CRS/AEOI

In June 2014, the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) laid the first foundation for a bilateral, structured data exchange between the United States and various countries around the globe. The current Automatic Exchange of Information (AEoI) propagated by the OECD is intended to replace the existing bilateral agreements and to provide a fully comprehensive worldwide directive for a regular automatic data exchange. The core element of the standard, which consists of three parts, is the so-called Common Reporting Standard (CRS). It extends the FATCA Model I Agreement in the areas of

• Financial institutions
• Products
• Requirements for due diligence
• Reporting

The Automatic Exchange of Information is based on:

1. the Model Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) which defines the information to be transferred, its transfer modalities as well as the responsibilities of authorities,
    
2. the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) which has to be incorporated into national tax legislation and contains rules for the identification of the reportable persons and the accounts to be conveyed
    
3. the commentaries which guarantee the minimum requirements for secure data transfer.