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Issue Number:  2015-8

Inside This Issue

1. New! FATCA IDES Gateway Opens

Large Business & International announces the opening of the International Data Exchange Service (IDES) Gateway. Financial institutions and host country tax authorities began IDES enrollment in January 2015. All IDES enrollees may use the IDES Gateway to securely send Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) information reports on financial accounts held by U.S. persons. IDES will operate on all major browsers, such as Chrome and Internet Explorer, and will support application-to-application exchanges through SFTP transmission protocols. Data transmitted via IDES will be encrypted at both the file and transmission level to safeguard sensitive tax information. 

The online address for IDES enrollment and a link to IDES Gateway can be found on the IDES enrollment site, and the IDES User Guide with instructions for enrolling and using IDES can be found on the IDES home page.  To complete IDES enrollment, financial institutions will need to have registered as a participating financial institution through the IRS FATCA Registration System and have a global intermediary identification number (GIIN) that appears on the current IRS FATCA Foreign Financial Institution list. 

Financial institutions and host country tax authorities are encouraged to complete the enrollment process and initiate transmission before the Form 8966 reporting deadline. An automatic 90-day extension of time to file Form 8966 may be requested. For calendar year 2014 only an automatic 90-day extension of time to file Form 8966 will be provided to all filers (including those filing electronically), without the need to file any form or take any action. For more information, review the 2014 Instructions for Form 8966.

If you need help or have questions about IDES enrollment, transmission or system alerts, please contact IDES Customer Support at 1-800-613-IDES (4773) or by email at helpdesk@ides-support.com. IDES Customer Support is available 24 hours a day except on U.S. federal holidays. If you need additional information about data preparation or other aspects of FATCA reporting please visit the IRS FATCA website.

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