tax/CRS-FATCA

Who is caught

These instruments implement the British Virgin Islands' cross-border tax information exchange framework, principally the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS), US and UK FATCA-style agreements, Country-by-Country reporting under BEPS Action 13, the earlier EU Savings Directive regime, and a network of bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreements. The framework rests on the Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Act, 2003 and its amendments, administered by the International Tax Authority, which the International Tax Authority Act establishes as the competent authority.

Reporting financial institutions

• CRS reporting institutions: Reporting Financial Institutions / Virgin Islands Financial Institutions resident in the BVI, including custodial institutions, depository institutions, investment entities and specified insurance companies caught by the CRS definitions.
• FATCA institutions: Financial Institutions and Reporting Financial Institutions holding or reporting on US reportable accounts (BVI-US IGA) and UK reportable accounts (UK-BVI agreement).
• CRS 2.0 expansion: The 2026 CRS amendment and related guidance extend depository and investment entity definitions to specified e-money products, central bank digital currencies and indirect crypto-asset holdings, and add a statutory test of Virgin Islands residence based on incorporation, effective management or financial supervision.

Other reporting populations

• MNE constituent entities: Constituent Entities of Multinational Enterprise Groups are brought within Country-by-Country reporting under Part IV inserted by the 2018 amendment.
• Paying agents: Paying agents and economic operators paying or securing interest to EU-resident beneficial owners were caught by the EU Savings Directive regime (originally withholding tax, later automatic exchange).

Information holders under TIEAs

The bilateral TIEAs and the Multilateral Convention operate government-to-government, but they underpin the competent authority's power to compel production from banks, other financial institutions, persons acting in a nominee, agency or fiduciary capacity (including trustees), and holders of beneficial ownership information on companies, partnerships, trusts and foundations. Companies incorporated under the BVI Business Companies Act are separately caught by record-keeping duties inserted into the principal Act. The 2022 amendment to the International Tax Authority Act extends the Authority's oversight to legal entities generally, financial institutions, intermediaries, MNE groups and reportable taxpayers.

Sources: International Tax Authority (Amendment) Act, 2022 (No. 3 of 2022) · International Tax Authority Act (Revised Edition 2020) · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2026 · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2025 (No. 18 of 2025) · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2018 (No. 8 of 2018) · No. 17 of 2015 Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 2015 · Guidance Notes on the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) · SI. 44 of 2015 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Order, 2015 · No. 11 of 2012 - Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2012 · No. 17 of 2015 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 2015 · No. 8 of 2018 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2018 · Guidance Notes to Automatic Exchange of Information under the EU Savings Directive · International Tax Authority Act (Revised 2020) · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (No. 2) Order, 2014 · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (No. 2) Order, 2015 · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Order, 2013 (SI 2013 No. 39) · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Order, 2013 · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Order, 2018 (SI 2018 No. 2)

Key duties

The recurring duties for reporting institutions are registration, an annual electronic return, and six-year record retention, all handled through the BVI Financial Account Reporting System (BVIFARS). The following are the principal continuing obligations under the CRS and FATCA instruments.

• Registration/notification: Under the CRS regime, institutions with reporting obligations must notify/register with the Competent Authority (existing institutions by 30 April 2019 under the 2018 amendment; the earlier 2015 provisions set 30 April of the first reporting year) and must immediately notify any change to the information provided. FATCA institutions must additionally register on the IRS website for a GIIN and register with the BVI Competent Authority (UK-agreement registration is required no later than 1 April of the first reporting year).
• Annual return: CRS Reporting Financial Institutions must file an annual electronic return of Reportable Account information (or a nil return where none is maintained) on or before 31 May of the year following the calendar year concerned. FATCA returns follow specified deadlines (for the BVI-US IGA, 2014 information by 30 June 2015 and subsequent years by 31 May).
• Due diligence: Institutions must establish and maintain arrangements to identify reportable accounts, determine account holders' and controlling persons' tax residence, and apply the CRS or Annex I due diligence procedures. Guidance requires the wider approach - due diligence on all account holders, not only those in current Reportable Jurisdictions.
• Written policies and procedures: Each Virgin Islands Financial Institution must establish, implement and maintain written CRS policies and procedures, including retention of records for at least six years.
• Record-keeping: Records and documentary evidence relating to CRS/FATCA compliance and reported information must be kept for six years; separately, BVI companies must keep records and underlying documentation (including accounts, invoices and contracts) for at least five years at the registered agent's office or a determined location, notifying the registered agent of any change of location within fourteen days.
• Additional Information Form: Guidance requires all institutions with CRS obligations to file a CRS Additional Information Form through BVIFARS within nine months of the end of the financial period; extension requests go to the ITA compliance team.
• Annual BVIFARS fee: Entities required to be enrolled in BVIFARS must pay an annual fee of 185 dollars on or before 1 June each year.

Country-by-Country reporting

• Registration: Constituent Entities of non-excluded MNE Groups must register with the Competent Authority no later than the last day of the Reporting Fiscal Year and notify changes immediately.
• Report filing: The report must be filed in the OECD standard template no later than twelve months after the last day of the Reporting Fiscal Year.

Governance and cooperation

• Compliance systems: Under the 2022 amendment to the International Tax Authority Act, every legal entity must maintain adequate systems, controls and a compliance procedures manual, respond to information notices, and permit and cooperate with inspections and examinations.
• Agents: An institution appointing an agent to perform its reporting duties remains responsible for the agent's compliance and must retain access to relevant records.
• Information production: Institutions and information holders must produce or make records available on request, including bringing records held outside the BVI into the jurisdiction within the specified time.

