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FATCA Overview

Commercial Banking – India

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a new piece of legislation by the United States Department of Treasury and the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to counter tax evasion in the US.

HSBC is committed to becoming fully FATCA-compliant in all countries and territories where we operate in accordance with the legislative timeline. The purpose of FATCA is to report financial assets owned by United States persons to the United States tax authorities. Accordingly, Government of India may collect information from banks and onward submit it to United States authorities.

Since domestic laws of sovereign countries and territories (including India) may not permit sharing of client confidential information by FIs directly with USA, USA has entered into Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with various countries and territories. The IGA between India and USA was signed on 9th July, 2015. With a view to provide information to USA, necessary legislative changes have been made through Finance (No. 2) Act, 2014, by amending section 285BA of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Income-tax Rules, 1962 were amended vide Notification No. 62 of 2015 dated 7th August, 2015 by inserting Rules 114F to 114H and Form 61B to provide a legal basis for the Reporting Financial Institutions (RFIs) for maintaining and reporting information about the accounts held directly or indirectly by US Persons.

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 certificate of incorporation or similar document confirming your place of incorporation.

Please send the completed document to your HSBC Commercial Banking Relationship Manager. 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 adviser as HSBC is unable to provide tax advice.

W-9: This is a link to the withholding certificate referred to as a ‘W9’ on the IRS website. This form is completed to confirm US tax status.

W-8: This is a link to the withholding certificates referred to as ‘W8s’ on the IRS website. This form is completed to confirm US tax status.

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

HSBC Declaration and associated notes: This is an HSBC form aimed at non-US trading businesses and companies, in place of one of the US W8 series tax forms. Please read the form carefully to ensure you meet the relevant conditions. If you are not satisfied that you meet the relevant conditions, then please alternatively select from the available US tax forms (W-forms).

(Last updated October 2022)