​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”)

Introduction

The CRS was developed in response to the G20 request by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) during the Global Forum held in Berlin and came into force in October 2014.

The UAE signed the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (“MAC”), the Declaration of Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (“MCAA”) and the Unilateral Declaration in April 2017.

Both the MAC and MCAA form the legal basis for the implementation of The Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (“AEOI”) in Tax Matters, Second Edition (“OECD Standard”) in the UAE. The MAC was ratified by the UAE according to Federal Law No. 54 of 2018 and the MCAA according to Federal Law No. 48 of 2018.

The OECD Standard sets out the required information to be exchanged, the types of entities required to report, the different types of financial accounts and account holders in scope and the common due diligence procedures to be followed by Financial Institutions (“FIs”).

The CRS went live in the UAE with an effective go-live date of 1 January 2017.

UAE Regulatory Authorities and the UAE MoF have issued UAE CRS legislation (collectively referred to as “UAE CRS Regulations”).

Registration and Reporting

UAE Reporting Financial Institutions (“UAE RFIs”) must report on identified Reportable Accounts (or report that it does not have any such accounts via the provision of a nil return) via the CRS filing portal.

Please contact your Regulatory Authority for information on how to access the CRS filing portal . See Question 3 below for a list of Regulatory Authorities.

Documentation

CRS further information and guidance

• a. For a list of countries participating in the CRS, please see the published list by the OECD, This may be revised from time to time.
• b. Further guidance published by the OECD can be found in the OECD CRS FAQs published on their website to assist in the implementation of the OECD Standard.
• c. More information on the CRS is available on the OECD CRS webpage, although this material must be considered as a secondary to the UAE CRS Regulations.
• d. For Further Guidance on the effective delivery of the Compliance program for CRS Click Here to watch the Workshop on compliance with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in the UAE

The content provided on this webpage does not constitute legal or tax advice. For advice on tax and legal matters, please consult a professional tax or legal advisor.

Implementing of Certain Provisions of the Multilateral Administrative Agreement for Automatic Exchange of Information

CRS Frequently Asked Questions ("FAQ's")

The following Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) provide general guidance on the application of the CRS in the UAE and shall not be construed as legal or tax advice. ​​​​​​​​​​​​