The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs have signed a Competent Authority Agreement on the automatic exchange of financial account information.
As announced on 3 November 2014, Singapore will commence the Automatic exchange of information (AEOI) under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in 2018, according to a statement from last Friday.
Such exchanges will be carried out on a bilateral basis with jurisdictions with whom Singapore has signed Agreements.
This will be subject to the following conditions:
- First, there is a level playing field among all major financial centres to minimise regulatory arbitrage.
- Second, we will only engage in AEOI with jurisdictions that have robust framework of law, and can ensure the confidentiality of information exchanged and prevent its unauthorised use.
- Thirdly, there is full reciprocity with AEOI partners in terms of information exchanged.
Singapore and the United Kingdom will commence AEOI under the CRS by September 2018. Under the Agreement, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) will automatically exchange with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), financial account information of accounts in Singapore held by U.K. Kingdom tax residents while the HMRC will automatically exchange with IRAS, financial account information of accounts in the United Kingdom held by Singapore tax residents.
- The full details of the CRS is available here.
