The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the United States (US) Department of the Treasury, issued FinCEN Notice 2017-1 on 22 December 2017, further extending the filing deadline for certain individuals who previously qualified for an extension of time for certain persons to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) with respect to signature authority over foreign financial accounts. More specifically, Notice 2017-1 extends the filing deadline to 15 April 2019, (which might be automatically extended to 15 October 2019) for reports of signature authority for 2017 and prior years in the situations governed by FinCEN Notices 2011-1 and 2011-2.

This Notice is only relevant for reports of: (i) certain officers and employees of publicly traded or widely held companies with signature authority over foreign financial accounts held by group members, and (ii) employees of Securities and Exchange Commission-registered investment advisors with signature authority over foreign financial accounts owned by customers that are not regulated investment companies, such as hedge funds, venture capital funds and private equity funds.

In other words, this Notice is only relevant for persons who were previously granted extensions of time to report signature authority under FinCEN Notice 2016-1 and preceding guidance. Before issuance of this current Notice, these persons had been given an extension of time to file with respect to signature authority for 2016 and prior years until 2018. FinCEN Notice 2017-1 grants them a further extension of time to file with respect to signature authority for 2017 and prior years until 2019.

It is important to note that neither FinCEN Notice 2017-1 nor its predecessor guidance provides additional time to report financial interests in foreign financial accounts. Nor do they provide additional time to report signature authority over accounts owned by either closely held groups that are not financial institutions or foreign-listed publicly traded groups. They also provide no relief for signature authority over customer accounts held by third parties other than employees of registered investment advisors.

The due date to file a report for any year nominally is 15 April of the following year. However, FinCEN granted an automatic extension, until 15 October of the following year. Therefore, assuming that the automatic extension of time policy remains in effect, the extension of time for 2017 and prior years runs until 15 October 2019.

———————————————
CONTACTS

For additional information with respect to this Alert, please contact the following:

Ernst & Young LLP, International Tax Services, Washington, DC

• Arlene Fitzpatrick
  arlene.fitzpatrick@ey.com
• Joshua Ruland
  joshua.ruland@ey.com

———————————————
ATTACHMENT

PDF version of this Tax Alert