Purpose: This IRM provides an overview of the governance process in administering Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) compliance specific to the FATCA registration Foreign Financial Institution (FFI) list publishing process.

Audience: These policies and procedures apply to analysts working in LB&I FPP & Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) Planning & Analysis.

Policy Owner: LB&I Policy under the Strategy, Policy and Governance office in the Assistant Deputy Commissioner Compliance Integration organization.

Program Owner: Director, Withholding Exchange and International Individual Compliance (WEIIC).

Primary Stakeholders: The LB&I FPP & AEOI Planning & Analysis analysts.

For a comprehensive description of the FATCA registration process including detailed registration steps for each FI type and jurisdiction, refer to Pub 5118, FATCA Online Registration User Guide.

The FATCA Online Registration System is a secure, web-based system that financial institutions (FIs) and direct reporting non-financial foreign entities (NFFEs) may use to register themselves (and FI branches, if any).

Once registered and approved, the FI will receive a global intermediary identification number (GIIN), which will appear on the next published IRS FFI list.

An FI will create a FATCA account and select an FI type. A financial institution can be one of the following FI types:

FATCA Classifications: Responses to FI type (registration question 1) determine what classifications options are available. An FI’s classification response is also a factor in the FATCA registration system determining whether the FI is required to submit a renewal of the FFI agreement and/or a FATCA certification. Below are the classification options available for selection. Note that an FFI may modify its FATCA classification after registering.

Relating to its FATCA registration, an approved FFI, a U.S. financial institution (USFI) acting as a Lead FFI, a sponsoring entity, and a direct reporting NFFE will be issued a global intermediary identification number (GIIN) and will be identified on the IRS FFI List. The IRS FFI List is updated monthly to add or remove approved entities (or their branches). A separate GIIN will be issued to an FFI to identify each jurisdiction where the FFI maintains a branch. A direct reporting NFFE will receive only one GIIN, irrespective of where it maintains its branches.

Entities assigned a GIIN can use it to identify themselves to withholding agents and tax administrators for FATCA reporting purposes. The GIIN, formatted as XXXXXX.XXXXX.XX.XXX, is an identification number made up of several identifiers. These characters will never contain the letter “O”. For more information on GIIN composition, refer to Pub 5118, FATCA Online Registration User Guide. A listing of country/jurisdiction used in the FATCA Online Registration System and the IRS FFI List can be found at https://wwww.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/fatca-registration-country-jurisdiction-listing.

The online FATCA registration process includes the steps below:

A description of required fields, a listing and definition of each account status, along with how the user can change a status can be found in Pub 5118, FATCA Online Registration User Guide.

Note that after the IRS reviews the registration, it will be placed into another account status. The account status may require the FI to edit and resubmit the registration due to missing information or for other reasons.

A financial institution’s type determines which registration questions it must answer. For example, lead FIs will be prompted to provide information about its member FIs. Registration steps for FI types are listed in Pub 5118, FATCA Online Registration User Guide.

A financial institution in approved status can edit its registration by logging into its FATCA account and selecting the registration – edit link. The links are located on the account home page under the available account options section. The registration status and the GIIN will not be affected by this edit unless the country of tax residence in question 3 is changed. Changing the country in question 3 will affect the last three characters of the GIIN. The changes will not occur immediately but will occur when the registration is reprocessed. Refer to FATCA Registration System FAQs at https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/frequently-asked-questions-faqs-fatca-registration-system.

System support for the online FATCA registration, including help with login problems, error messages, and other technical issues can be requested on https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/fatcahelp501.

In the event that an FI or authorized party cannot log into their FATCA account due to RO/POC turnover, or if password is forgotten, the user should refer to Pub 5118, FATCA Online Registration User Guide, for guidance on logging into the account.

If unable to reset the access code online, telephone support is available 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (US Central Time), Monday through Friday. From the United States of America, call toll free at 866-255-0654 from outside the United States of America, call 512-416-7750 (not toll free).

After an FFI has successfully registered, they may be occasionally required to confirm their compliance by submitting a renewal of their FFI agreement and/or a certification. Pub 5118, FATCA Online Registration User Guide, provides detailed instructions on each obligation.

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The IRS FFI List Publishing Process review includes standardized reviews performed by IRS analysts on each FATCA registration submitted. The purpose of the review is to prevent the erroneous issuance of a GIIN to an entity that is sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Asset Control, to a fictitious or test entity, one that is lacking required information, or one that is otherwise inappropriate to appear on the IRS FFI List.

An account placed into incomplete status gives the registrant the ability to edit their information and re-submit for IRS review. Edits can also be made while in submitted or approved status.

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