Federal Law on Automatic exchange of information (AEOI)
What is automatic exchange of information?
The AEOI is an international initiative led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to combat tax evasion. Under the AEOI standard, banks are required to identify and classify their customers, as well as to report their customers’ income and assets to the local tax authorities if required by regulations – mainly for customers banking abroad. The local tax authorities must then share this information with the tax authority of the customer’s country of tax residence.
How does the AEOI affect bank customers?
The AEOI standard requires banks to identify and document the AEOI status of both new and existing customers.
AEOI status corresponds to tax residence in the case of individual customers, and tax residence and entity type in the case of corporate customers.
We initially use the information already held on our existing customers; however, we may ask our customers to provide and verify the following identifying information:
- Name
- Address
- Date of birth (for individuals)
- Country of tax residence
- Tax identification number(s) (TIN)* (for individuals)
- Type of entity (for entities)
*This does not apply in all countries and is subject to local legal requirements.
When a customer is recognized as a reportable person under the AEOI, the bank is required to notify the Swiss tax authorities each year. The Swiss tax authorities then exchange this information with the tax authorities of the customer’s country of tax residence.
Information provided to tax authorities includes :
- Identification information (e.g. name of natural person or legal entity, address, tax residence, TIN)
- Account information (name of financial institution, account number)
- Financial information (account balance, total amount of dividends or interest credited)
Jurisdictions subject to declaration
The list of countries with which the Swiss tax authorities exchange tax information is available at this link :
This list includes European Union countries and Lebanon, which is currently considered a non-reciprocal jurisdiction and will only receive this tax information once it meets the AEOI standard requirements for confidentiality and data security.
