There is no legal requirement for us to inform taxpayers when their information is exchanged. However, as required by each international agreement, we must demonstrate that our auditors have exhausted all domestic avenues, including requesting the information from the taxpayer, prior to undertaking an EOI request.
Throughout this process, taxpayers may become aware of planned EOI requests through discussions and engagement with our compliance and audit teams. Where a covert investigation is being conducted or where there are concerns about records being destroyed however, compliance and audit teams may specifically not seek certain information from taxpayers.
Once the requested information is obtained from an overseas jurisdiction and provided to the compliance team, the information is generally shown to the taxpayer as part of the compliance process. The same degree of transparency applies as in a domestic investigation.
For incoming EOI requests, we have no legal requirement to inform the taxpayer of this in relation to their tax affairs. In situations when EOI requests from treaty partners seek information that is not possessed by us or a third party, we may contact taxpayers for the requested information. This is usually in regard to taxpayers’ offshore tax affairs.
See also:
The process surrounding Exchange of Information (EOI) disclosure