Canada: Legislative Proposals on Common Reporting Standard
The OECD explains:
“The Common Reporting Standard (CRS), developed in response to the G20 request and approved by the OECD Council on 15 July 2014, calls on jurisdictions to obtain information from their financial institutions and automatically exchange that information with other jurisdictions on an annual basis. It sets out the financial account information to be exchanged, the financial institutions required to report, the different types of accounts and taxpayers covered, as well as common due diligence procedures to be followed by financial institutions.”
The OECD Standard, available here, consists of:
- The model Competent Authority Agreement (CAA) which offers an international legal framework for the automatic exchange of information;
- The Common Reporting Standard;
- The Commentaries on the CAA and the CRS; and
- The CRS XML Schema User Guide
On April 15, 2016, the Department of Finance Canada released its Legislative Proposals Relating to the Implementation of the OECD Common Reporting Standard and Explanatory Notes.
Finance Canada indicated:
“As announced on February 5, 2016, and confirmed in Budget 2016, Canada intends to implement the CRS [Common Reporting Standard] starting on July 1, 2017. As of that date, Canadian financial institutions would be required to have procedures in place to identify accounts held by non-residents and to report the required information to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).”
The Legislative Proposals Relating to the Implementation of the OECD Common Reporting Standard and Explanatory Notes are available here.
The Explanatory Notes Relating to the Income Tax Act and Income Tax Regulations are available here.
Robert Robillard, Ph.D., CPA, CGA, Adm.A., MBA, M.Sc. Econ., M.A.P.
Senior Partner, DRTP Consulting Inc.
514-742-8086; robertrobillard “at” drtp.ca
www.drtp.ca
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