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FATCA overview

Commercial Banking – Belgium

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a new piece of legislation by the United States Department of Treasury (Treasury) and the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to counter tax evasion in the US. HSBC is committed to being fully FATCA compliant in all countries and territories where we operate, in accordance with the legislative timeline.

In Belgium, the principles of FATCA have been brought into our local law. This means that HSBC may need to provide information on US accounts to the local tax authority, the Federal Public Service Finance.

In order to establish your tax status, we need to obtain certain documents. These documents are IRS tax forms that will enable you to declare and confirm your tax status to us for the purposes of FATCA.

Please send the completed document to us at this address: HSBC Continental Europe, Belgium, Square de Meeūs 23, 1000 Brussels, Belgium; or hand it in to the team at your local branch. Should you have problems printing the form you need, please contact your local branch.

Please read the information carefully and select the document that you need to confirm your tax status to us.

FATCA Declaration Non-Financial Foreign Entities: This is an HSBC document, aimed at non-US trading businesses and companies as well as at non-profit organisations which you may be able to sign to confirm non-US tax status, in place of one of the US tax forms (IRS W forms). Please read the document carefully to ensure you meet the relevant conditions. If you are not satisfied that you meet the relevant conditions, then please select an alternative from the US tax forms provided.

W-9 form: This is the withholding certificate referred to as a ‘W-9’ on the IRS website. This form is completed to confirm US tax status.

W-8 forms: This is a link to the withholding certificates referred to as ‘W-8s’ on the IRS website. This is a series of forms that are completed to confirm non-US tax status.

In order to provide customers with further support when completing IRS W forms, we have provided some additional customer guidance for the forms W-9, W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E.

(Page last updated October 2022)