FATCA Outsourced Reporting Solutions

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act annual reporting obligation ("FATCA Reporting") has been effective since 31 December 2014. Since the first filing deadline in 2015, any Luxembourg Reporting Foreign Financial Institution ("Luxembourg FFI") has to submit its annual reporting to the Administration des Contributions Directes ("ACD") by 31 July of each year (subject to change by ACD).

The ACD requires Luxembourg FFIs to report through the authorised communication channels Fundsquare or SOFiE either.

Our regulatory consulting expertise driven by Arendt Regulatory & Consulting S.A. (ARC) assists you in defining your FATCA strategy to ensure a full and effective compliance with FATCA through the following set of services:

• a 'Nil' report, in the event that no account has been identified as reportable; or
• a full report containing all types of US Reportable Accounts

Thanks to our flexible solutions, we offer our clients the opportunity to benefit from Arendt's strong expertise where they really need it. Most FFIs have already identified and classified their Reportable Accounts and "only" need assistance to produce and file the FATCA report to the ACD. Other FFIs may wish wider support. As a result, our FATCA reporting services are tailor-made and include some or all of the following:

• Identification of the Reportable Accounts;
• Assistance in reviewing the content of the FATCA Reporting;
• Production of the XML report prior to its filing, together with a PDF report allowing the officer in charge to validate the content of the XML file;
• Filing with the ACD of the XML report (e.g if produced in-house by the FFI).
  
  

AIFM Reporting Solutions

The AIFMD imposes a series of reporting obligations, the content and frequency of which depend on several factors. The reporting obligations apply to EU and non-EU AIFMs: any placement of AIF shares/units in the EU, will trigger the reporting requirements.

Our expertise offers personalised and adjustable reporting solutions.

We propose you to benefit from Arendt’s strong expertise in EU regulations and, with the help of well-known IT solutions existing in the market, to comply with your reporting obligations with a minimum of investment costs.

Further, through our connection to most EU regulators and their reporting channels, we are able to assist you with your AIFM reporting duties throughout the EU.

Our services range from the simple filing with the CSSF of a report produced in-house by the AIFM to the complete outsourcing of the reporting process.

OECD Common Reporting Standard ("CRS")

Since October 2014 at OECD level and December 2014 as regards the EU, the international community of States has adopted what is known as the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters, which in effect will lead to global tax transparency. As from 1 January 2016, the vast majority of financial institutions located in 51 OECD States (among which the 28 EU ones) will need to identify and document, among others, the tax residency of account holders, natural or legal persons, and then report to the Luxembourg tax authorities in 2017, all financial account information about these persons which are resident in one of these States, in 2017.The OECD Common Reporting Standard creates the obligation for Luxembourg Financial institutions ("FIs") to report (the "CRS Report"), on an annual basis, detailed personal and financial information (the "Information") concerning certain account holders that have been identified and classified as reportable by the FIs to the Administration des Contributions Directes (the "ACD").

Although similar to FATCA in its concept and approach, CRS is different and new in terms of the volume of information and the number of account holders in scope.

Even if the details of each country regulation are not yet known, the main requirements are the followings:

• Enhance due diligence procedures aimed at identifying and classifying any account held by a reportable person or alternatively held by a passive non-financial entity with one or more controlling persons being reportable person(s);
• Comply with reporting obligation to the Luxembourg tax authorities, regarding reportable accounts which have been identified, as first exchange of information between participating countries will take place by 30 September 2017.

We provide educational support to bring financial institutions up to speed with this new regulatory requirement and assist in:

• Defining your strategy of compliance
• Adapting your operating model
• Managing all operational, legal, organizational and IT impacts

Among other success factors, both a qualitative project management and a detailed business analysis prior to IT developments will be instrumental. Being one of the major components of the future fiscal transparency, we believe as well that the management of client communication is a key element to be considered within this project.

EMIR

EMIR - European Market Infrastructure Regulation (No 648/2012)

EMIR came into force on 16 August 2012. It applies to any financial or non-financial entity incorporated in the EU that is counterparty to a derivative contract, and outside the EU under specific circumstances.

EMIR imposes:

• Clearing obligations on selected derivative classes and standardisation of information flows through a central counterparty (CCP) to reduce and monitor any systemic risk;
• Reporting obligations on all listed and OTC derivatives to trade repositories (TRs) and competent authorities to increase the market transparency and the control of exposures;
• The implementation of risk mitigation procedures for non-centrally cleared contracts by providing a standard framework for electronic confirmation of transactions and margin/collateral management.

From the definition of your reporting strategy or target operating model and the selection of third party service providers to the detailed identification of missing data sources for your EMIR reporting, our experts , working hand in hand with the law firm, can assist you all the way.

Cross-border arrangements - DAC 6

The Luxembourg law of 25 March 2020 implementing Council Directive 2018/822/EU of 25 May 2018 (the DAC 6 Law), which entered into force on 1 July 2020, requires intermediaries and, in some cases, taxpayers to disclose to the tax authorities information on certain cross-border arrangements that might be viewed as aggressive tax planning schemes.

An arrangement is reportable if:

• it qualifies as a cross-border arrangement, and
• there are indications of a potential risk of tax avoidance, known as “hallmarks”. Some hallmarks will only trigger a reporting obligation if the arrangement also meets the so-called “main benefit test”.

The reporting obligation will start as from 1 January 2021, and needs to be met within set deadlines. After reports have been filed, an automatic exchange of information will take place between the tax authorities of all EU Member States.

The definition of an intermediary is broad: it encompasses lawyers and tax advisers, and is expected to apply to investment fund managers, family offices, banks, insurance companies, accountants, domiciliation agents and other service providers. Intermediaries subject to legal professional privilege (lawyers, chartered accountants and auditors) are not obliged to report, but are obliged to notify other intermediaries not subject to legal
professional privilege, or the relevant taxpayer(s), of their own reporting obligations.
The relevant taxpayer(s) will be obliged to report where no EU intermediaries were involved in the arrangement, or if the only intermediaries involved are subject to legal professional privilege.

We offer a large range of 'a la carte services from awareness to DAC 6 reporting.

For more information, contact us at DAC6@arendt.com