Common Reporting Standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is the single global standard for the collection, reporting and exchange of financial account information on foreign tax residents. Under the CRS, banks and other financial institutions collect and report financial account information on foreign tax residents to us. We exchange this information with participating foreign tax authorities of those foreign tax residents.

In return, we receive financial account information on Australian residents from other countries' tax authorities. This helps ensure that Australian residents with financial accounts in other countries are complying with Australian tax law. The exchange of financial account information acts as a deterrent to tax evasion.

Legislation

The Australian Government announced the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) CRS in the Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2014–15.

The CRS legislation received royal assent on 18 March 2016 and came into effect on 1 July 2017. The first exchange of information occurred in 2018.

See also:

• Tax Laws Amendment (Implementation of the Common Reporting Standard) Act 2016
• Tax Law Amendment (Implementation of the Common Reporting Standard) Explanatory Memorandum

Guidance material

We have produced the following guidance material to assist financial institutions, customers and tax agents with CRS:

• Financial institutions – Automatic exchange of information guidance – CRS and FATCA – guidance to understand how the CRS may affect financial institutions and their clients. We will update this page as we receive and respond to further questions from industry and changes to legislation.
• Customers – Foreign tax resident reporting – how the automatic exchange of information affects you – for customers, investors and account holders of financial institutions to understand how the automatic exchange of information affects you.
• Tax agents – Common Reporting Standard – information for tax agents – to understand how the CRS may affect your clients.

How to prepare and lodge your CRS report

The following information will help reporters, not-for-profit (NFP) organisations and digital service providers prepare and lodge CRS reports:

• Financial institutions – CRS reporting – information on preparing and lodging a CRS report.
• Not-for-profit organisations – Not-for-profits and the Common Reporting Standard – to see if CRS affects your NFP and to determine if you have a reporting obligation.
• Digital service providers – Common Reporting StandardExternal Link on our Software Developers website – information on the CRS XML schema and technical updates for CRS reporters and digital service providers.

Latest news

To receive the latest CRS news and information, subscribe to our CRS stakeholder group. Send an email to the CRS Project Team with your contact details.

Supporting material

Supporting material is available on the OECD website and Software Developers website:

• The Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax MattersExternal Link – developed by the OECD with G20 countries
• Automatic Exchange PortalExternal Link – further resources for the implementation of automatic exchange of information in tax matters on the OECD website

Self-certification compliance requirements

For detailed guidance on self-certifications, refer to Obtaining valid self-certifications for all new accounts.

More information

If you have further questions regarding the CRS, contact our CRS Project Team.