Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) and Compliance Technologies International, LLP (CTI) have entered into a venture in which BBH will be the exclusive distributor of CTIs proprietary E-W8 application.
The application automates the initial submission, renewal and validation of US tax forms associated with investment into the US. E-W8 provides a solution to the account-opening challenges that will be faced by all non-US financial institutions under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Through this venture, BBH will distribute the application exclusively to non-US based banks, broker-dealers, global asset managers and transfer agents.
The industry is currently preparing to respond to FATCA, which becomes effective Jan. 1, 2013, at which time financial institutions will be required to adopt enhanced, new account due diligence requirements. Moreover, for the first time, non-US funds and asset managers will have US tax compliance obligations.
BBH is committed to providing our clients with an array of products and solutions to assist with US tax compliance, says Tim Connelly, partner at Brown Brothers Harriman. CTIs technology streamlines the document review process, ultimately generating operational efficiencies to reduce regulatory risk and save money for our clients. Weve been working with CTI for years. The company is a premiere provider of US tax-compliance solutions. We look forward to partnering with CTI to provide these tools directly to our clients.
Cyrus Daftary, executive director and co-founder of CTI, adds: Given the increasing compliance demands in the tax information withholding and reporting area, coupled with FATCA requirements, the synergies created by this alliance between BBH and CTI will be extremely beneficial to the global financial services industry. Through this partnership with BBH, we will provide clients with streamlined compliance processing, enhanced operational efficiencies and continued service excellence.
(CM)