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FATCA overview

Commercial Banking – Singapore

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. This means that HSBC may need to provide information on US accounts to the United States tax authority, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

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 your relationship manager. Should you have problems printing the forms you need, please contact your 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 advisor. HSBC cannot provide tax advice.

For examples of documentation necessary for FATCA classification purposes in certain scenarios, please refer to the table of examples about FATCA Status and the relevant documentation. Please note that this table is provided for reference only and is not exhaustive.

Non-profit declaration: This is an HSBC document, aimed 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.

Active non-financial foreign entity declaration: This is an HSBC document, aimed at non-US trading businesses and companies, 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)