Amendments
to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations 871(m) announced in
September 2015 and are due to come into effect January 1, 2017. These changes require dealers to withhold US
federal taxes on certain equity linked instruments, including those which
reference indices. IRS guidance notes
published on December 2 provide further details on enforcement and
administration during the phase in period.
London, 13 December 2016 – To comply with these changes dealers
must be able to identify which equity linked instruments are in scope and as
part of that determination the IRS has provided a set of criteria for qualified
and non-qualified indices as part of 871(m).
Exchange Data International has reviewed
the universe of underlying indices for derivatives traded on the full list of
exchanges recognised by the IRS. Index
composition, weightings, dividend yields, and rebalancing methodologies for
each are analysed against the IRS 871(m) qualified indices definitions allowing
each index to be appropriately flagged.
About Exchange Data International:
Exchange Data International helps the global financial and investment community make informed decisions through the provision of fast, accurate, timely and affordable data reference services. EDI’s extensive content database includes worldwide equity and fixed income corporate actions, dividends, static reference data, closing prices and shares outstanding, delivered via data feeds and the Internet. The firm covers all major markets with special emphasis on emerging and frontier markets e.g. Africa, Asia, Far East, Latin America and Middle East. EDI is based in London, with offices in New York, India and Morocco. For more information about EDI, please visit http://www.exchange-data.com.
