SMSFs carved out of FATCA
The US and Australian governments have excluded SMSFs and superannuation from the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
Earlier this week, the federal government announced it has entered into an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the US to "reduce the burden on Australian financial institutions" of complying with the US FATCA.
Treasurer Joe Hockey heralded ramifications for “a large part of the Australian financial services sector”.
However, the IGA will carve SMSFs out of the FATCA compliance net under the exemption for Australian superannuation entities, the SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia’s senior manager for technical and policy, Jordan George, told SMSF Adviser.
“This means that any SMSFs that have a US citizen as a trustee/member or have US assets do not need to adhere to the strict FATCA reporting compliance which will save on compliance costs for trustees and their advisers,” he said.
“So trustees and advisers are in a position where they do not have to do anything because of the agreement.”
AMP SMSF’s head of policy and technical, Peter Burgess, also noted on Twitter that this carve out should mean there are no extra reporting obligations for SMSFs.
