2014年12月 - 金融账户信息自动互换的税务问题

The New Standard was presented to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting held from 19 to 21 September 2014 in Cairns, Australia.

The New Standard calls on governments to obtain detailed account information from their financial institutions and exchange such information automatically with other jurisdictions on an annual basis.  The New Standard consists of two components:

• the Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”) which sets out the reporting and due diligence rules to be imposed on financial institutions; and
• the Model Competent Authority Agreement, which contains the detailed rules on the exchange of information.

Scope of CRS

In order to prevent taxpayers from circumventing the CRS, it has been designed with a broad scope across three dimensions:

• The financial information to be reported for reportable accounts includes all types of investment income (including interest, dividends, income from certain insurance contracts and other similar types of income) as well as account balances and sale proceeds from financial assets.
• The financial institutions that are required to report under the CRS do not only include banks and custodians but also other financial institutions such as brokers, certain collective investment vehicles and certain insurance companies.
• Reportable accounts include accounts held by individuals and entities (which includes trusts and foundations), and the standard includes a requirement to look through passive entities to report on the individuals that ultimately control them.

Challenges ahead

Being a member of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes of the OECD (“Global Forum”), Hong Kong has indicated its support to the New Standard so as to keep pace with the international standard on exchange of information and to maintain Hong Kong’s international reputation and competitiveness as an international financial and business centre.

Hong Kong is committed to implement the new global standard on a reciprocal basis with appropriate partners who can meet the relevant requirements in terms of privacy protection, confidentiality of information exchanged and proper use of the data.  According to the latest timeline allowable by the Global Forum, the first automatic information exchanges are to commence by the end of 2018.

With global tax projects like Base Erosion and Profit Shifting and CRS, the G20/OECD is strengthening its position to tax companies at the location where their operations are run instead of where their profits are booked.

* To consult the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters, please click here.