FATCA Technical
Reporting Questions and Answers
a. Will
we be required to register our IRS-registered entities with the ATO?
No.
a. Will
we be permitted or required to submit nil reports?
Nil reports are permitted to be
submitted but the submission is not mandatory. Please refer to the IRS website
for information.
b. Will
the ATO be producing an Online Manual Entry Report for financial institutions
that do not have an XML to submit or for NIL reports?
No.
No. Please note, however, the
requirements in Division 396 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 in
relation to record-keeping.
a. Can
the ATO confirm the schema required and how to upload files, e.g. web-based?
The schema required is the FATCA XML
Schema version advertised on the IRS web site, currently version 1.1.
FATCA reports (in XML format) should be completed by the financial institution
then uploaded to the ATO via the Business Portal/Tax Agent Portal (using AUSkey
for authentication). The ATO will validate the uploaded report and provide a
Failed Validation report or a Successful Lodgement report to the sender via the
submission portal.
Yes, broadly. However, the ATO will be
applying some additional levels of logical validation to the lodged files. For
example:
Generic checks such as:
a) checking for malware, and
b) checking for duplicate lodgement
Content validation such as:
a) checking date appropriateness
b) checking supplied code or value against a set of values
These should be communicated to industry
in the near future.
c. Will
the ATO amend the MessageRefID element (within the message
header of the FATCA XML) to ensure uniqueness across Australian reporters? In the IRS publication 5189, section 1.3
FATCA Notification Overview, it states that duplicate MessageRefID’s
will be rejected.
No. The ATO
will not modify or replace the MessageRefID value
supplied by financial institutions.
It is recommended that financial institutions use MessageRefID values that would distinguish messages from
other messages previously sent (and accepted by the IRS) and from any other
financial institution message.
d. Do
we need to encrypt files prior to lodging?
No. Please do not encrypt files prior to
lodging as the ATO will do the encryption work as part of its dispatching
process.
e. Can
we submit multiple Reporting Financial Institution reports on the one file with
a header/trailer between each one or does it have to be separate?
The FATCA XML schema allows for the
reporting of multiple Reporting Financial Institutions on the one file. Please
consult the IRS schema instructions for details.
f. Will
the reporting framework allow lodgement of multiple report files for a single
financial institution (for example if a single financial institution operates a
number of different businesses, potentially managed by different
platforms/service providers) or will these reports need to be consolidated?
Financial institutions are not prevented
from lodging multiple report files (i.e. by a single financial institution).
The ATO encourages financial institutions to give some consideration to an
appropriate naming convention for files transferred to the ATO.
g. Does
the ATO have a naming convention for FATCA files?
Financial institutions can use any file naming
convention they prefer, however, it is recommended that financial institutions
use a name that would distinguish lodgements from other files previously lodged
and, ideally, from any other financial institution lodgements.
For example:
FI_FATCA_2015_001.xml or FI_FATCA_2015_001.zip
where FI is an abbreviation
of the financial institution’s name
h. Will
the ATO communicate via their submission portal or via email for corrected and
amended reports or any other queries relating to the reports?
If validation is unsuccessful, the
lodgement will be rejected and the reporter notified via a Failed Validation
report posted on the submission portal. The submitted file will be discarded.
The reporter must correct the error(s) and re-lodge the report.
If validation is successful the reporter
will be notified via a Successful Lodgement report posted on the submission
portal. The file will be encrypted then passed to the IRS.
In regard to follow-up action or ATO
contact with financial institutions following, for example, rejection at the
IDES system or IRS processing, this is expected to be via email or other means
to be advised.
i. Will
any of the supplied values be validated for format and/or content? If so, what?
Please refer to question a). Some
validation rules are built into the IRS schema, and some additional logical
validation rules to be advised in the near future will be applied by the ATO.
ATO validation rules will check the consistency of the supplied information but
there will be no checks as to the accuracy of the information.
j. How
will the ATO provide a receipt that the report submission has been successful,
e.g. via email or submission acknowledged on screen at time of submission?
