BVI Financial Institutions (BVIFIs) are being informed that the BVI Financial Account Reporting System (BVIFARS) will be offline on Friday, April 28.

Director of the International Tax Authority (ITA), Ms. LaToya James said the BVIFARS will be updated on Friday to allow the BVIFIs to enrol for the Common Reporting Standards (CRS). She added that the system will be back online as early as April 29.

The Director explained that this notice only relates to enrolments; and a further announcement will be issued to inform BVIFIs when the system will be ready to accept submissions for CRS and UK CDOT.

She said the BVIFARS user guide has been updated to reflect the changes in the system and will be available on Government’s website:  www.bvi.gov.vg/fatca under the “Documents” section by Friday, April 28.

She added that Financial Institutions are reminded that if they already have an active account in BVIFARS, whether for US or UK reporting, they are not required to submit a new enrolment application for CRS.   All the institutions are required to do is update their reporting obligations by creating and submitting a “Change of Reporting Obligations” filing. 

For guidance on how to complete the Change of Reporting Obligations filing, refer to page 10 of version 6.0 of the BVIFARS user guide.

The enrolment and submission deadlines for 2017 for CRS and UK CDOT have been extended to June 30 and July 31, respectively. The submission deadline for US FATCA remains as stated in the statute, which is May 31.

For more information on reporting obligations or the ITA please visit our website:  www.bvi.gov.vg/ministry-finance-international-tax-authority or contact the Authority via telephone at (284) 468 4415 or via email at  bvifars@gov.vg or bviita@gov.vg. 

Photo 1:1- FATCA flyer.