On 24 March 2017 the British Virgin Islands government announced that the 2017 deadlines for notification and reporting obligations under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) will be extended by two months. BVI Financial Institutions will have until 30 June 2017 to register with the BVI International Tax Authority (ITA) and will have until 31 July 2017 to complete their reporting.
FATCA Reporting
The FATCA deadlines have remained unchanged. Reporting BVI Financial Institutions should have enrolled on the BVI tax authority reporting portal (BVI FARS) by 1 April 2017. The deadline for reporting all reportable accounts through BVI FARS is 31 May 2017.
UK FATCA
The reporting deadline for UK Crown Dependency and Overseas Territories (UK CDOT) reporting has also been extended along with CRS. Reporting BVI Financial Institutions must report their reportable UK persons by 31 July 2017. The BVI FARS is not yet open for enrolment in respect of UK CDOT reporting. UK CDOT will remain in force until 31 December 2018 so that any queries on information submitted under the UK CDOT in 2017 can be dealt with. Reports for UK CDOT made in 2017 must either be submitted using the manual entry on the BVI tax authority portal or by way of an XML upload on the BVI FARS.