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FATCA overview

Commercial Banking – France

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a new piece of legislation by United States government to counter tax evasion in the US through information reporting. HSBC is committed to being fully FATCA compliant in all countries where we operate, in accordance with the legislative timeline.

In France, 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 French local tax authority (FISC).

In order to establish your tax status, we need to obtain certain documents. These documents are HSBC declarations and/or US tax forms that will enable you to declare and confirm your tax status to us for the purposes of FATCA. We also need your formation documents, for example, your certificate of incorporation or a similar type of document confirming your place of incorporation.

Please send the completed documents to us at the address mentioned in the letter that you have received, or hand them in to the team at your local branch. Should you have problems printing the forms you need, please contact your local branch.

Please read the information carefully and select the document that is appropriate to your company. If you are unsure, you should seek advice from a tax advisor. HSBC cannot provide tax advice.

Your Tax Details form: This is a HSBC document which you may be able to sign to confirm non-US tax status. This document must be completed online before signing, in case you are unable to do so, please use the Inter-governmental agreement declaration to confirm your tax status under FATCA instead. Please read this form carefully to ensure that you meet the relevant conditions. If you are not satisfied that you meet the relevant conditions, please select an alternative from the US tax forms (W-8 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 and W-8BEN-E.

(Page last updated October 2022)