Advice a must as Common Reporting Standard comes in
Ex-pats will need to ensure their affairs are in order ahead of the implementation of the Automatic Exchange of financial account Information (AEI) next year, a leading international advisory firm warns.
DeVere Group senior area manager, Andrew Oliver, stressed that "ignorance" of the new Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Common Reporting Standard, "will not be a valid excuse" for those who fail to prepare for the new international system.
"Those who are in doubt would be wise to seek specialist cross-border financial advice as soon as possible," he said.
"Almost 100 countries across the world have signed up to, or are in the process of doing so, the OECD's new Common Reporting Standard.
"Under this new global information-sharing Standard, all participating countries are required to obtain financial information from their financial institutions' clients and to automatically exchange that information annually with other jurisdictions.
"This exchange should not be a problem for the overwhelming majority of people as they are most likely already compliant.
"However, there's a huge lack of awareness of the new system and this is extremely concerning.
"The first AEI will relate to financial information from 1st January 2016.
"As such, I would urge anyone who has overseas assets and investments to ensure that their tax affairs are in order and compliant sooner rather than later. Failure to do so could mean that they face a nasty shock in the form of penalties from January next year.
"Ignorance of the new reporting Standard will not be a valid excuse in the eyes of the tax authorities."
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