First exchange of information on around 2 million financial accounts
Silvia Hunziker
The Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has exchanged information on financial accounts for the first time. The exchange takes place within the framework of the global standard for automatic information exchange (AIA).
The first exchange within the framework of the AIA envisages that Switzerland will exchange data in 2018 with the EU states and nine other states and territories (Australia, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Iceland, Japan, Jersey, Canada, Norway, South Korea). The data transmission by Switzerland took place at the end of September 2018, with Romania and Cyprus being excluded from the transmission because they do not yet meet the international requirements for confidentiality and data security. Data delivery to Australia and France has been delayed because these countries have not yet been able to deliver data to the FTA for technical reasons. The FTA has also not yet received data from Estonia, Croatia and Poland. The other partner states have transmitted data to the FTA.
The FTA currently has around 7,000 reporting financial institutions (banks, trusts, insurance companies, etc.) registered with it, which collect the data and transmit them to the FTA. The FTA sent information on around 2 million financial accounts to the partner states and received information from them on financial accounts in the millions. The final figures on the information received are not yet available. The FTA cannot provide any information on the volume of financial assets.
Identification, account and financial information is exchanged, including name, address, country of residence and tax identification number, as well as information on the reporting financial institution, account balance and capital income.
Thanks to the information exchanged, the cantonal tax authorities can check whether taxpayers have correctly declared their financial accounts abroad in their tax returns.
From now on, the AIA will take place annually. In 2019, data from 2018 will be exchanged with around 80 partner countries, provided that they meet the requirements for confidentiality and data security. The implementation of the AIA by the participating countries will be reviewed by the OECD's Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum).
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