The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) were introduced to help fight worldwide tax evasion.
FATCA and CRS requires banks to check where you’re a tax resident. This allows us to see where you’re paying your taxes. Just so you’re aware, each country might define tax residency in a different way.
FATCA and CRS are separate but they have similar regulations. FATCA applies to the US while CRS applies to over 100 countries around the world.
The link below provides access to a guide of the status for different country commitments to sharing information under CRS:
https://www.oecd.org/tax/transparency/AEOI-commitments.pdf
Who is affected by FATCA and CRS?
FATCA and/or CRS could affect our personal customers and those who have a business relationship with us. The impact will depend on things like:
- the type of account or product you have with us
- where you live or operate as a business.
How do FATCA and CRS impact Santander and our customers?
Each year we must identify reportable customers and accounts and share this information with His Majesty's Revenue and Customs ('HMRC’). After that, HMRC may share the information with other tax authorities around the world.
If you have a personal account with us, we might contact you to confirm your status. We’ll do this if any information we have for you shows you may have tax commitments in another country. This could be a foreign address, postal address, country of residence or telephone number. For FATCA, it might be your nationality or that your place of birth was the US.
What should Santander customers do?
We'll contact you if we think you're affected by FATCA or CRS to collect some further information from you. We'll do this by asking you to complete and return a form to us.
- Please tell us if you think the information we have about you is wrong or out of date. To do this, simply download and complete the Self-Certification form with your up-to-date personal details.
You can send the completed form to:
Santander,
FATCA Central Reporting Unit,
Sunderland,
SR43 4FF
- It's important that you let us know about any changes to your circumstances as soon as possible.
Who is reportable?
If you're a tax resident in another participating country outside the UK, we'll share the information about you and your accounts with HMRC. HMRC might then share this information with the tax authority where you’re a tax resident.
What information is required?
In line with the FATCA and CRS requirements, we'll need to collect your:
- Name
- Address
- Country of birth
- Date of birth
- Country(ies) and jurisdiction(s) of tax residence
- Taxpayer identification number(s)* (for example, US Social Security Number)
* this doesn't apply in all countries and is subject to local law requirements.
A Tax Identification Number (TIN) is a combination of letters and/or numbers you’re assigned by your country of residence. Countries use your TIN to identify you when they’re collecting your tax payments. While some countries call this number a TIN, other countries have slightly different numbers. For example, there’s the National Insurance Number or Social Security Number, which the UK and US use for tax purposes.
Read this guide for more information on the structure and format of TINs that different countries use
If you’re a US citizen, you must provide your social security number (SSN). If you don’t know your SSN, you can contact the Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) serving your region. The FBU provides services for US citizens living abroad on behalf of the Social Security Administration. The FBU will tell you if you’ve been given with a US social security number. They aren’t allowed to tell you the number, so you’ll need to apply for a replacement card.
If you think you’re a tax resident of a foreign jurisdiction but don’t know your TIN, you can contact the tax authority in the relevant country.
Queries
If you need further help on FATCA and the CRS and your tax position, please contact a tax adviser, we can't provide tax advice. You may also find useful guidance on the HMRC AEOI website and the OECD Portal