News


OCTOBER 2016

Singapore to Implement CRS

Singapore has committed to implement the Common Reporting Standard; the first exchange will take place on September 2018.

Hence, Singapore-based financial institutions will be required to send to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) the CRS information of their account holders who are tax residents of jurisdictions where Singapore has a Competent Authority Agreement (CAA) for CRS in effect.

Singapore signed a bilateral CAAs with Australia on September 6 and another with the United Kingdom on September 16; the first exchange of information is scheduled for September 2018.

A CAA enables the implementation of the information exchange based on existing legal instruments such as the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, a tax information exchange agreement or a bilateral tax treaty. It also specifies the type of information to be exchanged between two jurisdictions, when and how the exchange will take place, as well as the confidentiality and data safeguards of the information exchanged.