As of January, changes to the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act or FACTA, which was adopted in the United States to prevent tax evasion and fraud involving American citizens and residents using foreign bank accounts, are being prepared.
FACTA has ensured the automatic exchange of information concerning financial accounts for tax purposes between the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic and the Internal Revenue Services in the USA since 2015. FACTA commits financial institutions (banks, insurers and mutual funds) to provide the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic with information on the financial accounts of American citizens and residents for 2016 by 30 June 2017. The Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic then sends the received information to the Internal Revenue Service in the United States by 30 September 2017.
The change in this year involves the submission of information to the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic. Only the new form will be valid beginning in January and must be used for new filings in 2017 and to amend erroneous filings from 2016. The current form includes new elements and the previous form shall be null and void.
Financial institutions may be subject to fines of up to €10,000 for failing to fulfil FACTA-related obligations under Act No. 359/2015 Coll.
