Tax Residency: How to Complete the CRS/ FATCA Form from your Bank

If you are working on a yacht and banking offshore, the likelihood is that you have received, or will receive, a letter entitled CRS/ FATCA concerning your tax residency. It's important that you respond to avoid risk of your accounts being frozen or closed so Patrick Maflin of Marine Accounts has produced a short video explaining how to complete the form. 

Here's a reminder of what CRS and FATCA refer to:

CRS, or the Common Reporting Standard, is an initiative resulting from the G20's request for all jurisdictions to obtain information from their banks and to exchange this information with other jurisdictions, and this includes information about personal bank accounts. This is to ensure that you are not witholding funds and that your country of residence is aware that you have these funds off-shore. 

Similarly, to target non-compliance by US taxpayers using foreign accounts, FATCA is an initiative enforced by Congress requiring foreign banks to provide the IRS with information about the bank accounts of US taxpayers as well as foreign entities in which US taxpayers have a substantial ownership interest.

What you need to do:

• Provide an address. If you do not have a home address, or if the yacht is home, you'll need to state in which country you are domiciled - the country where you were born or where you hold a valid passport. 

• Provide a tax identification number or a National Insurance number. If you are non-resident, you need to provide a tax identification number for your country of domicile.

NOTE: Many people believe they are non-resident or can nominate a country where they are resident. This is not the case. You are resident based on the number of days spent in a given country, where your permanent home is or where your social or economic ties lie. 

If you bank off-shore and you have a foreign account, you will need to complete this form, even if you live outside the US or UK.

Watch a short video explanation from Marine Accounts: