The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which was enacted in 2010, serves as an administrative tool in order to prevent U.S. taxpayers from avoiding taxation in certain overseas accounts.

Under FATCA certain U.S. taxpayers holding financial assets outside the United States must report those assets to the Internal Revenue Service ( IRS). In addition FATCA imposes certain information reporting requirements on non-U.S. entities.

Payments of U.S. source fixed income (e.g., interest, dividends, certain insurance premiums, etc.) to non – U.S. entities that fail to comply with the reporting requirement in accordance with FATCA , will be subject to a 30 % withholding tax.

However, all of the risk carriers in the Gard Group are treated as passive non-financial foreign entity (“Passive NFFE”) pursuant to FATCA, which entail that these entities are exempt from 30 % withholding tax on payments of U.S. source fixed income. The risk carriers in the Gard Group evidence their FATCA status through the IRI W-8BEN-E Form, which you will find attached above.

Please note that we do not issue W-8IMY forms for Gard AS and its subsidiaries. All insurance related transactions are made through accounts owned and maintained by the risk carriers. The Gard insurance intermediaries therefore do not receive a “reportable or withholdable payment” which is the prerequisite for filling out this form.

If you have questions relating to FATCA, please contact Stig Garmann Tønnesen – stig.tonnesen@gard.no