Income tax department eases rules for FIs on FATCA, CRS

The government has eased implementation of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and Common Reporting Standard (CRS) rules for financial institutions (FIs) after consultations with them, an official statement said on Friday.

To ease rules for the FIs obtain self-certification from account holders, the tax department has decided that the same can also be obtained through internet banking platform from the user account where the customer has transaction rights, said a finance ministry statement.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said that the valuation of securities may be done at the values regularly communicated by depository to the depository participants and brokers, while on the tax identification number (TIN), it clarified that it is not required to be collected by the FIs if it or its functional equivalent) is not issued by the country in which the person resides.

"TIN is not required to be collected by the FIs even from a person (resident for tax purposes in a country or territory outside India) who may be eligible to obtain a TIN (or the functional equivalent) in his country or territory of residence, but has not yet obtained it," the statement said.

An inter-governmental agreement between India and US was signed in 2015 for the implementation of FATCA, to ensure tax is paid on the income generated from abroad. India has also joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) for automatic exchange of information as per CRS.

--IANS

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