Switzerland signs up in the global fight against tax evasion
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Earlier this week, Switzerland became the 52nd country to sign the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement, subject to Parliamentary Approval.
The move comes after 51 other countries signed the new OECD/G20 standard on automatic exchange of information on 29th October 2014. The agreement is designed to enable the automatic exchange of all financial information on an annual basis.
This latest agreement is designed to lead to a crackdown on global tax evasion through a common reporting standard as agreed with the OECD and G20 countries. The exchange of financial information will happen automatically and on an annual basis.
With tax evasion continuing to be a drain on many countries governments, the automatic exchange of information is designed to stop countries needing to ask for information and ensure that nothing is hidden.
Countries which have committed to being early adopters of the exchange include popular expat destinations Cyprus, Spain, France and South Africa. Traditional tax havens, including Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and British Virgin Islands, are also already signed up.
The automatic exchange is expected to begin among the early adopters of the agreement in 2017, with Switzerland, UAE, Canada, Singapore, China and Hong Kong and a number of other popular expat countries expecting to begin their exchange from 2018.
The USA is already undertaking its own automatic exchange of information in the fight against tax evasion through FATCA.