Testing will be open from April 20 at 12pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) to April 24 at 12pm EDT to all financial institutions and tax administrations that have completed IDES enrolment by today (April 16 2015) at 5pm EDT.
The IRS has listed what testers should do before they start testing; guidelines for data packets and transmissions; and what they should do if they need help during testing.
The IDES was launched in January as the tool to be used for the secure exchange of information under FATCA, the US legislation that requires foreign financial institutions to report to the US Treasury and Internal Revenue certain payments to their US account holders or pay a withholding tax of 30%.