International Tax Compliance - Your questions answered

As we’re unsure of your tax residency, we must ask you to complete the form. We do this every time there is a change in circumstances such as a change in plan owner, change of address or payment to a non-policy holder.

Please make sure you fully complete the form as this will reduce the need to ask you further questions. It’s your responsibility to let us know if your tax residency changes.

Please complete and return the form as soon as you can, even if you don’t think this applies to you. If we don’t hear from you, we may need to let HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) know.

Yes, we still need you to confirm your tax status even if you are a UK taxpayer.

We’re required by UK law to ask for this information to support international agreements that provide a means of sharing tax information and a global strategy to avoid tax evasion.

Information is shared under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in order to provide for the automatic exchange of information.

As part of FATCA and CRS, countries obtain financial information from local financial institutions and automatically exchange this information with other tax authorities each year.

We must make sure the information we hold about you is up to date, so in some cases we may need to ask you to complete a form again to confirm.

We use the information you provide to determine whether we are required to report information to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) under UK and international tax reporting requirements. For example, reporting may be required if you are a tax resident in a country or jurisdiction outside the UK with which the UK exchanges tax information.

If reporting is required, we will provide relevant information to HMRC, who may then exchange that information with the relevant overseas tax authority in accordance with applicable law and international agreements. We use the approach recommended by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

You can check that this request is genuine by confirming our registered office address on our website. Our Swindon office is where your plan is administered.

Visit zurich.co.uk/about-us/contact-us/our-offices/swindon to verify the address. Alternatively, call our switchboard on +44 370 909 6010 and we can confirm it for you. We may record or monitor calls to improve our service.

If you don’t complete a self-certification form, we must inform HMRC who will then share this information with overseas tax authorities. In some circumstances, HMRC may also apply penalties for missing or inaccurate information. These penalties are issued directly by HMRC and can be up to £300.

We require you to confirm your tax residency in writing. You can either:

• email it to us by scanning or taking a clear photo and sending it to the email address on the covering letter, or
• post it back using the pre-paid envelope we’ve included

Yes, you would be considered a US tax resident unless you’ve renounced your US citizenship, or your green card has expired. You’ll need to provide us with the relevant evidence to confirm this.

Please fill in the details of all your tax residencies on the self-certification form. Please list all the countries in which you’re a tax resident. This will reduce the need for us to ask you further questions.

For a full list of countries currently participating in these agreements please visit gov.uk/hmrc. Search for ‘International Tax Compliance’ to get further information.

If you’re having difficulty understanding what information you need to provide, please contact us.

If you need advice on your tax circumstances or residency, we recommend you get professional advice.