Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service have made several announcements in the past fews days as the steady march of FATCA implementation continues.

1. The United States announced the signing of two more Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs) to implement FATCA.  The latest IGAs were signed by the Netherlands and Curacao, and are dated December 18 and 16, respectively.  Both agreements are identified as Model 1 IGAs.  A complete list of IGAs that have been signed, or reached in substance, is available on the Treasury website here.

2.  On January 7, 2015, the IRS published an updated version of Form W-9, entitled “Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification” with instructions.  For FATCA purposes, this form is to be used by Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs) to identify U.S. persons.  The new form has an exemptions box on the front of the form that includes entry for the “Exempt payee code (if any)” and “Exemption from FATCA Reporting Code (if any).”  The references for the appropriate codes are in the “Exemptions” section of the form, and in the “Payees Exempt from Backup Withholding” and “Payees and Account Holders Exempt From FATCA Reporting” sections of these instructions.  The “Certifications” section in Part II of the form includes certifications relating to FATCA reporting.

3.  On January 6, 2015, the IRS released a draft version of Publication 5190, entitled “FATCA IDES User Guide.”  This guide is intended to serve as a tool for financial institutions (FIs) and Host Country Tax Authorities (HCTAs) who enroll in the International Data Exchange Service (IDES) to transmit FATCA data.  The IRS also released Publication 5188, entitled “FATCA Metadata XML Schema v1.0 User Guide.”  This guide is intended to serve as a tool for FIs and HCTAs who transmit data through IDES.  It explains how to prepare and validate the IDES metadata file used in FATCA reporting.

UPDATE:  On January 7, 2015, Treasury announced that Qatar had signed an IGA with the United States to implement FATCA.  Qatar’s agreement is a Model 1 IGA and can be found here.