The ATO will provide a standard portal
validation report at time of lodgement into the submission portal. Emails, or
other means to be advised, will be used for all communications from the IRS.
k. How
will rejected files be resent � the entire file or just the customer/accounts in
error?
When a file lodged to the ATO fails ATO
validation, the entire file is rejected and discarded. That file must be
corrected then re‑lodged.
If the ATO has accepted a successful
lodgement but is later advised of an error in the file by the IRS under Article
5 of the FATCA Agreement, the IRS should advise whether they require a
correction or an amendment transaction. During a correction the previous
details are completely replaced by the new submission. When an amendment is
made only the amending data element is used to replace the original data
element value.
ATO will communicate the issue notified by the IRS to the reporter by email (or
other means to be advised). The reporter will then either submit a new
corrected file or submit corrections to a previously submitted file.
l. Will
there be a due date for posting corrections or amendments for each reporting
year?
The due date may be advised as part of
the notification received from the IRS. Please consult IRS guidance.
m. What
types of corrections will be requested by the ATO to FIs?
The ATO will request correction of FATCA
reports which fail their validation checks. See response to question 4.b).
The ATO may receive a notification from
the IRS that a FATCA report contains minor errors or in relation to compliance
issues under Article 5 of the FATCA Agreement. The IRS notification will be
communicated to the reporting financial institution for their attention.
Requests for corrections may relate to various issues including file
corruption, viruses, information errors or significant non‑compliance.
n. If
a correction or amendment to a submitted report post 31 July 2015 occurs does
the ATO report these amendments in the following year?
Files will be passed on to the IRS as we
receive them. The ATO does not store, hold or use the data in the FATCA report.
When a FATCA report is successfully
lodged, the file will be immediately passed through to the IRS, with one
exception: when the transmission channel is unavailable the FATCA reports will
be stored until the channel becomes available then the FATCA reports will be
transmitted in the order in which they were received.
o. Can
the ATO confirm it will align with the IRS FATCA XML Schema version 1.1 for
correcting and amending submitted reports where they will only require the
delta with a cross reference to the initially submitted report?
Yes, the ATO will adhere to the IRS
FATCA schema instructions. If the lodged amendment is schema compliant it will
be passed through to the IRS. See responses to questions 4.b)
and 4.i).
p. What
will be the process if a file is rejected by the IRS?
If a file is rejected for technical
reasons the ATO technical team will resend the file.
If the file is rejected for business reasons, for example a data error or a
compliance issue, the IRS will notify the ATO and the ATO will communicate the
issue to the reporter by email (or other means to be advised).The sender must
take the action requested by the IRS then resend the file, either as a
correction or an amendment. See response to question 4.i).
q. Will
the ATO align with IRS IDES specifications to allow a zipped file size of 200MB
to be submitted?
Yes.
Yes, if the question is referring to a
FATCA XML schema compliant file lodged to the ATO (unencrypted) via the
Business or Tax Agent portals and processed through BDE. Please see response to
question 4.a).
a. When
will testing commence?
At this stage testing is likely to be
available around 13 May 2015 for financial institution to ATO lodgement.. Software developers can register for testing via the
following link http://softwaredevelopers.ato.gov.au/ATO-ebMS3_subscription_to_EVTE
b. What
will you require from us?
You will be able to do a pre-lodge
validation test through the portal (please refer to ATO Software Industry
Liaison Unit (SILU) website �
as standard functionality).
ATO end-to-end testing with the IRS IDES
and backend processing system is yet to be determined.
c. What
will be the duration of testing?
To be advised but expected to last at
least 30 days.
a. The
NZ IRD has advised that recalcitrant account holders can be reported via the
pool report data elements. Will the ATO be expecting the same or can these be
reported via the Account Report data elements (until such time as TIN is
mandatory)?
The ATO understands that there will be
no pooled reporting under Model 1 FATCA agreements, including the Australia-US
FATCA Agreement.
Under the Model 1 FATCA Agreement,
recalcitrant accounts are to be reported as US Reportable Accounts in the
Account Report data elements.
a. NPFFI
reporting �
are there any changes to the above responses regarding formats/mechanisms for
reporting?
We have a single approach for all FATCA
reporting.