The Internal Revenue Service has extended the deadline for foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to renew their FFI Agreements to October 24, 2017.  We previously wrote about the IRS’ publication in late 2016 of an updated “FFI Agreement” to be entered into by foreign financial institutions that wish to remain compliant with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). All foreign financial institutions that had in effect an FFI Agreement that expired on December 31, 2016, and that wished to retain their GIIN and thereby remain FATCA-compliant, were required to do so by July 31, 2017. Those financial institutions that were required to renew their FFI agreement and did not do so by July 31 were to be treated as having terminated their FFI agreement as of January 1, 2017, and were to be removed from the list of FATCA-compliant financial institutions maintained on the IRS website.

On August 1, 2017 — one day after the FFI renewal deadline — the IRS published a new “Frequently Asked Question” on its FATCA web page extending the deadline to October 24, 2017. The text of the FAQ is as follows:

Q.12.  I am an entity that must renew the FFI agreement, but I missed the July 31, 2017, renewal deadline. Can I still renew the FFI agreement and be treated as having the current FFI agreement in effect as of January 1, 2017?
Yes, participating FFIs (including Reporting Model 2 FFIs) that have otherwise complied with the terms of the FFI agreement (including, since January 1, 2017, the current FFI Agreement) have until October 24, 2017, to renew the FFI agreement and continue to be treated as a participating FFI.

If an entity that is required to renew the FFI agreement does not renew the FFI agreement by October 24, 2017, the registration status of the entity will be changed to “incomplete,” the entity’s GIIN will no longer appear on the monthly FFI List beginning in November, and the entity will be considered a nonparticipating FFI as of January 1, 2017, as provided in section 3.02 of Revenue Procedure 2017-16.

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