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FATCA overview

Retail Banking and Wealth Management – Canada

There were a number of substantial changes made by financial regulators, governments and banks to ensure the protection and long-term safety of both the financial system and our customers' interests.

One of these legislations was the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) introduced in 2010 by the United States Department of Treasury (Treasury) and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to encourage better tax compliance by preventing U.S. Persons from using banks and other financial organizations to avoid U.S. taxation on their income and assets.

Effective July 1 2014, FATCA was implemented in Canada under local legislation. The Canadian legislation is based on an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) signed between Canada and the U.S. Under the IGA and local legislation, HSBC is required to report information relating to U.S. Persons' accounts to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Impact to HSBC and our customers

HSBC is committed to be fully FATCA compliant in all countries where we operate. We will therefore be reviewing our existing customer base to confirm our customers' FATCA status, and where necessary we may have to contact our customers for further information and documentation.

FATCA will affect HSBC's personal and business customers. The degree to which customers will be affected will vary across the bank, depending on the type of account, policy or agreement they hold with HSBC, and particularly whether any U.S. connections (U.S. Indicia) have been identified.

Therefore, in order to determine customers' FATCA status, we may need to obtain certain documents such as the Individual Tax Residency Self-Certification Form that will enable our customers to declare and confirm their tax status to us for the purposes of FATCA.

Customers may receive more than one request for information if they have multiple relationships with different members of the HSBC Group. Therefore, it is important that our customers respond to all requests, even if they believe they have already supplied the requested information.

HSBC cannot offer any advice relating to FATCA, and we recommend customers contact a professional tax advisor to discuss their personal tax situation if needed.

Additional information

Individual Tax Residency Self-Certification Form (69.4KB, PDF): This is a link to the form referred to as Individual Tax Residency Self-Certification Form. This form is an HSBC document for Individuals to certify their Tax Residency and U.S. Person status.

For Formal Trust Accounts

Under FATCA, a Trust is considered an entity and must provide appropriate documentation to confirm its tax status to us for the purposes of FATCA.

The Declaration of Tax Residence for Entities (388KB, PDF) Form is required to be used to document a formal Trust for FATCA purposes – the Trust will need to certify the following on the form (along with other basic information):

  • Whether or not the Trust is a U.S. Person.
  • The type of entity for FATCA purposes.

If the Trust certifies that it is a Passive NFFE (see glossary), then the Trust will also need to certify whether or not it has any U.S. Controlling Persons. If the Trust is a Passive NFFE and has U.S. Controlling Persons, then the Trust must also provide information regarding the identity of any U.S. Controlling Persons on the form.

Thank you in advance for your support and cooperation.

(Page last updated October 2021)