On 29th October, 51 jurisdictions signed a Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on automatic exchange of information. The first exchange of data will take place by September 2017.
The signing ceremony took place at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in Berlin. All OECD and G20 endorsed the OECD’s global standard for automatic exchange of information. Most of the major international financial centres also signed.
Under the standard, all participating jurisdictions will obtain information from their financial institutions and exchange that information with other jurisdictions, automatically, each year.
The information to be exchanged includes account balances, interest, dividends and sales proceeds from financial assets.
Information on the beneficial ownership of all legal entities will also be made available to tax authorities and exchanged with treaty partners.
The early adopters will start to exchange information in September 2017. A further 35 jurisdictions have committed to start in 2018, including Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Monaco, the Bahamas, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said: "We are making concrete progress toward the G20 objective of winning the fight against tax evasion. The fact that so many jurisdictions have agreed today to automatically exchange financial account information shows the significant progress that can occur when the international community works together in a focused and ambitious manner."
Algirdas Šemeta, the European Union Tax Commissioner, commented: "Agreement on a Global Standard is not something we could have foreseen even a few years ago and it signals a new step towards greater tax transparency. I am confident that this move will enable countries around the world to better combat tax evasion and improve the efficiency of their tax collection."
It is important to only use fully compliant tax planning arrangements, and seek personalised, specialist advice to establish the most appropriate tax planning for you in Portugal.
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