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Glossary

Retail Banking and Wealth Management – Canada

CRS

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a worldwide information-gathering and reporting requirement for financial institutions to help fight against tax evasion and protect the integrity of tax systems. Under Canadian legislation to implement the CRS, financial institutions are required to identify and report account holders who are “tax resident” outside of Canada or the U.S. This information may then be shared by the CRA with different countries’ tax authorities.

Entity

This is defined under the CRS as a legal person or a legal arrangement, such as a corporation, organization, partnership, trust or foundation. An entity will therefore include any customer that holds a business account, product or service with HSBC Bank Canada except Sole Traders, who are treated as Individuals under the CRS.

FATCA

Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is the name of the legislation introduced by the United States government to help counter U.S. tax evasion by encouraging better reporting of information. Canada enacted legislation in 2014 to implement FATCA. For more information, please visit our FATCA page.

Individual

A customer that holds a personal account or product with HSBC Bank Canada and / or its subsidiaries. Under the CRS, this also includes Sole Traders.

OECD

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a group of 34 member countries plus the European Commission and Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa as permanent guests.

Self-certification forms

A completed self-certification form may be used to confirm your tax residency status under the CRS. There are two types of self-certification forms: Individual Tax Residency Self-Certification Form (for Individual and Sole Trader) and Declaration of Tax Residence for Entities Form (for Entities).

Tax residency

Your tax residency is usually the country where you are resident/registered for tax purposes. Each country has its own rules for defining tax residence. For more information on tax residence, please consult a professional tax advisor or visit the Canada Revenue Agency for more information Canada Revenue Agency.

TIN

For individuals who are resident in Canada for tax purposes, the TIN is generally the individual’s Social Insurance Number. Outside Canada, a TIN is generally a tax number used in that jurisdiction to identify an individual or entity (or a functional equivalent in the absence of a TIN). The OECD has published a list of the acceptable Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) formats and their alternatives.

Page last updated October 2021