Certification of Internal Controls

Certification of Internal Controls by the QI Responsible Officer

According to the QI Agreement, a Responsible Officer is required to perform a Certification of Internal Controls in the year following the certification period from 2015 until 2017.

On February 23, 2018, the IRS announced that the QI/WP/WT application and account management system will be open to accept QI/WP/WT certifications beginning early April.

• For QIs having a QI Agreement in effect since 2014 and that elected the review year 2015 or 2016 for the periodic review, or apply for waiver from the periodic compliance review, the due date for the certification for their compliance with the QI Agreement will be July 1, 2018. These QIs are eligible for an automatic extension to September 1, 2018 to provide the certification.

• For QIs having a QI Agreement in effect since 2014 and that elected the review year 2017 for their periodic review (absent waiver) the due date of the certification will be December 31, 2018. These QIs are eligible for an automatic extension to March 1, 2019 to provide the certification.

For more information about the waiver application to the QI Compliance Review, please refer to our Newsletter No. 10/2017. QIs not acting as a QDD and that are not part of a consolidated compliance group are eligible for a waiver when the reportable amounts received by the QI cannot exceed USD 5 million for each year in the certification period and when they filed their reportings timely for all year in the certification period. QIs eligible for a waiver from the QI Compliance Review requirement may request a waiver simultaneously with the certification of internal controls.

Periodic certification by FATCA Responsible Officer

According to the FFI Agreement, the FATCA Responsible Officer is required to perform a Certification of Effective Internal Controls in the year following the certification period from 2015 until 2017.

By July 1, 2018, the Responsible Officers of financial institutions with an FFI Agreement in effect since 2014 must make a periodic certification under FATCA.

On March 20, 2018, the IRS announced that for entities with a certification due by July 1, 2018, the Responsible Officer will have no less than 3 months from the deployment of the certifications on the FATCA Registration Portal to submit them, meaning by October 1, 2018 at the latest.

Please note that the IRS has also released the draft certification questions.