To comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), we may need to ask you a few questions about your US tax status.
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a United States (US) law aimed at reducing tax evasion by US citizens and tax residents who have financial accounts outside the United States. FATCA was incorporated into New Zealand law with effect from 1 July 2014.
New Zealand financial institutions, including Kiwibank, are required to provide relevant information to Inland Revenue (IR) about customers who may be considered to be a ‘US person’ for FATCA purposes. IR passes this information on to the US Internal Revenue Service.
FATCA affects ‘US persons’ who have financial accounts outside the United States. US persons include:
Joint account holders are considered separately for FATCA purposes.
If you choose not to provide this information, we may have a legal obligation to report your information to IR.
There are consequences for anyone who provides false or misleading information, fails to provide information, or fails to provide an update if there is a material change to the information the person has previously provided to us. IR can impose penalties of $1,000 per offence and criminal penalties can also apply for knowledge-based offences.
The information we're required to report are your:
The best places to find out more are: