BVI to Charge an Annual Fee for Entities Enrolled in the BVIFARS Reporting System

The British Virgin Islands International Tax Authority (“ITA”) has announced plans to begin charging an annual fee of US$185 effective 1 September 2022 for each entity enrolled in the BVI Financial Account Reporting System (“BVIFARS”) portal, under the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) and common reporting standard (“CRS”) regimes and country-by-country (“CbC”) reporting. The annual fee will cover charges for enrolment in the portal, review and transmission of reporting submissions to partner jurisdictions, support and maintenance.

The ITA also reminded entities with reporting obligations that they are required to enrol in the BVIFARS portal to satisfy their respective obligations under FATCA, CRS and CbC.

By way of a reminder, under FATCA, a BVI foreign financial institution is required to report information on U.S. taxpayers’ accounts to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). Under the intergovernmental agreement dated 30 June 2014 between the U.S. and the BVI, FATCA reporting for the BVI is allowed to be made directly to the ITA, which then passes the information to the IRS. “Foreign financial institution” (“FFI”) is broadly defined and includes investment entities, certain custodial institutions, depository institutions and specified insurance companies. Please refer to our alert of March 2019 entitled “FATCA: Impact on BVI Entities” for an overview of the categories of BVI entities which may be FFIs.

 

To continue reading full articles in PDF format:
BVI to Charge an Annual Fee for Entities Enrolled in the BVIFARS Reporting System

 

---

---

---