Regulation on international administrative assistance - spontaneous exchange of information

In total, the FTA transmitted 82 reports to a total of 41 countries in the first tranche, including Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Russia. Certain reports are exchanged with several partner states. This concerns preliminary tax assessments that were still effective on 1 January 2018. Switzerland has ratified the Administrative Assistance Convention of the Council of Europe and the OECD and, within the framework of the BEPS project, has undertaken to forward reports on certain preliminary tax assessments to the partner states without being requested to do so (Article 9 of the Ordinance on Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters). In other words, each country must identify the preliminary tax assessments and the recipient states on its own initiative and forward the information to the partner states (Articles 10 and 13 of the Ordinance on Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters). The partner states of the Convention have agreed to spontaneously exchange the content of tax assessments in the form of a template. The advance tax assessments themselves are not exchanged.

As a rule, preliminary tax assessments are issued in Switzerland by the cantonal tax authorities. The cantons must forward these to the FTA. The FTA carries out the administrative assistance procedure and transmits rulings to the partner states as part of the SIA.