What does N26 do with my tax information?

This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice.

N26 collects your information mainly for two reasons: to satisfy know-your-customer requirements and mandatory reporting to the responsible tax administrations.  

As any financial institution, we are required under the applicable tax laws to collect tax relevant information from you to identify you for tax purposes. These mainly include your name, residence address, country or countries of tax residence, tax identification number or its equivalent as well as place and date of birth. 

Please find below general information on the definitions of tax residence and tax identification number. 

Generally, an individual will only have one country of residence (residence address). However, an individual may be resident for tax purposes in two or more countries. This is because countries use different criteria (forms of attachment) to determine residence for tax purposes. These criteria may include but are not limited to, prolonged physical presence, nationality, ownership of property, etc. If there is a tax treaty between the countries, the tie-breaker rules normally contained in such a treaty will allocate tax residence to one of the countries involved. 

For example, if you have a permanent home in Country A and a temporary residence in Country B, the tie-breaker rules in the tax treaty between Country A and B may stipulate you are a tax resident of Country A where you have a permanent home rather than in Country B where you have a temporary residence (treating “permanent home” as a stronger form of attachment than “temporary residence”). The analysis to determine tax residence is fact-based, therefore, if unsure, you need to clarify this with your tax administration and/or tax advisor.

Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) is a unique combination of letters or numbers assigned to you by your country of tax residence. TIN identifies you for purposes of administering the tax laws of your country of tax residence. TINs are also useful for identifying taxpayers who invest in other countries. Each country’s tax administrations set TIN specifications (i.e. number of letters, numbers and their sequence.). While most countries issue TINs, there are some that do not.  

The Automatic Exchange Portal of the OECD (new tab) provides useful information on the TINs (especially, where to find them and their specifications) issued by many countries participating in the automatic exchange of information for tax matters. However, in the case of doubt about your TIN, we recommend consulting your tax advisor or tax administration.

As any financial institution, we're required to report tax-relevant information to the responsible tax administration regularly. Respective to your IBAN, the receiving tax administration could be that of Germany, Italy, Spain, or France. 

Most notable are the reports under Common Reporting Standard (new tab) (CRS) and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (new tab) (FATCA). If you are a tax resident in a country that applies CRS and/or in the US, the receiving tax authority exchanges the information received from N26 with your country of tax residence as part of the automatic exchange of information procedures under CRS and FATCA.

To enable N26 to meet its reporting obligations, especially those with respect to CRS and FATCA, we need to collect accurate and up-to-date tax-relevant information from you (so-called self-certification data). Self-certification data includes name, residence address, country or countries of tax residence, TIN as well as place and date of birth. If you are a tax resident in the US (US Person), you should also provide your US TIN (new tab). Please follow this link (new tab) to find out more about FATCA and what you may need to do to determine whether you are a US Person and therefore, should provide us with your US TIN. 

We are required to conduct regular checks to ensure that your tax-relevant information stored in our system is accurate (so-called ongoing due diligence). If ‌due diligence reveals inaccuracies, we will reach out to you to obtain accurate and up-to-date information. 

We recommend checking and updating your tax relevant information on a regular basis. Please do not forget that not doing so may also have direct implications for you such as the tax administration imposing penalties directly on you. To check and update your information, in your N26 app:

• Go to My Account > Personal Details > Tax info.
• Click “Add new tax country”, indicate whether you’re a US Person and follow further instructions
• To add an additional tax country (if you’re tax resident in more than one country), click “Add new tax country” and follow the instructions
• Removing the existing tax country is possible only after you have added a new tax country

• You can always check the tax information we've currently on you by going to: My Account > Personal Details > Tax Info.
• In each and every case your personal data will be securely stored and only used for the fulfilment of CRS, FATCA and similar requirements.
• We’re unable to advise you on your tax status. If you’re unsure, please discuss the matter with a tax advisor and/or tax administration.