The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a U.S. law enacted on March 18, 2010 and is an important development in the United States’ efforts to combat tax evasion of U.S. taxpayers holding accounts and other financial assets offshore.

With financial institutions in 216 foreign countries sending IRS detailed financial information on U.S. taxpayers, FATCA data is a useful collection tool for revenue officers to locate foreign assets and determine their value.

FATCA requires the Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) to register and report information to the IRS about financial accounts held by the U.S. taxpayers, or by foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest.

FATCA requires all Foreign Financial Institution (FFI) to enter into an agreement with the IRS to report and withhold on U.S. accounts (i.e. accounts held by U.S. persons) or else, suffer a 30% withholding tax on certain U.S. income, sales proceeds and various payments. FATCA is for the IRS to receive world-wide account information of the U.S. taxpayers.

Other entities (e.g., third party service providers) are permitted to use the registration system to register and report under FATCA.

FATCA also permits non-financial foreign entities (i.e., direct reporting NFFEs) to use the Form 8957, Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Registration, to register itself and its branches and report to the IRS as a registered deemed compliant Foreign Financial Institution (FFI).

The preferred method of registration is the online system Integrated Enterprise Portal (IEP)/Registered User Portal (RUP). The paper registration process (submitting a paper Form 8957 by mail) is available as an alternate method.

Rev. Proc .2014-38 Section 3, FATCA Registration for Participating FFI or Reporting Model 2 FFI Status, provides registration requirements.

Chapter 4 of subtitle A, comprised of IRC 1471, IRC 1472, IRC 1473, IRC 1474, commonly referred to as “FATCA” was added to the Internal Revenue Code by sec. 501 of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, P. L. 111-147; 124 Stat. 71, 97 (March 18, 2010). Chapter 4 imposes a withholding tax on certain payments to FFIs and Non-Financial Foreign Entities (NFFEs) that fail to comply with their obligations.

The current FFI agreement is in Rev. Proc. 2017-16 Section 3, FATCA Registration for Participating FFI (Including a Reporting Model 2 FFI) Status and Renewal of the FFI Agreement and also provides registration requirements.

The Campus Director is responsible for monitoring operational performance for the Submission Processing campus.

The Operations Manager is responsible for monitoring operational performance for their operation.

The Team Manager/Lead is responsible for performance monitoring and ensuring employees have the tools to perform their duties.

The Team Employees are responsible to follow the instructions contained in this IRM and maintain updated IRM procedures.

Program Goals: The purpose of the FATCA Paper Registration process is to provide financial institutions, Direct Reporting NFFEs, and other entities to register or renew their agreement during a renewal open period to be able to maintain their approved status. As an alternative to the preferred online registration method, a paper Form 8957 can be mailed to the Austin Submission Processing Center and an online FATCA account will be established. Information on accessing the online FATCA account to view, manage, and edit its FATCA information will be provided.

Program Reports: Reports are generated by the BOE (Business Objects Environment) application.

Program Effectiveness: 100 percent of the registrations are reviewed by the processing area to ensure the submissions have been entered correctly and to ensure accuracy of any correspondence that has been initiated.

This table lists Acronyms, Abbreviations and Definitions.

Additional application and job aids used in the FATCA paper registration process are:

Online is the preferred and most efficient way to initiate FATCA registration.

The FATCA online Registration or the FATCA Integrated Enterprise Portal (IEP)/Registered User Portal (RUP)can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Once established, registrants can create accounts, log-in, create access codes, create challenge questions and manage their accounts. For additional information regarding the FATCA Online registration process, see Pub 5118, FATCA Online Registration User Guide.

Form 8957 is used by an FI or a Direct Reporting NFFE to register itself and its branches, if any, as a participating foreign financial institution (PFFI) (including a Reporting FI under a Model 2 IGA), a registered deemed-compliant foreign financial institution (RDCFFI), a Reporting Financial Institution under a Model 1 IGA, a sponsoring entity (Sponsoring Entity), a Direct Reporting NFFE, a trustee of a Trustee-Documented Trust, or a U.S. FI.

The following SP Operations will participate in FATCA processing:

Report Form 8957, processing using hours assigned under the following Program and OFP codes. The following are approved for use:

The FATCA Registration Employee User Portal includes five user roles. The specified role and its functionality are defined in the table below:

For additional information regarding the functionality and features available by role, see Document 13133.

If the user does not log out of the system using the logout link, the system does not log the user out immediately. This can occur if the user closes the browser or gets an error message that forces them out of the system. If the user tries to log back in immediately, a default error message will display indicating that the FATCA account is locked because it is edited by another user.

EUP will time out after 15 minutes of inactivity. The user will have to re-login to continue processing or registration of the form.

If inactive for 10 minutes, the system will display a warning message. You will then have an option to click on the OK button to reset the timer for time out.

