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FATCA overview

Commercial Banking – New Zealand

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/jurisdictions where we operate in accordance with the legislative timeline.

In New Zealand the principles of FATCA have been brought in to our local law. This means that HSBC may need to provide information on US accounts to the local tax authority the Inland Revenue Department. In order to establish your tax status, we need to obtain certain documents. These documents are HSBC declarations and /or IRS 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 The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, PO Box 5947, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1411, New Zealand or hand them 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.

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 the ‘W8s’ 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 W-9 , W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E.

HSBC Declaration: This is an HSBC document which you may be able to sign to confirm a tax status other than US, in place of one of the U.S. 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 U.S. tax forms (W-forms).

(Page last updated October 2022)