The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is U.S. legislation enacted by US Congress to prevent offshore tax abuses by U.S. persons.
The FATCA rules are wide-ranging and force global financial institutions, investment entities, as well as national banks and other financial organizations to report details on their U.S. clients directly. FATCA arrived at a time when financial institutions already faced a range of significant economic and regulatory challenges, testing many banks capability and capacity to deliver. The FATCA requirements introduce a series of business and systems requirements that are simple in concept, but maybe difficult and costly to operationalize. The aim for financial institutions is to meet the new compliance burden at a cost that is proportionate to the compliance risk faced.
Some of the areas that differentiate KPMG’s approach to FATCA include: