Singapore Issues More Automatic Tax Info Exchange Guidance

Singapore’s tax agency has made two announcements recently concerning the automatic exchange of information on foreign taxpayers’ affairs, on the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

In respect of the OECD’s CRS, through which territories worldwide are to automatically exchange taxpayer data from this year, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has announced that reporting Singapore financial institutions (SGFIs) can now authorize their staff and/or a Third Party to access the new AEOI e-Services. A Quick Guide to the newly launched e-Services can be found on its website. It said the “Submit CRS Return” module for Reporting SGFIs to submit their CRS Returns for Reporting Year 2017 will be launched at the end of 1Q 2018.

An entity that became a Reporting SGFI at any time between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2017, must apply for CRS registration by March 31, 2018. On January 12, 2018, a list of Reportable Jurisdictions for 2017 CRS reporting was published.

On FATCA, the IRAS announced on February 5, 2018, a new IRAS Public Key for preparing a FATCA reporting packet. With effect from March 1, 2018, all FATCA reporting packets that are uploaded to the International Data Exchange System (IDES) for transmission to the IRAS must be encrypted using the new IRAS Public Key. The IRAS said those affected should look to Step 3 of the “Overview of FATCA Reporting through IDES section” guidance for a copy of the new IRAS Public Key.

Under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Regulations, an SGFI is required to submit an annual return to the IRAS setting out the required information in relation to (1) every US Reportable Account and (2) all payments made to each nonparticipating financial institution. Returns must be submitted through the IDES, the single point of delivery for both financial institutions and host country tax authorities, to electronically exchange FATCA data with the US.