LarrainVial has signed an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. tax authority, to adopt the FATCA law (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), from the date of agreement.
The agreement with the IRS, an institution homologous to the Internal Revenue Service (SII) of Chile, was signed voluntarily by LarrainVial last Friday and before the expected legal time limits. The FATCA rules, which were adopted in 2010 by the U.S. Congress, begin to fully take effect and be obligatory for all financial institutions as from July 1, 2014.
The signing of this agreement is part of the cooperation agreement that the governments of Chile and the United States signed on March 5 to facilitate the implementation of U.S. legislation known as FATCA.
The agreement signed by Larrain Vial with the Internal Revenue Service, includes different LarrainVial Group companies, among which are LarrainVial Corredora de Bolsa (LarrainVial Brokerage); LarrainVial Administradora General de Fondos (LarrainVial General Funds Management); LarrainVial Activos Administradora General de Fondos (LarrainVial Assets General Funds Management), and its subsidiaries in Peru and Colombia.
The FATCA legislation provides for all financial institutions, including Chilean ones, the obligation to cooperate with the IRS by periodically sending information on the accounts or financial products of United States taxpayers (as such term is defined in the rule itself). The account information to be shared with the Internal Revenue Service shall apply only for those who meet that definition, informs LarrainVial.
The main benefit of having signed this agreement is that LarrainVial customers will not be exposed to sanctions by the U.S. tax authority, such as 30% withholding tax, which is the maximum penalty imposed by FATCA regulations.
Por Elena Santiso