This information is intended to help you understand your obligations under Australia’s participation in Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) regimes concerning the automatic exchange of financial account information with foreign jurisdictions.
These regimes are known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in the case of exchange by Australia with the United States of America (U.S.) and the Common Reporting Standard – CRS or the Standard, as the context requires – in the case of exchange by Australia with other countries that have implemented the Standard.
This guidance explains AEOI obligations from 1 July 2017, the date the CRS started operation in Australia. Unless otherwise noted, the explanations in this guidance cover both FATCA and CRS from 1 July 2017.
There are some variations in terminology between FATCA and CRS. When the context requires, the following CRS terms should be read interchangeably with FATCA terms in this guidance
|
CRS |
FATCA |
|---|---|
|
Reporting Financial Institution (RFI) |
Reporting Australian Financial Institution |
|
Non-Reporting Financial Institution |
Non-Reporting Australian Financial Institution |
|
Non-Financial Entity (NFE) |
Non-Financial Foreign Entity (NFFE) |
|
Reportable Person |
Specified U.S. Person |
|
Reportable Account |
U.S. Reportable Account |
Dollar values stated in the guidance should be read for CRS purposes as referring to either Australian dollars or U.S. dollars according to the election by the relevant RFI, as permitted by Australian law for the CRS. For FATCA, the dollar values refer to U.S. dollars only.
References to calendar year in this guidance should be taken to include, for CRS purposes, the initial reporting period of 1 July 2017 to 31 December 2017.
This guidance provides general help and does not cover all possibilities. If you follow our information in this guidance and it turns out to be incorrect, or it is misleading and you make a mistake as a result, we must still apply the law correctly, but we will not charge you a penalty.
This guidance material will be updated from time to time.