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Frequently Asked Questions


The solution currently fully supports the following agreement types:

FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act)
CRS (Common Reporting Standard)
CbCR (Country By Country Reporting)
Economic Substance (NTJ)

with other agreement types such as Mandatory Disclosure Rules (MDR) and Exchange of Tax Rulings (ETR) available on request.
The system can produce over 20 different reports on the registrations, the status of returns submitted and onwardly transmitted, nil returns, notifications received and transmitted, penalties, and OECD compliance.

As a security, resilience, and auditability requirement no user can change any built-in report. However, existing reports can be modified or additional reports created as part of an authorized change control process at usually very little cost.
The solution runs on standard Microsoft Windows Servers. It comprises a public facing web portal for Financial Institutions to submit their returns. This requires a web portal and a database. The solution utilises IIS and SQL Server.

This return is then transferred to an internal administration portal. The administration portal also requires IIS and SQL Server. SQL Server Standard Edition or above is recommended.

The system can be run on premises or in the cloud.
Yes, in order to minimise any downtime on the public portal it is recommended to run two web portals (each consisting on a web server and database server). These will be kept in sync and can be selected by DNS. This allows for an almost instant failover and a smooth continuation of service.
Yes, the management module allows penalties to be applied. Admins can identify returns that are due a penalty, and can select specific Reporting FIs from any return to apply a penalty.

Emails are then sent to the Reporting FI including details of the penalty and how to pay. The system can also import a list of all penalties which have been paid from the authority's treasury.
Data is uploaded to the solution through a secure channel. It is encrypted when stored in the database. The packets of data to be transmitted to the OECD server are digitally signed and encrypted before being sent by secure FTP (SFTP).

The public certificates of all participating tax jurisdictions are held by the system to verify the authenticity of received notifications and returns.
Of course. Giant Software's developers can add custom functionality, extra validation to the incoming submissions, or add additional reports tailored to your requirements at little extra cost.
The system uses the basic translation services of Google Translate to produce a first pass translation into your native language. The text in the system is held in a resource file which can be further refined by you if required.
Of course. The banner colours, logo and strapline are completely customisable.
Support is provided by the engineers at Giant Software in the UK. Giant is also happy to work with local providers. Support by email is preferred for a rapid and comprehensive resolution.

Remote access may be requested to provide application patches and facilitate the diagnosing of problems.