Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)

FATCA is a U.S. law which requires all financial institutions (FIs) outside of the US (also known as Foreign Financial Institutions, or FFIs) to regularly submit information on financial accounts held by U.S. persons to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The U.S.' intent of FATCA is to deter and detect U.S. tax evasion through the use of foreign financial accounts. Failure to comply with the reporting obligations under FATCA will result in the U.S. Government imposing a 30% withholding tax on certain gross payments made from the U.S. to non-compliant FFIs.

For the purpose of FATCA, a U.S. Person means:

(a) A citizen or lawful permanent resident (including US green card holder) of the U.S.;

or

(b) A partnership or corporation organised in the U.S. or under the laws of the US or any State thereof, or a trust if:

(i) a court within the U.S. would have authority under the applicable law to render orders or judgments concerning substantially all issues regarding the administration of the trust; and

(ii) one or more U.S. persons have the authority to control all substantial decisions of the trust, or an estate of a decedent that is a citizen or resident of the U.S.

With effect from 1 July 2014, a new section on "Declaration of U.S. Indicia" will be added to application forms and affected post-policy documents of Cash Value Insurance Contract or an Annuity Contract offered by Singapore Life Ltd.

U.S. Indicias are indications that the client is a possible U.S. Person. Therefore, client who has one or more U.S. Indicias have complete Singlife "U.S. Person Declaration Form" to declare whether he/she is a U.S. person, and provide the completed relevant IRS Form (W-9 or W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E) together with the satisfactory documentary evidence (if applicable).

The U.S. indicias are:

• Are you a US citizen or resident?
• Were you born in US? 
• Do you have a US Taxpayer ID number?
• Do you have a US mailing or residential address (including a US post office box)?
• Do you have a US telephone number?
• Do you give standing instructions to transfer funds to an account maintained in the US?
• Do you give effective power of attorney or signatory granted to a person with a US address?

You can contact us directly if you have one or more U.S. indicia.

For a status change of U.S. Person to non U.S. Person, a completed "U.S. Person Declaration Form" to be accompanied by completed Form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E with satisfactory documents evidence need to be submitted.

For a status change of non U.S. Person to U.S. Person, a completed "U.S. Person Declaration Form" to be accompanied by Form W-9 needs to be submitted.

These forms are available at here.