On 13 June 2014, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC and the OCC issued final supplemental guidance on income tax allocation agreements involving holding companies and insured depository institutions. One aim of the guidance is to reduce confusion regarding ownership of tax refunds. The guidance supplements an interagency policy statement on income tax allocation issued by the regulators in 1998 which said that a holding company that receives a tax refund from a taxing authority obtains these funds as agent for its subsidiary insured depository institutions and other affiliates. The guidance supplements the policy statement by instructing insured depository institutions and their holding companies to review their tax allocation agreements to ensure the agreements expressly acknowledge that the holding company receives any tax refunds as an agent. In addition, all banking organizations are asked to insert specific language in their tax allocation agreements to further clarify tax refund ownership.
Institutions and holding companies should implement the guidance as soon as reasonably possible, which the regulators expect would not be later than 31 October 2014.
The full text of the interagency guidance is available at:
http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2014/pr14045a.pdf.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.