FATCA

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) approved by the U.S. government on March 18th, 2010 enforces the offshore U.S. citizens and organizations to report their information and fulfill tax obligations with their income generated abroad. Non-compliant citizens/ entities will be subject to 30% withholding tax on their U.S.-sourced income.

Following the Central Bank of Lebanon official announcement No. 897 dated 29 Nov 2013 on the implementation of FATCA; NACB has registered and was approved to become Participating Foreign Financial Institutions (PFFI) with Global Intermediary Identification Number by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – EH5XW2.00005.ME.422.

FATCA requires FIs (including NACB) to identify the account holders, who may be the U.S. tax payers, and report them to IRS. FATCA compliance obligations mainly consist of:

Collecting personal information as per FATCA’s requirements when individual customers open their new account at NACB.
Collecting entity information as per FATCA’s requirements when entity customers open new account at NACB.
Screening individual accounts opened before July 1st, 2014 and entity accounts opened before January 1st, 2015.
Reporting to IRS in accordance with FATCA’s regulations.
Making withholding as per FATCA’s regulations etc…

Therefore, our valued customers will be requested to provide information and related papers to confirm the U.S. indicia and FATCA compliance status by NACB. After reconciling customers’ situation with the FATCA’s provisions, we will determine whether to report customers’ account at NACB to IRS. The information and related papers provided by customers are used for fulfillment of FATCA compliance requirements.

In case customers do not provide information/ responses as per NACB’s request or does not inform NACB of any change in circumstances that affects their FATCA status., NACB shall execute FATCA’s requirements applicable to recalcitrant accounts.

The information above is not intended in any way for it to be taken as legal or tax advice. Should you need legal advice, please refer to your legal adviser. Should you need tax advice, please refer to your tax adviser. Please visit the Internal Revenue Service’s website at www.irs.gov, or contact with NACB’s business units for further information and assistance.