If you click on the Cancel button or nothing was selected on the Warning Message pop up window, the system will continue to monitor for another 5 minutes of inactivity before logging out the user from the system.

The users can logout of FATCA system by clicking "Close" on the navigation menu. The Close will navigate the user to the EUP where they can click on the "logout" hyperlink to get back to the EUP login.

Navigate to the input FI link on the global navigation bar.

Select one of the following:

After clicking “add FI” or “submit”, the system displays a blank online Form 8957 to populate. If editing an existing member’s information some fields will already be populated.

Confirm the paper form has a physical signature in Part 4 and then check the agreement signed on paper submission check box at the top of the application. This is a mandatory field and you cannot input the form into the system without a signature in Part 4.

Enter IRS received date using either option below:

Select the Financial Institution type for Question 1. For member FIs, this field will already be populated and cannot be changed.

Enter remaining FI registration information. Fields marked by an asterisk (*) are required fields. The system will allow the TE to input and “save” or enter as “completed” an incomplete form. For a complete listing of countries/jurisdictions in the FATCA Online Registration System, refer to the FATCA Registration System Country Jurisdiction Listing. See https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/fatca-registration-country-jurisdiction-listing.

Click “completed” after all registration information has been entered to submit and begin the three-business day quality review hold period. Only click “completed” when everything that is on the paper form has been transcribed into the system.

Select one of the following:

Print the FATCA ID screen after the registration is input.

To edit registration data, search and select the view link to open an FI record. Click the edit FI link to update registration data fields as needed. You can toggle back to view FI (read only mode) by clicking on the view FI link.

All of the FI registration questions are accessible on the edit FI page and can be edited by the TE, except for Question 1 and Part 2.

To commit changes to the database, you can click the "save" or "completed" button. Only the first time the "completed" button is clicked triggers the three-business day quality review hold; after the first time, the quality review hold period will not be reset. If there are no required fields missing, clicking the "completed" button will prompt the confirmation message.

Select one of the following:

If you click "save," you can click the "return to form" button to return to the FI’s registration. If you click "completed" and wish to add another FI, click the "add another FI" button and repeat the steps in this section. For both "completed" and "save," you can click "back to search results" to return to the search results.

Complete guidance for input and edit of Form 8957 by Data Transcribers is located in Section 6 of the EUP FATCA User Guide, Document 13133.

The FATCA Registration System Release 6.2 became effective July 2018, impacting SP and the input of paper Forms 8957.

Classification values (Question 4) changed on registration Form 8957 :

EUP search screen changes for all EUP roles:

FI may register online or mail paper Form 8957.

Form 8957 must be completed and the agreement signed.

TE will access the EUP using the Standard Employee Identifier (SEID) and password.

TE will input/edit (Parts 1 and 4).

TE must make sure to check the box that the agreement section is signed on paper. If the Form 8957 is not signed send a Letter 5026. The EUP system will only accept original signatures.

If all parts are input, TE must then indicate that the paper input is finished. Click the "complete" button Form 8957.

If the form has incomplete fields, the system will prompt the TE that the form has required fields that are missing. It is acceptable for the form to not have all required fields so long as the items listed in IRM 3.21.112.5(4) are present. The TE should confirm that they have entered all fields completed in the form and select OK to continue.

If all fields were entered, the system will prompt the TE "Do you wish to continue with the submission and mark the registration form as completely input." Select "OK" to continue or Cancel to return. The TE should select “OK”.

The system will then place the registration in QR hold for three days. If there are any questions the QR will contact or inform TE. If further editing is required, the system will not re-set the three-day hold.

There are six standard letters. Letter 5026 is used to return the Form 8957 and inform the FI that there are critical items that cause the Form 8957 to be non-processable. Please see IRM 3.21.112.5 for these items.

There are other situations in which the TE must return the paper submission to the FI along with Letter 5026, including the following:

Form 8957 cannot have attached photocopied signature.

The 5 letters listed below, serve to inform the FI how to log on to the system and correct any incorrect or incomplete information found on Form 8957 or to transmit the FATCA ID and Temporary Access Code.

A BOE report will be generated that creates the appropriate letter based upon whether the FI has incorrect or incomplete information or is being transmitted the FATCA ID and Temporary Access Code.

The clerks will print the letters from the BOE and mail along with a copy of the Form 8957 to the FI. The link to the BOE is https://boeprod.web.irs.gov/BOE/BI

To retrieve the letters, type the letter you want in the search engine. Click on Enter value(s) for FATCA ID. Then enter the FATCA ID in the Values box. Click the right arrow and then click "OK" .

Large Business & International Division (LB&I) will generate weekly reports and send a copy to the W&I Headquarters FATCA Analyst and Planning & Analysis Staff (P&A) in Austin weekly.