CRS - a new standard for the Bank and its customers

The CRS regulations apply to all financial institutions in Poland (banks, mutual funds, brokerage houses, insurance companies and other). It has to be noted that financial institutions may have their specific approach to the CRS implementation, e.g. they may use different forms to be completed by customers when specifying their reporting obligations, but generally such forms should have the same content.

The CRS regulations apply to personal and business customers.

We will ask customers to provide additional information or documents for the purpose of establishing their CRS tax residency status. Customers will be informed about the requirement to provide such data when being served by our Bank through various customer service channels or a separate notice will be sent to such customers (this applies to the so-called transition period and situations in which the Bank will have doubts about a given customer’s tax residency status).

New customers are customers who will buy products subject to the CRS after the CRS regulations’ date of entry into force in Poland which means the 1st of May 2017.
Existing customers are customers who already had products subject to the CRS on 31 December 2015.
Transition period customers are customers who bought a product subject to the CRS in the period from 1 January 2016 to 30 April 2017. A central process of collecting the CRS Declarations will be organized for such customers - further details will be provided before relevant notices are sent to customers.

CRS in-scope products offered by Santander Bank Polska Group:

• Current accounts,
• Personal accounts,
• Savings accounts,
• Deposit accounts,
• Brokerage accounts,
• Trust accounts,
• Mutual fund sub-registers.

Account holders and (in certain cases) controlling persons (a company’s beneficial owner) have an obligation to submit a tax residency declaration and certain documents required under the CRS Act upon each request of the financial institution.

Financial institutions obtain a customer’s data and declaration to establish their tax reporting obligations under the CRS.

Yes. The forms can also be downloaded here.

In general, the required information will be gathered at the time of product purchase or data update. In exceptional situations, customers will be requested to provide additional documents by a separate notice or when contacted by their advisor. In such a situation, the deadline for submitting the documents will be communicated.

Under the CRS Act, Santander Bank Polska and each financial institution in Poland subject to the CRS have an obligation to provide relevant tax authorities with financial account information for customers whose tax residency cannot be identified. If a financial institution has any doubts as to the accuracy and quality of information provided in a customer’s declaration, it refuses to accept such a declaration and has to request the customer to submit a new declaration. By the time the valid declaration is submitted, the reporting financial institution may treat an account holder as resident in the country for tax purposes indicated in the declined declaration or based on information provided within agreements signed with such a customer.

Personal customers, including sole traders, freelancers and farmers:

• residence address country (country other than Poland and the United States),
• correspondence address country (country other than Poland and the United States),
• telephone number in another country (if the customer indicates it as the only number and provides no other number in Poland, except for a telephone number in the United States),
• the attorney to the account has residence address in a country other than Poland and the United States.

Institutional customers, including spółka cywilna partnerships:

• country in which legal capacity was obtained (other than Poland and the United States),
• country of incorporation (other than Poland and the United States),
• correspondence address (other than Poland and the United States),
• address of the entity’s principal office (other than Poland and the United States),
• country of controlling persons/beneficial owners (other than Poland and the United States).

Please remember that Santander Bank Polska does not provide tax advisory services. If you have any questions about tax issues, please contact a tax advisor.

The purpose of the CRS regulations is to prevent offshore tax evasion. Santander Bank Polska will provide the financial account information of persons with tax reporting obligations in the countries indicated by the legislator to an authority named by Poland’s Finance Minister. The reporting obligation will apply also to customers whose tax residency status cannot be established.

Information reported to local tax authorities will cover customer data (e.g. name and surname, address, TIN - Tax Identification Number) and their account information (e.g. account ID, account balance).

Even if a customer has already reported certain information for FATCA reporting purposes, the Bank may ask them to provide additional information as the CRS and the FATCA are two separate documents.

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a United States federal law requiring financial institutions to search their records for indicia indicating U.S. Person-status and to report the required information in accordance with FATCA, for example based on citizenship. The CRS, on the other hand, requires financial institutions to identify customers’ tax residency and report the financial account information of customers who have tax residency in other jurisdictions.

The CRS and FATCA declarations are provided in a single form.

Definitions of CRS statuses for institutional customers and partnerships