The FATCA Registration Process -- A Primer on the IRS FFI Net

In this report, Dean Marsan examines the new foreign financial institution registration process created by the IRS and how it will fit into the larger FATCA and tax information global ecosystem. After conducting an in-depth review of the registration process contemplated by the IRS for global financial institutions — small and large, foreign and U.S. — Marsan concludes that the newly finalized Form 8957, "Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Registration," and its electronic brethren on the newly opened FATCA portal funnel into a single registration form more than 700 pages of tax regulations and other administrative guidance, hundreds of pages of newly (and yet to be agreed on) intergovernmental agreements from more than 80 countries, and the domestic laws in each of those countries. This report includes a discussion of the FATCA online registration user guide recently released by the IRS, and the correcting amendments to the FATCA final regulations released on September 10, including current registration planning under those new rules