Sources: International Tax Authority (Amendment) Act, 2022 (No. 3 of 2022) · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Fees) Order, 2024 · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2018 (No. 8 of 2018) · No. 17 of 2015 Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 2015 · Guidance Notes on the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) · SI. 44 of 2015 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Order, 2015 · No. 11 of 2012 - Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2012 · No. 3 of 2015 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2015 · No. 17 of 2015 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 2015 · No. 8 of 2018 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2018 · Guide to Completing the Additional Information Forms · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (No. 2) Order, 2015 · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Order, 2018 (SI 2018 No. 2)

Exemptions and carve-outs

The instruments provide several categories of carve-out from reporting.

• Non-Reporting Financial Institutions: Non-Reporting Financial Institutions (for example certain pension funds, government entities and exempt collective investment vehicles) are outside the reporting population, though the 2026 amendment narrows the exclusion for Government Entities, International Organisations and Central Banks so it does not cover certain commercial financial activity or CBDC maintenance for non-exempt account holders.
• Excluded Accounts: Schedule 6 to the CRS provisions treats certain dormant accounts (balance not exceeding 1,000 US dollars, with specified inactivity) as Excluded Accounts that are not reportable.
• Local company certificate: The 2023 amendment to the International Tax Authority Act allows a local company (a VI-resident company or limited partnership able to show no tax liabilities outside the Virgin Islands) to apply for a certificate of exclusion from certain reporting obligations and to file directly with the competent authority.
• Excluded MNE Groups: Constituent Entities of Excluded MNE Groups (consolidated group revenue under 750 million euro) are outside Country-by-Country reporting.
• BVI tax residents: Guidance states the Virgin Islands does not require local filing for BVI tax residents; institutions tax resident elsewhere must register in BVIFARS, disclose that jurisdiction and evidence they are meeting CRS obligations there to avoid duplicate filing.
• Transitional relief: For Reportable Accounts maintained as of 31 December 2025, the specific role of a controlling person or equity interest holder need only be reported where electronically searchable, for reporting periods ending by the second calendar year after that date.
• Due diligence options: Section 32A permits optional simplifications, including excluding small pre-existing entity accounts below 250,000 US dollars, subject to record-keeping of the option exercised.
• Legal privilege: Information subject to legal privilege is excluded from information notices, and TIEA requests may be declined on public-policy, privilege or trade-secret grounds.

Sources: The International Tax Authority (Amendment) Act, 2023 (No. 17 of 2023) · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2026 · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2018 (No. 8 of 2018) · No. 17 of 2015 Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 2015 · Guidance Notes on the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Act, 2003 (No. 18 of 2003) · No. 17 of 2015 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 2015 · No. 8 of 2018 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2018 · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Order, 2018 (SI 2018 No. 2)

Enforcement and penalties

Enforcement runs through both criminal offences in the underlying Acts and an administrative penalty regime operated by the Authority.

Administrative penalties

• Regime: The International Tax Authority (Administrative Penalties) Regulations, 2023 let the Authority impose penalties for contraventions of the Act or mutual legal assistance legislation, following a breach notice, a 21-day period for representations, and a penalty notice payable within 14 days; appeals go to the Court within 30 days.
• Amounts: The Schedule sets tiered fines: late filing/response from 100 up to 10,000 dollars, false information 2,000 to 50,000 dollars, failure to comply with a production notice 1,000 to 50,000 dollars, compliance contraventions 1,000 to 15,000 dollars, and a catch-all of 100 to 50,000 dollars.
• Continuing and late-payment penalties: An unremedied contravention attracts a continuing penalty of 50 dollars per day; late payment of a fee or penalty attracts a surcharge of 5 percent per month up to 60 percent of the amount. The Authority cannot issue a breach notice more than two years after it knew of the contravention.

Criminal offences

• General penalty: Where the Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Act imposes an obligation with no specific penalty, non-compliance is an offence punishable on indictment by a fine up to 100,000 dollars or up to five years imprisonment, or both. Breaches under the FATCA and UK-agreement Orders attract this general penalty.
• CRS/reporting offences: The 2025 amendment broadens offences by Reporting Virgin Islands Financial Institutions (failure to comply, failure to report, false or negligent reports, destroying records, obstruction), with fines up to 5,000 dollars and up to two years imprisonment for certain offences; inaccurate or incomplete returns can carry a fine up to 100,000 dollars and up to two years imprisonment. Failure to register, maintain policies, or file, and wilful false information or self-certification, are offences punishable by fines up to 100,000 dollars under the 2018 amendment.
• Personal liability: The 2025 amendment identifies liable persons where the reporting entity is a limited partnership or trust - the general partners, the trustee, and any de facto decision maker - who face summary or indictable penalties, the latter up to 100,000 dollars or five years imprisonment.
• Information notices and examinations: Failure to comply with an information notice without lawful excuse is an offence (fine up to 5,000 dollars or imprisonment up to two years); tipping off carries a fine up to 100,000 dollars or up to five years on indictment. Failure to attend or answer at an examination under oath under the 2022 amendment is an offence with a fine up to 5,000 dollars.
• Confidentiality: Unauthorised disclosure by persons connected with the Authority is an offence carrying a fine up to 10,000 dollars or imprisonment up to one year, or both.

Sources: International Tax Authority (Amendment) Act, 2022 (No. 3 of 2022) · International Tax Authority Act (Revised Edition 2020) · International Tax Authority (Administrative Penalties) Regulations, 2023 (SI No. 92 of 2023) · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2025 (No. 18 of 2025) · SI. 44 of 2015 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Order, 2015 · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) Act, 2003 (No. 18 of 2003) · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2005 (No. 16 of 2005) · No. 11 of 2011 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2011 · No. 10 of 2013 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2013 · No. 12 of 2014 – Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (Amendment) Act, 2014 · International Tax Authority Act (Revised 2020) · Mutual Legal Assistance (Tax Matters) (No. 2) Order, 2015