Government of India received the first tranche of details about financial accounts of its residents in Swiss banks under a new “Automatic Exchange of Information’ (AEOI) framework between India and Switzerland.
It marks a significant milestone in the fight against black money suspected to be stashed abroad.
A Federal Tax Administration (FTA) spokesperson said, India figures among 75 countries with which Switzerland’s FTA has exchanged information on financial accounts within the framework of global standards on AEOI.
This is the first time that India has received details from Switzerland under the AEOI framework, which provides for exchange of information on financial accounts that currently active as well as those accounts that were closed during 2018.
The next exchange would take place in September 2020.
About Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI)
- India has been a leading force in the efforts to forge a multi-lateral regime for proactive sharing of Financial Information known as Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) which will greatly assist the global efforts to combat tax evasion.
- The AEOI based on Common Reporting Standard (CRS) has commenced from 2017 enabling India to receive financial account information of Indian residents in other countries.
- India and Switzerland are signatories to the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC) and both countries have also signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) pursuant to which the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) is activated between the two countries for sharing of financial account information effective from 01.01.2018 with first transmission in 2019. Accordingly, India received the information of financial accounts held by Indian residents in Switzerland for 2018 and will get information subsequent years, on an automatic basis.
- India joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information on 3rd June, 2015, in Paris, France, along with Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Indonesia and New Zealand.
