News

While CRS 2.0 will enter into force as scheduled on 1 January 2026, the entry into force of the Swiss CARF provisions has been postponed until at least 2027. As a result, both CARF reporting and due diligence obligations are deferred, providing affected financial institutions with additional time for preparation. At the same time, further regulatory developments are coming into focus, including the revised FATCA agreement (expected to enter into force no earlier than 1 January 2027), new electronic filing requirements in the QI environment, and the postponed introduction of the German MiKaDiv reporting obligations by the end of 2026.

Due to the upcoming changes in the e-filing obligations of the Form 1042, PQS applied for the required status as Electronic Return Originator and Transmitter with the IRS to be able to file Form 1042 and its attachments electronically via the Modernized e-File Platform (MeF) and has recently attained this status. With this newsletter, we would like to inform you about the significant changes in the e-filing obligations of the Forms 1042 and 1042-S, which will have an impact on all filers such as Qualified Intermediaries (“QIs”), Qualified Derivatives Dealer (“QDDs”) and Withholding Foreign Partnerships (“WFPs”) as well as our new e-filing service for Form 1042 and its attachments.

We would like to inform international taxpayers and especially Qualified Intermediaries with primary withholding responsibility (“Primary QIs”), Qualified Derivatives Dealer (“QDDs”), Withholding Foreign Partnerships (“WFPs”) and Withholding Foreign Trusts (“WFPs”) about the new message format requirement for remitting tax payments to the U.S. Treasury.

With our Newsletter Notice 2024-44 and Form 1120-F we would like to inform about the extension of the phase-in period for certain rules under Section 871(m), 1441, 1461 and 1473 of the Internal Revenue Code (the "Section 871(m) Regulations") and remind our QDD clients of the filing of Form 1120-F.

The IRS recently announced eagerly anticipated relief regarding accessing the Information Returns Application for Transmitter Control Code (IR-TCC) System, as well as the File Information Returns Electronically (FIRE) System, and also informed about other platforms that will be used by filers in the future.

With this extensive information we would like to inform about the changes made to Form 4419, the updates to the FIRE system, the new IR-TCC system introduced by the IRS, and the proposed and possible solutions to the challenges resulting from the changes.

We would like to inform all QIs that the IRS scheduled to deploy a new application process for new users of the Filing Information Returns Electronically (FIRE) system. Existing FIRE users are asked to review their current filing data in the FIRE system before September 15, 2021, and to transition to the new process in late 2022.

The IRS specified which entities are required to submit a Nil report to the IRS for FATCA reporting purposes. Accordingly only Direct Reporting Non-Financial Foreign Entities (NFFE) have to submit a Nil report to the IRS. For all other entities, the submission of a Nil report is optional.