Switzerland hosts Global Forum meeting and signs agreement on automatic exchange of information with Singapore

Bern, 17.07.2017 - On 17 July 2017, a working meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) began in Geneva. It is the first time that Switzerland is hosting a meeting of this nature. Furthermore, Switzerland signed an agreement on the automatic exchange of information with Singapore.

The meeting of the Global Forum peer review group, the twenty-sixth meeting, will last until 21 July. The meeting is part of the new round of evaluations relating to the implementation of the exchange of information standard upon request. This new round which began in 2016 covers both the examination of the participating countries' legislation and its effective implementation. Amongst other things, the Global Forum will examine the implementation of group requests and the question of the identification of beneficial owners. The first reports from this new round will be adopted during the meeting in Geneva. For Switzerland, this examination will begin during the second half of 2018 and should finish in the second half of 2019.

This meeting confirms that Switzerland supports the efforts of the international community regarding tax transparency. However, for Switzerland it is essential that these efforts are supported by all and that the standards are correctly applied. Furthermore, the meeting will give Switzerland the opportunity to present its contribution in the area of technical assistance to developing countries.

Prior to this working meeting, Ambassador Alexander Karrer, Deputy State Secretary of the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters (SIF), signed a bilateral automatic exchange of information agreement in tax matters with the Deputy Commissioner of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, Mrs. Huey Min Chia-Tern. It is expected that this agreement between Switzerland and Singapore will be provisionally applied from 1 January 2018 with the first exchange of data in 2019 subject to approval by the Swiss Parliament. Simultaneously a mutual understanding was signed in Singapore between the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ambassador of Switzerland to Singapore, Thomas Kupfer, on cooperation in the area of financial services.


Address for enquiries

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



Publisher

Federal Department of Finance
https://www.efd.admin.ch/efd/en/home.html

State Secretariat for Economic Affairs
http://www.seco.admin.ch

https://www.sif.admin.ch/content/sif/en/home/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-67541.html