BASEL: Switzerland’s Ordinance on the International Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) in Tax Matters will enter into force on January 1, 2017.
The Swiss Federal Council adopted the ordinance on November 23. The ordinance contains the Federal Council’s implementing provisions for the Federal Act on the International Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters (AEOI Act). The ordinance also contains technical provisions for the implementation of the AEOI Act, and establishes the role of the Federal Tax Administration in administering AEOI.
The Swiss Parliament adopted the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA), and the AEOI Act in December 2015. This established the legal foundations for the AEOI, in line with international standards.
To date, Switzerland has signed an agreement on the introduction of the AEOI with the EU, as well as a number of AEOI joint declarations with countries including India, Canada, South Korea, and Japan.
To date, more than 100 countries and territories have declared their intention to implement the AEOI standard, which requires that certain financial institutions, collective investment vehicles, and insurance companies collect financial information on their clients resident abroad for tax purposes. As a rule, once a year, this information will be sent automatically to the country’s tax authority, which will then transmit the data to the relevant authorities abroad.
