Azerbaijani banks permitted to make reports to other states about their customers directly or through mediators
Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Azerbaijan de facto joined the American tax reporting system FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act): on July 8 President Ilham Aliyev sanctioned the Azerbaijani banks to report to other states about their customers directly or through mediators.
The President of Azerbaijan approved the relevant amendments to the law on banks. The national legislative framework should be brought into conformance with the amendments within 3 months and departmental normative legal acts – within 5 months.
According to the amendments to the Tax Code, the banks and credit organizations conducting bank operations can transfer the information about financial transactions of individuals and legal entities from these countries to the authorized organs of states with which Azerbaijan has international agreements within the framework and under the rules established by the Azerbaijani executive authorities.
The amendments to the laws on insurance and banks allow Azerbaijani insurers to make such reports either directly or through an authorized executive authority.
Earlier, Azerbaijan received from the U.S. a delay for conclusion of the intergovernmental agreement on FATCA, and the Taxes Ministry announced that it would join this system by 1 October 2014. Although FATCA still remains a single piece of legislation of this kind, the Azerbaijani government and Parliament were far-seeing enough to supplement the legislation with the possibility of similar reporting to any countries with which the relevant agreements can be signed, and not only with the United States. Azerbaijan reasonably decided that the American experience would inevitably be copied by other jurisdictions, for example, with the EU, Japan, etc.
