FATCA form - has anyone received one of these?

[CaroleF]

Yesterday I received a letter supposedly from Scottish Widows requesting that I fill in a FATCA form - this is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, along with an eight page document saying how to fill it in. It seemed to be asking me to prove that I am not a US citizen - I'm not! I eventually went to the Money Saving Expert site as I thought there might be something about it on there. I was right there was over six pages of contributions from people who had received the same request, the earliest being last April, so fairly recent. Most of the people on there seemed to have received theirs from Halifax. Many people had done lots of investigation, phoning Halifax for example, asking what on earth it was about, only to be told that Halifax didn't know anything about it and to ignore it. However, another person had been told by Halifax that yes it was genuine and needed filling in. Someone else had badgered Halifax and eventually received something like £50 compensation for the bother they had had!

Some people had a date on their letter as to when the form had to be returned, mine doesn't, and when they just did what most people seem to have done and ignored it, got a follow-up letter warning them that procedures may be taken. The enclosed envelope to return the form in has an address of Lloyds Bank in Leeds - yet the letter came from Scottish Widows. I looked up the postcode on the envelope, googled it to find out that the postcode was no longer in use!

I think my husband is going to hand it over to our Fincancial Advisor and let her suss it out - she's a very bright, canny lady and I'm sure she'll get to the bottom of it. As for the form itself it wants proof that I'm not a US citizen - copy of a passport for example but it has to be notarised by a lawyer or one of various other people, including a Financial Advisor. John had an account with Scottish Widows and recently took the money out - half went to him and half to me so assume it's got something to do with that - although I've never had an account with Scottish Widows myself. The only clue as to what could have happened is that on the MSE site one of the responses was from a man who said that he was born in Cambridge UK and it seems that the US IRS think that he was born in Cambridge Mass. UK. Now I was born in Windsor UK but there is a Windsor in the States in Connecticut so maybe that's a clue, heaven knows. So I just wondered if anyone else has come across this. It seems odd having to prove a negative!

Carole

[barney]

Virtually every English town and city has an American copy Carole, so I doubt it's that.

Best advice is do nothing until you've spoken to an expert.

There are unfortunately a lot of complex scams about.

You read about them on a weekly basis in the Mail on Sunday financial pages.

[towny44]

We had a slightly similar request from M&S money asking for extra information about the additional cardholder (me) on my wife's credit card.
They wanted photo copies of documents proving my name and address, and to have them verified by a reliable citizen. I sent it back without the verification and told them if that was not adequate then tough.

[Mervyn and Trish]

We had to verify our UK residence for Holiday Property Bond

[qbman1]

How do you provide proof of residency at Strangeways ?

[wolfie]

A simple Google reveals that Scottish Widows is part of the Lloyds Banking Group.

If it was me, I would phone SW direct and not rely on MSE or any other forum for advice.

Hope that you have resolved this by now.

[CaroleF]

Thanks Wolfie. We shall be seeing our Financial Advisor in a few weeks so we have done nothing and will hand it all over to her, she'll enjoy dealing with it.

Carole

[Meg 50]

our pensions are with SW - we've received nowt.

though we get trees-worth of other stuff from them - usually one for each account, identical and all in separate envelopes!

[CaroleF]

I'm beginning to think it has something to do with where I was born. I was born in Windsor Berkshire - yes it's now in Buckinghamshire apparently but when I was born it was in Berks - and I've just found out that there is a Windsor Berkshire in Masschusetts USA so that would link up with what another person had said about them being born in Cambridge. Well, I'll see what our Financial Advisor can discover.

Carole

[Silver_Shiney]

Sounds like a phishing or identity theft scam to me - I would take it to the police

[kaymar]

Yes, Carole, I received a letter from my Bank (Barclays) advising me that new tax regulations in the UK require them to report any accounts owned by persons not resident for tax purposes in the UK.

This letter directed me to Barclays' web site then to a specific page for fatca (foreign account tax compliance act) from where I can download the required form. :-

https://www.home.barclays/fatca/#forms

You might like to point your FA in that direction or I suspect that Haliax's web site, or Lloyds may well have something similar

I have no reason to doubt that this letter and request are genuine and, as I am not resident in the UK, I was not particularly surprised to receive it. Your situation is obviously different but your own explanation sounds plausible if a computer somewhere has made a connection.

I have not yet responded but I will almost certainly do so in due course.

[kaymar]

I meant to add though, Carole, that my letter made no mention of any supporting documentation such as a certified copy passport, only a N.I. number. That variance alone would give me cause for concern and further investigation as you are doing.

[CaroleF]

Thanks Kaymar, will let you know what happens, if and when.

Carole

[wolfie]

Thanks Wolfie. We shall be seeing our Financial Advisor in a few weeks so we have done nothing and will hand it all over to her, she'll enjoy dealing with it.

Carole

Personally I wouldn't wait any time at all...............anything could happen in the meantime if it was actually genuine, though I have doubts.

Our FA is easily contactable by phone, mobile or office, and , if it was me, I would be on to them PDQ, though I fail to see what more advice than contacting SW direct they could offer. Then, I am one for getting to the bottom of things quickly.

[wolfie]

PS

Just Googled: FATCA e mail phishing scam and also FATCA spoof e mails.

[CaroleF]

Well all this was now months ago but I thought people might be interested to hear the end of the tale. When we saw our Financial Advisor she'd never heard of this and she's quite on the ball. So we left things with her and then just before Christmas I received a second letter saying that I hadn't replied to the request to fill in the form and provide proof that I wasn't an American citizen. After Christmas my Financial Advisor got it touch and said yes it was authentic and I was required under the FACTA act to submit said proof. So I filled in the form as best I could, some of the questions I couldn't answer as I am not American - asking for my IRS number. I also had to give a photocopy of my passport. All this was handed to my Financial Advisor and she then dealt with it. She did say that as far as she could discover it was to do with my place of birth - this seems to be borne out by the fact that my husband did not get such a request - he had half the money they are referring to - but his place of birth does not have an equivalent in the States. Anyway, since then I've heard nothing more. I was worried who this information was going to but after my Financial Advisor had spoken to Lloyds and to Scottish Widows she was certain that this information was safe and that, by law I had to supply it. All very worrying as to what another country can require of people who are not their citizens!

[wolfie]

Thanks for the update Carole. What a palaver just because they changed county boundaries years ago!

[kaymar]

Thanks for the update, Carole. Like you, I filled in the form, sent it off and, also like you, I have heard nothing further - in fact, until I saw your post, I had forgotten all about it.

The American tax authorities are very concerned about their citizens "hiding" money abroad and not paying tax - with good reason, I suspect!