{"id":1295,"date":"2014-05-13T17:29:39","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T21:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spiegelsohmer.com\/2014\/05\/13\/voluntary-disclosures-moving-closer-to-automatic-exchange-of-information-from-financial-institutions-abroad\/"},"modified":"2016-11-14T16:01:55","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T21:01:55","slug":"voluntary-disclosures-moving-closer-to-automatic-exchange-of-information-from-financial-institutions-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiegelryan.com\/en\/2014\/05\/13\/voluntary-disclosures-moving-closer-to-automatic-exchange-of-information-from-financial-institutions-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Voluntary disclosures: Moving closer to automatic exchange of information from financial institutions abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major steps have been taken in recent months to move towards an automatic exchange of financial account information between various jurisdictions for tax purposes.  Such measures have been made possible in large part by the passage by the United States of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (\u201cFATCA<\/b>\u201d) in 2010, which is to come into effect on July 1, 2014 (in this regard, see this article<\/a>).<\/p>\n

 At a meeting of the Council of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (the \u201cOECD<\/b>\u201d) on May 6, 2014, over 40 countries and the European Union adopted a declaration in support of an automatic exchange of information in tax matters (the \u201cMay 6 Declaration<\/b>\u201d).  The countries involved include Canada, France, Greece, India, Israel, Singapore, the United States and, notably, Switzerland and Luxembourg.<\/p>\n

The May 6 Declaration commits to implement a single, common global standard on the automatic exchange of financial account information (the \u201cCommon Reporting Standard<\/b>\u201d).  The OECD has already published a document which sets out key elements for establishing such a standard and is currently working on a detailed implementation plan, which is anticipated to be completed and approved by September 2014.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement by an \u201cearly adopters group\u201d of over 30 countries on March 19, 2014, the intention was declared to implement an automatic exchange of information based on an \u201cambitious but realistic timetable\u201d, as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
 <\/b><\/td>\nDue diligence to identify accounts to be completed by<\/b><\/td>\nExchange of information to begin by<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pre-existing \u201chigh value\u201d individual accounts as at December 31, 2015<\/b><\/td>\nDecember 31, 2016<\/td>\nEnd of September 2017<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pre-existing \u201clow value\u201d individual accounts as at December 31, 2015<\/b><\/td>\nDecember 31, 2017<\/td>\nEither the end of September 2017 or September 2018, depending on when identified as reportable accounts<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pre-existing entity accounts as at December 31, 2015<\/b><\/td>\nDecember 31, 2017<\/td>\nEither the end of September 2017 or September 2018, depending on when identified as reportable accounts<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
New accounts opened from January 1, 2016<\/b><\/td>\nImmediately, based on new account opening procedures to be developed<\/td>\nEnd of September 2017<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 Of note regarding the statement by the \u201cearly adopters\u201d are that:<\/p>\n