GIIN

FATCA is a US law. Under it, an Indian Category III AIF counts as a foreign financial institution. That gives the fund its own reporting duty to the US tax authority.

Before it can report anything, the fund must identify itself. It registers with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In return, it gets a Global Intermediary Identification Number, or GIIN. This number proves the fund is part of the FATCA reporting system. The fund also registers separately with Indian income tax authorities, for its domestic reporting.

Getting a GIIN is one step in a wider due diligence duty. Once registered, a Category III AIF has to collect and report specific information about its investors under FATCA (for US persons) and CRS (for investors from other participating countries): name, address, place and country of birth, nationality, gross annual income, occupation, PAN, tax residency and Tax Identification Number where applicable, and Social Security Number where applicable.

FATCA self-declarations have been mandatory for Indian and NRI investors in a Category III AIF from January 2016. The GIIN itself sits alongside the fund's broader identity as a Reporting Financial Institution — the workbook's term for an entity with these ongoing FATCA and CRS obligations.

Illustrative format — the workbook does not spell out the GIIN's structure. A GIIN is 19 characters long, arranged in four segments separated by full stops: a 6-character financial institution identifier, a 5-character category code, a 2-character filer-category code, and a 3-character country code.

Meridian Global Opportunities Fund, the Category III AIF used elsewhere on this page, registers with the US IRS and might be issued a GIIN reading A1B2C3.99999.SL.356 — 19 characters across those four segments, where 356 is India's country code and SL marks Meridian as a single, standalone reporting entity rather than part of a sponsored group.

When a US-resident investor subscribes to the fund, Meridian quotes this registered GIIN while collecting and reporting that investor's FATCA-required information — name, address, PAN and US Social Security Number — to the relevant authorities every year, for as long as the investment continues. Without a properly issued GIIN, Meridian would not be recognised as a participating foreign financial institution under FATCA at all, exposing payments made to it from US sources to a punitive US withholding tax.

Chapter 5, section 5.20 (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and Common Reporting Standard), introduces the GIIN as part of a Category III AIF's registration as a Reporting Financial Institution, alongside the list of investor information the fund must collect. Expect GIIN tested as the identifier obtained from the US IRS, distinct from the fund's separate Indian income tax registration.

• The GIIN comes from the US IRS specifically — it is separate from the fund's Indian income tax registration for the same reporting purpose.
• FATCA self-declaration has been mandatory for all Indian and NRI investors in a Category III AIF from January 2016 — not only for US-resident investors.
• Do not confuse the GIIN with the Reporting Financial Institution status itself — the GIIN is the specific identification number; RFI is the broader classification the fund holds once registered.
• The same four letters name an impact-investing body. Series XXIII's Global Impact Investing Network is also abbreviated GIIN and is the body behind the IRIS+ system. This page is the IRS registration number. Read which subject the question is in before answering.