Common Reporting Standard FAQs

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a global standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information between governments around the world to help fight against tax evasion and protect the integrity of systems.

It requires all Banks and Financial Institutions including ICICI Bank UK Plc who operate in CRS participating jurisdiction to gather certain customer information and report it to local tax authorities.

ICICI Bank UK Plc together with other financial institutions across the world is required to comply with the CRS requirements with respect to due diligence and reporting. ICICI Bank UK Plc is required to identify and report customers that are resident in a participating jurisdiction for tax purposes and are holding a financial account in another.

ICICI Bank UK Plc needs to comply with CRS legislation. We are obliged under CRS to identify and report customers to HMRC or their local tax authority if we understand them to have a tax residency in a participating jurisdiction which is different to the jurisdiction where the account is held. To do this we need to collect and report certain information relating to their tax residency status.

All banks and their branches in other participating jurisdictions are legally obliged to comply with CRS regulatory requirements.

There may be a number of reasons why we have contacted you, depending on circumstances. We have contacted those customers where we have information that leads us to believe they are resident for tax purposes in the UK or another participating jurisdiction, as applicable.

For individual customers with account(s) in a participating jurisdiction, this is usually based on:

• tax residence in another CRS participating jurisdiction
• current mailing or residence address which includes a PO Box number, “in care of” or “hold mail”, in another CRS participating jurisdiction
• one or more telephone numbers in another CRS participating jurisdiction and no telephone number in home jurisdiction
• current effective Power of Attorney or Signatory Authority granted to a person with an address in another CRS participating jurisdiction
• for accounts that are not depository accounts – standing instructions to transfer funds to an account maintained in another CRS participating jurisdiction.

For entities with account(s) in a CRS participating jurisdiction, this is usually based on:

• A place of incorporation or organisation in a reportable jurisdiction
• An address in a reportable jurisdiction
• Where the entity is a trust, an address of one or more of the trustees in a reportable jurisdiction

Additional information may be shared where the beneficial owners of an entity are reportable persons i.e. tax residence in another CRS jurisdiction.

ICICI Bank UK Plc is obliged under the CRS to report customers to HMRC or their local tax authority if we have information about them which leads us to believe they hold a financial account and are resident for tax purposes in one of the CRS participating jurisdictions. We think that some of the information we hold about you is missing or incomplete. We need to ask you for this information again so we can understand if we need to send your details to your local tax authority.

A customer may be reported to HMRC or their local tax authority if we have information about them which leads us to believe they hold a financial account and are resident for tax purposes in one of the CRS participating jurisdictions.

The following information will be reported:

For Individuals/Controlling Persons

• Name, address, date of birth of financial account holders
• Place of birth
• Country(ies) of tax residence
• Tax Identification Number (or equivalent where applicable)
• Account details
• Reporting entity where the account with us is held e.g. ICICI Bank UK Plc
• The total account balance or value of your accounts as of the end of the calendar year or other appropriate period.
• Gross amount of interest, gross amount of dividends, and the gross amount of other income or the proceeds from the sale or redemption of investments paid or credited to the account.

For Entities

• Name and address
• Country(ies) of tax residence
• Tax Identification Number (or equivalent where applicable)
• Account details
• The account balance or value as of the end of the calendar year or other appropriate period.
• Gross amount of interest, gross amount of dividends, and the gross amount of other income or the proceeds from the sale or redemption of investments paid or credited to the account
• For some entities the information on the controlling person (please refer to above individual section).

CRS applies to certain accounts with investment features such as savings, current accounts, cash value life insurance and certain other investments. However, CRS regulations allow for certain exceptions such as lending products and loans.

We may still need to report you to the local tax authorities where the account is held. We will only report you for the year in which the account was closed

We understand that you may be unhappy that we shall be reporting you as tax resident in the UK or a CRS country to HMRC your local tax authority. However, we are legally obliged to comply with CRS legislation, which has been introduced into law and the information we hold on you leads us to believe that you are resident for tax purposes in a CRS participating jurisdiction.

If you do not believe we should be sharing your information with the local tax authority you should contact us and advise us. We will re-issue a tax residency self-certification form which you should complete and return along with a reasonable explanation or any documentary proof requested such as a passport/driving licence as proof of residency for tax purposes.

Following the United States of America’s (US) Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) legislation and the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories’ (CDOT) legislation, the UK has committed to the CRS and the Automatic Exchange of Information with other participating jurisdictions throughout the world. The CRS agreements are separate to the FATCA/CDOT agreements.

For entities:

Under both FATCA and CDOT we have to establish where your entity is resident for tax purposes and what type of entity it is under a specific set of classification rules. This means we may have to ask you to complete a separate self-certification form for FATCA/CDOT and CRS. We can then accurately classify your organisation which will help us understand if we need to report it under either FATCA or CRS legislation as we cannot always rely on the FATCA classification for CRS, and vice versa.

For Individuals/Entities:

Under both FATCA and CDOT and now CRS we have to establish where you are resident for tax purposes so that we can work out if your account is reportable to the relevant tax authority. If any of the information we hold for you changes and suggests your tax residence may have also changed, for example, if you move to a different country, or if you have information on your account that conflicts with your country of tax residence, we may need to contact you again to re-confirm where you are resident for tax purposes to ensure our records are accurate and that they are up to date.

No. We are required by law to share this data with relevant tax authorities. Under the terms of the Data Protection Notice (DPN) contained in your product Terms and Conditions we are not required to obtain consent in such circumstances.

However, to meet the fairness requirements of UK and local data protection legislation, we will inform you that your details have been, or may be, transferred to the relevant tax authority and subsequently shared with other authorities as appropriate. Full details of our privacy policy can be found in your Terms and Conditions. These can be found in the Data Protection Notices.

If you are unhappy that we have shared this data with relevant tax authorities as we are obliged to do under the CRS legislation please refer to our Complaint process.