Annexure to Account Opening Form for Individuals containing information for reporting requirement under Section 285BA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 and KYC.
Background:
1. India joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI) on June 3, 2015 and has agreed to certain global standards on
the automatic exchange of information, known as Common Reporting Standards (CRS). Further, the Government of India (GoI) signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with United States of America (USA) on July 9, 2015, to improve international tax compliance and to implement Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in India.
2. To implement the CRS on AEOI and also the IGA with USA, the GoI has made necessary amendments in Section 285BA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 and notified Rules 114F to 114H in the Income-tax Rules, 1962 vide amendment dated August 7, 2015. These Rules are available at: http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in.
3. RBI has issued a circular dated July 25, 2014, advising all NBFCs to implement FATCA and CRS as per above mentioned Rules.
We do understand that the information mentioned above is technical in nature and hence we advise you to consult your financial or tax advisor for more details.
With respect to the above, the following is being declared:
Declaration and Undertakings
The Customer/account holder certifies that:
a. I / We hereby declare that I am a tax resident of India (not an NRI). I / We declare that I am neither politically exposed or related to a politically exposed person
b. This declaration is in accordance with Section 285BA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 read with Rules 114F to 114H of the Income-tax Rules, 1962.
c. The information provided by me/us relating to tax residency as well as in the documentary evidence provided by me/us are, to the best of our knowledge and belief, true, correct and complete and that I/we have not withheld any material information that may affect the assessment/categorization of the account as a Reportable account or otherwise.
d. I/We permit/authorise the Company to collect, store, communicate and process information relating to the Account and all transactions therein, by the Company and any of its affiliates wherever situated including sharing, transfer and disclosure between them and to the authorities in and/or outside India of any confidential information for compliance with any law or regulation whether domestic or foreign.
e. I / We undertake the responsibility to declare and disclose within 30 days from the date of the change, any changes that may take place in the information provided relating to tax residency as well as in the documentary evidence provided by us or if any certification becomes incorrect and to provide fresh self-certification along with documentary evidence.
f. I / We also agree that our failure to disclose any material fact known to us, now or in the future, may invalidate our application and the Company would be within its right to put restrictions on the operations of my/our account or close it or report to any regulator and/or any authority designated by the Government of India (GOI) /Reserve Bank of India for the purpose or take any other action as may be deemed appropriate by the Company if the deficiency is not remedied by us within the stipulated period.
g. I / We hereby accept and acknowledge that the Company shall have the right and authority to carry out investigations from the information available in the public domain for confirming the information provided by me/us to the Company.
h. It shall be my responsibility / our responsibilities to educate myself/ourselves and to comply at all times with all relevant laws relating to reporting under Section 285BA of the Income Tax Act read with the Rules thereunder.
i. I/We also agree to furnish such information and/or documents as the Company may require from time to time on account of any change in law either in India or abroad in the subject matter herein.
j. I/We shall indemnify the Company for any loss that may arise to the Company on account of providing incorrect or incomplete information.