On December 16, 2015, the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) published two specimen versions of the “Similar Agreed Form” (password required) in order to inquire the FATCA status of business accounts and documentation of controlling persons of a passive NFFE. Two different versions of the Similar Agreed Form “U.S. Tax Status Declaration (entities)” and one version of the Similar Agreed Form “U.S. Tax Status Declaration (Controlling Person of a passive NFFE)” have been published.
The two versions of the specimen form “U.S. Tax Status Declaration (entities)” differ in terms of the identification procedure of the “controlling persons” of passive NFFEs. Financial institutes are encouraged to choose the according procedure.
Moreover, in recent weeks the SBA had been notified by various banks on low response times of preexisting accounts in their compliance to provide appropriate documentation and pointed out, in that respect, that there are other possible measures to identify business accounts under FATCA (p.3, circular 7871).