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FATCA overview

Commercial Banking – Australia

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

In Australia, the government has signed an inter-governmental agreement with the United States government. This means that HSBC will need to provide information on US accounts to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

In order to establish your tax status according to the local legislation, 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 read the information carefully and select the document that is appropriate to your organisation. If you are unsure, you should seek advice from a tax advisor. HSBC cannot provide tax advice.

HSBC Declaration: This is an HSBC document which you may be able to sign to confirm non-US tax status, in place of one of the US W-8 series tax forms. Please read the form carefully to ensure you meet the relevant conditions for using this form. If you are not satisfied that you meet the relevant conditions, then 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, W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E.

(Page last updated October 2022)