# What exactly do foreign banks report as part of FATCA?



## LC3622 (Jan 8, 2014)

There are many contradicting articles online re what exactly the foreign banks report to the IRS as part of the required FATCA disclosures. Some articles claim that the banks report all account balances as of year end. Others claim that it is the highest balance during the year for each account. Yet, I somewhere read that up to now, the banks only reporting accounts with a balance of USD50,000 or over.

Is there any specific guideline re the reporting for the banks? Shall I request the bank to provide me with a copy what was reporting and is the bank required to provide this copy?

Any opinion or reference to the law will be appreciated


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## iota2014 (Jul 30, 2015)

lucenet said:


> There are many contradicting articles online re what exactly the foreign banks report to the IRS as part of the required FATCA disclosures. Some articles claim that the banks report all account balances as of year end. Others claim that it is the highest balance during the year for each account. Yet, I somewhere read that up to now, the banks only reporting accounts with a balance of USD50,000 or over.
> 
> Is there any specific guideline re the reporting for the banks? Shall I request the bank to provide me with a copy what was reporting and is the bank required to provide this copy?
> 
> Any opinion or reference to the law will be appreciated


https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...Exchange_of_Financial_Account_Information.pdf

FIs can opt to apply the 50K threshold - but they can also opt not to.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

It varies according to the country - but you can get a good idea from looking at the bilateral agreement for the country in question. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/fatca-governments and follow the links to find the individual country agreements online.

Basically, it can vary by country as to whether or not the banks report directly to the IRS or to their own government, which then forwards information to the IRS. It also varies by country what types of accounts or banks are considered exempt from the FATCA reporting requirements (oddly enough, here in France, most of the standard "tax free" bank accounts are specifically exempted from the requirement to report).
Cheers,
Bev


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## iota2014 (Jul 30, 2015)

I found it useful to look at both (the IGA and the Guidance). 

There's a table on pp15-16 of the Guidance, setting out exactly what information banks are required to report for each of the various years since FATCA began to be implemented. NB this table spans both pages.


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## LC3622 (Jan 8, 2014)

iota2014 said:


> I found it useful to look at both (the IGA and the Guidance).
> 
> There's a table on pp15-16 of the Guidance, setting out exactly what information banks are required to report for each of the various years since FATCA began to be implemented. NB this table spans both pages.


I heard they may report not only balances (highest for the year or at the year end), but also transactions (deposits/withdrawal), which is very unprecedented. Even US residents do not need to report their bank balances to the IRS - just interest.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

lucenet said:


> I heard they may report not only balances (highest for the year or at the year end), but also transactions (deposits/withdrawal), which is very unprecedented. Even US residents do not need to report their bank balances to the IRS - just interest.


As far as I know, the only thing the banks are asked to provide are balances - specifically the year end balances. (Which is, by definition, not necessarily what the taxpayer will report on their FBAR filing.)

To some extent, any "extra" reporting would depend on the secrecy laws of the country in which your bank accounts are held. Some countries take privacy far more seriously than the US does.
Cheers,
Bev


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## LC3622 (Jan 8, 2014)

Bevdeforges said:


> As far as I know, the only thing the banks are asked to provide are balances - specifically the year end balances. (Which is, by definition, not necessarily what the taxpayer will report on their FBAR filing.)
> 
> To some extent, any "extra" reporting would depend on the secrecy laws of the country in which your bank accounts are held. Some countries take privacy far more seriously than the US does.
> Cheers,
> Bev


This is not what the bank representative told me. They basically said that they will report "whatever is requested". If transactions are requested - they will do it.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Granted, they will probably report whatever is requested. However, if you read through the bilateral agreements with the various countries on this, they appear to be so far only requiring the account information (i.e. account holder, SSN, account number) and the year end balances. Anything more than that would most likely be requested on an individual basis - so don't give them any reason to question your tax returns.
Cheers,
Bev


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