Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Reporting Made Simple
Looking to obtain your digital certificate for a financial institution that submits Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) reporting directly to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS)? IdenTrust offers FATCA digital certificates that are trusted by the IRS for FATCA reporting and are accepted in the IDES application process.
Through the IRS International Data Exchange Service (IDES), financial institutions or their authorized third parties can securely submit FATCA reports.
If you are an entity using IDES, then you will require a public key from the IRS and your company’s digital certificate for FATCA filing. While the IRS maintains their updated public key on the IDES website IDES, the filing company must also obtain their FATCA digital certificate to be able to successfully submit their FATCA filings. The digital certificate must be issued by an IRS Approved Certificate Authority, like IdenTrust.
IdenTrust offers FATCA digital certificates that may be stored in your browser certificate store, on your local PC or laptop. This means that once you get approved for your company’s FATCA digital certificate, you can download it to the device you want to use to then upload the certificate to the IDES website during their enrollment process.
IdenTrust offers FATCA digital certificates to U.S. residents and non-U.S. residents. There are restrictions on residency based on foreign country, which can be found on the Supported Countries list. Applications do not require a physical forms packet, which means the application process is entirely online. You will need proof of sponsor affiliation with the subscribing organization, and have the options to select a validity period of one (1) or two (2) years. Upon approval, you will have a digital certificate generated for you that is trusted by the IRS for FATCA reporting, with a Medium Assurance level.
Once you obtain your FATCA digital certificate, you may then proceed in the IDES enrollment process. This is the step where you will create a user profile, account, validate your entity’s GIIN, enter your FATCA digital certificate, and receive an email with enrollment instructions upon application approval by IDES administration.