OECD launch facility to disclose CRS avoidance

Over 1800 relationships is now in place to automatically exchange CRS information between tax authorities

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is an information standard for the automatic exchange of tax and financial information on a global level, which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) developed in 2014.  Its purpose is to combat tax evasion.  Since 2014, many countries around the world has shown political commitment to fight tax evasion.

On 5 May 2017, the OECD launched a disclosure facility on the Automatic Exchange Portal.  This disclosure facility  will allow interested parties to report potential schemes to evade CRS.  All actual or perceived loopholes that are identified will be systematically analyzed in order to decide on appropriate action.  This facility requires firstly, financial institutions has a wide scope to report and secondly, that jurisdictions put in place anti-abuse rules to prevent avoidance of reporting and due diligence procedures.   Access to the disclosure facility will be through the Automatic Exchange Portal.

It is said that over 1800 bilateral exchange relationships are in place for the exchange of CRS information across the globe.  The OECD has scheduled a further activation round to take place in July 2017 which will allow the remaining jurisdictions to nominate the partners with which they will undertake automatic exchanges.

For more detail and to download the full list of automatic exchange relationships, go to the OECD website.

Source:

OECD.org