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FATCA overview

Commercial Banking – Switzerland

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.

In Switzerland 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 IRS and the local tax authority, Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA, AFC, ESTV).

In order to establish your tax status, we need to obtain certain documents. These documents are 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 – HSBC Bank plc, London, Zürich Branch, Gartenstrasse 26, PO BOX 1818, 8027 Zürich, Switzerland – or hand them in to your relationship manager. Should you have problems printing the form you need, please contact your relationship manager.

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 'W9' 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 '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 and W-8BEN.

(Last updated October 2022)