At its meeting on 27 February 2019, the Federal Council opened consultations on the revision of the Federal Act and the Ordinance on the International Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters (AIA). The aim is to implement recommendations of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum).
The following documents in particular were published as part of the consultation process:
The background to the revision is the following: Switzerland has implemented the AIA standard since 1 January 2017. The Global Forum reviews its domestic implementation through country reviews, as in the case of exchange of information on request. In principle, this will be done for the AIA from 2020. In order to ensure the integrity of the AIA standard from the outset and to create a level playing field worldwide, the Global Forum has been examining its central elements since 2017. One of these elements concerns the review of the full adoption of the AIA standard into national law.
The Global Forum examined the Swiss AIA legal basis and adopted recommendations. The consultation draft takes these recommendations into account. They concern, among other things, certain due diligence and registration obligations, the retention of a document retention obligation for reporting Swiss financial institutions and definitions. In addition, some exemptions are repealed or adapted. The amendments to the Act and Ordinance are to enter into force on 1 January 2021.
The consultation period will last until 12 June 2019 and the bill is expected to enter parliamentary debate in spring 2020.
The press release of the Federal Council is available here.
