20/10/2016 – Today, as a further step to implement the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS), the first series of bilateral automatic exchange relationships were established among the first batch of jurisdictions committed to exchanging information automatically as of 2017.
With still a year to go before the first exchanges of information on financial accounts pursuant to the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS), there are now more than 1,000 bilateral relationships in place across the globe, most of them based on the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (the CRS MCAA). The full list of automatic exchange relationships that are now in place under the CRS MCAA and other legal instruments can be accessed here.
[At the time of this release the number of activated exchange relationships of some of the companies were as follows: Australia: 0; New Zealand: 0; United Kingdom: 46; Swizerland: 29; Canada: 0; China: 0; Korea 34; Singapore: 0; Bermuda: 32; British Virgin Islands: 31; Liechtenstein: 29; USA (not even on the list).]
More jurisdictions will nominate the partners with which they will undertake automatic exchanges in the coming months. The next update on the latest bilateral exchange relationships will be published before the end of 2016, with updates to follow on a periodic basis. In total, 101 jurisdictions have agreed to start automatically exchanging financial account information in September 2017 and 2018, under the CRS.
Today’s wave of activations of bilateral exchange relationships is an important step towards the timely implementation of the OECD-developed international standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information, the CRS, and reflects the determination of jurisdictions around the world to deliver on their political commitment to fight tax evasion.
Media queries should be directed to Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (+33 6 26 30 49 23) or Achim Pross, Head of the International Co-operation and Tax Administration Division (+33 6 21 63 27 67).
[OECD – media release] [LTN 204, 21/10/16]
A further 5 countries sign up
The OECD has advised that, as part of continuing efforts to boost transparency by multinational enterprises (MNEs), Brazil, Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Latvia signed on 21 October 2016 the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) for the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country (CbC) reports, bringing the total number of signatories to 49. This marks a further milestone towards the implementation of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project and a significant increase in cross-border cooperation on tax matters, the OECD said.
The MCAA will enable consistent and swift implementation of new transfer pricing reporting standards developed under Action 13 of the BEPS Action Plan.
[OECD – media release] [LTN 205, 24/10/16]