The Internal Revenue Service has issued a reminder to foreign financial institutions to renew their Foreign Financial Institution (FFI) agreement if required. These FFIs have until October 24, 2017 to complete their renewal. Those that fail to renew their agreements could be removed from the November FFI list and be subject to a 30 percent tax on certain U.S. source payments.

“We’ve worked with foreign financial institutions to implement FATCA registration and information reporting,” said Large Business & International Commissioner Doug O’Donnell. “An important October deadline is approaching that some of these groups might overlook. We urge foreign financial institutions to make sure they timely renew their agreements, using the FATCA FFI Registration System, to avoid losing their status.”‎

Those who are required to renew their FFI agreement and do not by October 24, 2017, will be treated as having terminated their FFI agreement as of January 1, 2017.

The FATCA FFI Registration system has been updated to include the ability for FFIs to renew their agreements with the IRS. Once logged into the registration system, a financial institution can determine whether it must renew its FFI agreement using the link to “Renew FFI Agreement.” Once the determination is made, the system enables a financial institution to review and edit their registration form as needed. The financial institution will need to verify and update their registration information and submit to renew their FFI agreement.