Automatic exchange of information in brief:
The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information, developed in response to the G20 request and approved by the OECD Council on 15 July 2014, calls on jurisdictions to obtain information from their financial institutions and automatically exchange that information with other jurisdictions on an annual basis.
Please visit the OECD website for more information: http://www.oecd.org
This standard has been transposed into the Swiss federal law on the Automatic Exchange of Information (LAEOI) and Switzerland started collecting data on 1 January 2017 and exchanged data for the first time in June 2018 with a defined list of reportable jurisdictions.
Who are reportable persons?
For an account to be considered as “reportable”, the holders or controlling persons (CP) must be persons with a reporting obligation, that is natural persons or legal entities with a tax residence in countries with which Switzerland has agreed to apply the AEOI.
What is the reporting procedure?
On an annual basis Banque SYZ is obliged to send information on the reportable accounts of reportable persons to the Cantonal Tax Office (AFC).
The latter then automatically sends the data received to the tax office of the partner country concerned.
Please visit the AFC website for more information: https://www.efd.admin.ch
Which countries are concerned?
Countries are categorised into three types:
- Partner jurisdictions listed on the website of the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF): https://www.sif.admin.ch
- Non partner jurisdictions are any not listed on the abovementioned website
- Reportable jurisdictions are partner jurisdictions that exchange information with Switzerland on a reciprocal basis.
What information is exchanged with the countries?
The reportable information exchanged is detailed below:
- For individual accounts: name, address, country of tax residence, tax identification number (TIN) and date of birth
- For corporate accounts: name, address, country of tax residence and TIN, as well as the name, address, country of tax residence, TIN and date of birth of each CP of the entity
In addition, regardless of the type of relationship: account number, information on the designation of the account (“undocumented” or “dormant”), name, address and identification number of Banque SYZ, an account statement at the end of the reporting period, total gross dividends, other total gross income and total gross proceeds from sales.
