Following an initiative of the OECD and the G20 countries, more than 50 countries signed a multilateral agreement in October 2014 for an automatic exchange of tax information starting in 2017, in order to effectively combat tax evasion at a global level. Another 35 countries will join this agreement in 2018.

This new global standard is based on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which originates from the United States, or its precursor, the Qualified Intermediary Regime (QI regime).

The automatic tax data exchange has adopted the thinking behind FATCA and mainly relies on an automatic exchange of information relating to financial accounts. The standard consists of the template for an agreement between international financial authorities and the reporting and due diligence standard ("CRS - Common Reporting Standard"). The standard with commentary was published by the OECD on 21 July 2014. The intent is to implement the standard uniformly in all participating countries.

BDO supports its clients in all phases of the process, including:

• Analysis of applicability in personal and material terms (tool-supported if required), including deriving any measures necessary to meet the reporting requirements.
• Establishing/adapting new customer acceptance process and internal and external reporting to ensure proper submission of information to the respective financial authorities.
• Reporting (also IT-based) on FATCA compliance (in terms of content/time)

Our multidisciplinary expertise, particularly in the areas of tax law, regulatory law and IT, gives our clients the confidence that all compliance-related aspects are covered in the implementation of the requirements.

Information on FATCA in German

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