Interactive Data Corporation, a leading provider of global pricing, reference and corporate actions data, today announced that it had released a comprehensive reference data offering to assist financial services firms as they prepare to comply with the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

Interactive Data’s FATCA service will provide firms with instrument level details to help them determine U.S. federal income tax withholding for instruments generating U.S. sourced income. The service will flag instruments subject to FATCA withholding and classify them as: fully liable, partially liable or exempt.

Under Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations, the exempt status of a grandfathered obligation may change as the result of a “material modification” of the instrument under IRS rules. When a material modification occurs, Interactive Data will reflect the change by updating the FATCA withholding status and the qualifying date in its FATCA service.

The Interactive Data FATCA offering is part of a range of tax-related data services covering Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), EUSD and U.S. NRA withholding data.

Advisory group
In an effort to assist clients and other market participants, Interactive Data helped to launch an industry advisory group in January 2013 to examine the operational and data complexities created by FATCA requirements. The FATCA working group held a series of meetings earlier this year and submitted a comment letter to the U.S. IRS to request clarification regarding a number of aspects of the FATCA implementing regulations.