FATCA & CRS
FATCA and CRS in Luxembourg: classification comes before reporting.
FATCA and CRS reporting is often approached as an annual June exercise.
That is a mistake.
The first and most important question is not:
“What do we have to report?”
It is:
“What is the entity?”
A Luxembourg fund, holding company, securitisation vehicle or other structure must first establish its FATCA and CRS classification before it can determine whether registration, due diligence or annual reporting obligations arise.
Who may perform a classification, and how SCSps and holding companies are usually treated, are covered in our FATCA and CRS FAQ.
Under Luxembourg FATCA rules, every Luxembourg-resident legal person or legal arrangement should be capable of identifying its FATCA status and providing it to the Luxembourg tax administration if requested.
Depending on its activities, an entity may qualify as a Financial Institution or as a Non-Financial Foreign Entity.
For an investment structure, the analysis can depend on matters such as:
- what assets it holds;
- whether its activities constitute investment activities;
- who manages the assets;
- whether management is performed by another Financial Institution;
- the nature of its investors or account holders.
The label on the front of the vehicle — “SARL”, “SCSp”, “Soparfi” or “securitisation company” — does not by itself provide the FATCA answer.
A Luxembourg Financial Institution falling within the FATCA registration requirement normally registers with the US Internal Revenue Service and obtains a GIIN — Global Intermediary Identification Number.
The GIIN and the details of the FATCA Responsible Officer should then remain up to date.
This point is particularly relevant when directors, administrators or responsible officers change or where a vehicle enters liquidation.
FATCA and CRS are related but they are not identical.
An entity can have different consequences under FATCA and CRS.
For example, the Luxembourg tax administration expressly points out that certain entities treated as non-reporting “Luxembourg Investment Advisors and Investment Managers” under FATCA may nevertheless be reporting Financial Institutions under CRS.
A FATCA classification should therefore not simply be copied into a CRS form.
In practice, the classification exercise follows a decision tree: first determine whether the entity is a Financial Institution. If it is, determine whether it is a Reporting or Non-Reporting Financial Institution. If it is not a Financial Institution, determine whether it is an Active or Passive non-financial entity. The terminology is similar under FATCA and CRS, but the tests are not identical and should be applied separately.
Classification | FATCA | CRS | Practical consequence |
Financial Institution (FI) | Four broad FI types: Depository Institution, Custodial Institution, Investment Entity and Specified Insurance Company. | The same four broad FI types apply, but the CRS definitions must be tested separately. | If the entity is an FI, determine whether it is Reporting or Non-Reporting. Legal form alone is not decisive. |
Reporting Financial Institution | A Luxembourg FI that does not qualify as a Non-Reporting FI under the FATCA IGA and Luxembourg rules. | A Luxembourg FI that is not a Non-Reporting Financial Institution under CRS. | Due diligence and annual ACD reporting apply. Zero Reporting is required if there are no reportable accounts. FATCA registration/GIIN is generally relevant. |
Non-Reporting Financial Institution | Includes specified exempt or deemed-compliant categories. The ACD specifically notes the FATCA treatment of certain “Luxembourg Investment Advisors and Investment Managers”. | CRS has its own Non-Reporting FI categories and no equivalent status for those Luxembourg Investment Advisors and Investment Managers. | Do not copy the FATCA conclusion into CRS: the same entity can be non-reporting under FATCA but reporting under CRS. |
Active NFFE / Active NFE | An NFFE meeting at least one Active NFFE test, e.g. the income/assets test or certain listed, governmental, holding, start-up or winding-up cases. | An NFE meeting at least one Active NFE test. Similar concepts apply, but the CRS rules must be checked independently. | The entity is not an FI and generally documents its status to the Financial Institutions with which it holds accounts. |
Passive NFFE / Passive NFE | Generally, an NFFE that is not an Active NFFE, subject to specific FATCA categories. | Generally, an NFE that is not Active. CRS also captures certain managed Investment Entities in non-participating jurisdictions as Passive NFEs for account-holder due diligence. | The account-holding FI identifies Controlling Persons and assesses whether the entity and/or those persons are reportable. |
For Luxembourg alternative investment structures, three practical traps recur. An SCSp can still be a Financial Institution even though it has no separate legal personality; a holding company or SPV is not automatically an Active NFE simply because it holds shares; and securitisation vehicles require a fact-specific analysis of their activities and management. The classification should therefore be documented, not inferred from the name or legal form of the vehicle.
Broadly, the process involves:
classification → investor/account-holder due diligence → identification of reportable accounts → annual reporting.
The institution should obtain and validate appropriate self-certifications and determine relevant tax residences, TINs and controlling persons where applicable.
Changes in circumstances must also be monitored.
The 30 June deadline
For both FATCA and CRS, Luxembourg Reporting Financial Institutions are generally required to report information relating to the preceding calendar year by 30 June.
So, for information relating to calendar year 2026, the reporting deadline is generally 30 June 2027.
“We have nothing to report” does not mean “we have nothing to file”
This is a critical Luxembourg point.
Luxembourg Reporting Financial Institutions with no reportable accounts are required to submit a Zero Reporting message.
This requirement has applied since 2021 for both FATCA and CRS.
Nil FATCA and CRS filings can be submitted through MyGuichet, while reportable-account filings are transmitted through the authorised secure channels specified by the ACD.
Luxembourg amended the CRS framework through the Law of 27 March 2026 implementing the wider DAC8 / crypto-asset reporting changes.
The revised CRS rules apply from 1 January 2026, with the first reporting under the revised framework due by 30 June 2027 for the 2026 calendar year. The changes broaden the CRS perimeter to digital financial products, including electronic-money products and central-bank digital currencies that are brought into the CRS framework, strengthen due-diligence requirements and require more detailed reporting information. They are designed to align the Luxembourg CRS rules with the revised international CRS standard and the new Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework.
Entities should therefore not wait until June 2027 to consider the changes.
Luxembourg has specific administrative fines for FATCA and CRS. A Reporting Financial Institution that fails to submit either the required information or a Zero Reporting message by the legal deadline can be subject to a fixed EUR 10,000 fine. In addition, where an ACD audit identifies non-compliance with FATCA or CRS obligations, a fine of up to EUR 250,000 may be imposed. Where information on reportable accounts has not been reported, or reported amounts are understated, that ceiling can be increased by up to 0.5% of the amounts not reported. This is why the annual exercise should cover not only the XML filing itself but also the underlying due diligence, evidence, procedures and data quality.
Before closing an investment vehicle, the FATCA and CRS position should also be addressed.
This may include:
final reporting, nil reporting, closure of relevant registrations and, under FATCA, appropriate deregistration of the GIIN where the entity ceases to qualify or ceases to exist.
The ACD specifically notes that GIIN registration information must be kept updated and that deregistration should occur following a relevant status change or removal of the entity.
Amana supports the operational FATCA and CRS compliance process once the entity’s classification and reporting status have been established. We can provide FATCA Responsible Officer (RO) and business Point of Contact (PoC) support, maintain the reporting calendar and GIIN-related operational information, prepare nil and positive FATCA/CRS reports and transmit reportable-account filings through authorised secure reporting channels. We also assist with rejected filings, corrections, ACD queries and remediation of historical or data-quality issues. Where a classification question requires tax or legal advice, we coordinate the implementation with the relevant adviser rather than presenting the reporting service as a tax-classification opinion.
