Federal Council decides on entry into force of CbC Act and CbC MCAA

Bern, 18.10.2017 - During its meeting on 18 October 2017, the Federal Council decided to bring the Federal Act on the International Automatic Exchange of Country-by-Country Reports of Multinationals (CbC Act) into force on 1 December 2017. The Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement of 27 January 2016 on the Exchange of Country-by-Country Reports (CbC MCAA) should enter into force in December. The Federal Council additionally determined the countries with which country-by-country reports are to be exchanged and adopted a declaration on the administrative assistance convention.

The CbC Act and CbC MCAA form the legal basis for the exchange of country-by-country reports. Switzerland is thereby implementing one of the global minimum standards of the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project, which aims to improve transparency with regard to the taxation of multinationals and to establish a uniform framework for the exchange of the reports.

Once a referendum was not called on the CbC Act and CbC MCAA, the Federal Council decided during its meeting on 18 October 2017 to bring the CbC Act into force on 1 December 2017. Multinationals in Switzerland will thus be obliged to start drawing up a country-by-country report from the 2018 fiscal year. Switzerland and its partner states will therefore exchange country-by-country reports from 2020.

The CbC MCAA will enter into force in December 2017, after the CbC Act has come into effect. Within the framework of the entry into force of the CbC MCAA, Switzerland has to disclose to the OECD the list of countries with which it will exchange country-by-country reports. The Federal Council has already adopted this list today. In this regard, it has to be borne in mind that the CbC MCAA will not be applicable between Switzerland and another state until the other state has also included Switzerland on its list.

Multinationals can voluntarily submit a country-by-country report for the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, and the Federal Tax Administration will transfer it to the partner states from 2018. In order for the guarantees (data safeguards, confidentiality and appropriate use) contained in the CbC MCAA and the administrative assistance convention to apply also for these reports, the Federal Council adopted a declaration on the administrative assistance convention during its meeting on 18 October 2017. With this declaration, the administrative assistance convention will apply for the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, albeit restricted to the exchange of voluntarily submitted country-by-country reports.

Address for enquiries

Anne Césard, Communications, State Secretariat for International Financial Matters SIF
Tel. +41 58 462 62 91, anne.cesard@sif.admin.ch