FATCA & CRS

Al Muharraq Group Limited and its Group in line with all major banking institutions worldwide, comply with the terms and conditions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act “FATCA” regarding tax evasion ; which was enacted in March 2010 as part of the Hiring Incentive to Restore Employment Act (HIRE Act 2010).

FATCA generally requires that foreign financial Institutions and certain other non-financial foreign entities report on the foreign assets held by their U.S. account holders or be subject to withholding on withholdable payments. The HIRE Act also contained legislation requiring U.S. persons to report, depending on the value, their foreign financial accounts and foreign assets.

Automatic Exchange of financial accounts held by US persons is exchanged based on the Agreement between the Government of Bahrain and the Government of the United States of America for the Improvement of International Tax Compliance and the Implementation of the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

Bahrain Al Muharraq Group Limited operating under the Bahrain legislations complies with the model 1 intergovernmental agreement.



Al Muharraq Group Limited began applying FATCA regulation during 2014 and adopted a list of indicators to identify US taxpayer clients such as US citizenship, US residency, US green card, US place of birth, US address, US transfers, and US telephone numbers. For that purpose, Al Muharraq Group Limited is applying an enhanced due diligence on all accounts and updating the client’s information and forms.

Based on FATCA provisions, Al Muharraq Group Limited has the obligation to regularly report the US accounts whether individual or entities to the Bahrain GAZT.

In addition, Al Muharraq Group Limited will classify the client as “Recalcitrant Account Holder”, as defined by FATCA, and therefore withhold to the benefit of the US tax authorities as a percentage rate out of the client proceed or close the client account when one of the following occurs:

• Refusal or non-cooperation of the concerned client in providing the requested information and documents within the specified period of time;
• Existence of a contradiction or inconsistency in the information and documents provided by the concerned client;

Al Muharraq Group Limited has summarized here above its understanding of some of FATCA’s provisions and the measures that it is obliged to take in this regard. However, as Al Muharraq Group Limited’s employees are not experts in US taxation, Al Muharraq Group Limited kindly advises the concerned clients to refer to the US Internal Revenue Service and/or the experts and specialists that they deem appropriate and to act according to their advice and guidance.

Therefore Al Muharraq Group Limited cannot be held liable towards anyone with respect to the understanding summarized above and to the measures that it might be co mpelled to take in implementation thereof.

The present notice should be considered as an integrated part of any agreement governing the relationship between the bank and its customers.

CRS (Common Reporting Standards)
Al Muharraq Group Limited Compliance with CRS

Al Muharraq Group Limited and its Group Comply with Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Information for Tax Matter or Common reporting standards “CRS”

The CRS has been designed by the OECD and G20 countries as a single, global standard to promote tax transparency and effectively tackle cross-border tax evasion. Law # 55 “Automatic exchange of information” been enacted on 27/10/2016 and the OECD Standard for Automatic exchange of information in tax matters, also known as the Common Reporting Standards or CRS.

Over 100 jurisdictions have currently committed to the CRS. The CRS imposes an obligation on all financial institutions, such as Al Muharraq Group Limited, to report information on accounts held by foreign account holders to the Bahrain GAZT on an annual basis. This information will then be automatically exchanged with the tax authorities of the country where the account holder is tax resident, if both respective countries have mutually agreed to exchange information.

The new requirement will concern Al Muharraq Group Limited’s customer if he/she/it is a tax resident in a reportable country with which the country where he/she/it has an account has agreed to automatically exchange tax information.

In this regard upon account opening or account renewal, Al Muharraq Group Limited will be requesting customers to complete the self-certification form in order to collect the required information as to be able to identify the reportable accounts for the purpose of exchange of information for tax purposes with the participating jurisdictions. Moreover, the requested self-certification must be valid, signed and dated and supported with documentary evidence on case by case basis.

The yearly reporting will cover client information such as name, address, tax residence, tax identification number, account number, as well as financial information.

However, as Al Muharraq Group Limited’s employees are not experts in taxation, Al Muharraq Group Limited kindly advise its customers to refer to their financial advisor, tax or legal counsel, an expert or specialists that he/she/it deem appropriate and to act according to their advice and guidance. Therefore Al Muharraq Group Limited cannot be held liable towards anyone with respect to the understanding summarized above and to the measures that we might be compelled to take in implementation thereof.

The present notice should be considered as an integrated part of any agreement governing the relationship between Al Muharraq Group Limited and its customers.
Al Muharraq Group Limited related documents:

Customers can find additional information on the below website:
https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/foreign-account-tax-compliance-act-fatca