirely clear how it will work. After the US Congress passed enabling legislation in 2010 and the Internal Revenue Service floated several proposed versions of the rules to massive industry […]
New US AML Rules: Tough Enough to Catch the Bad Guys?
The US Treasury’s new rules on how financial firms must handle their responsibilities to know their customers and prevent money-laundering will be operationally challenging to follow, but perhaps not entirely effective in identifying the bad guys. The most controversial aspect of the new requirements — finding out the identities of the beneficial owners of the customers […]