The Swiss Federal Council has introduced automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI) with 41 more states and territories.
The list of the countries is as follows: Andorra, Antigua e Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Curacao, Faroe Islands, Grenada, Greenland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Colombia, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Maurizio, Mexico, Monaco, Montserrat, New Zealand, Russia, Saint Kitts e Nevi, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent e Grenadine, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, South Africa, Turks e Caicos Islands, Uruguay, and United Arab Emirates.
This follows the introduction earlier this year AEOI with 38 states and territories, including all EU member states.
The implementation is considered appropriate and necessary to implement the international standards in taxation to boost the image and competitiveness of the Swiss financial market.
In fact, with the extension, Switzerland’s AEOI network now includes the majority of G20 and OECD states, as well as other important financial centres around the world. Hence a level playing field will be created among states and all major financial centres.
The implementation is planned for 2018, and the first sets of data should be exchanged in 2019.
Moreover, the AEOI will be activated with each individual state or territory by means of a specific federal decree within the framework of the dispatch.
The Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (MCAA) will be the base for the exchange of information.
The dispatch provides that before the first exchange of data, Switzerland will confirm that the states and territories concerned meet the requirements under the MCAA standard, especially those concerning confidentiality and data security.