As you are aware that in September 2016 Pakistan signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and became 104th signatory to the Convention. The Convention provides for automatic exchange of information under the State’s own systems through standardized formats under the corresponding agreements with other jurisdictions. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has subsequently undertaken a Pilot Project on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) in collaboration with different stakeholders.
2. The FBR has now finalized Common Reporting Rules and notified the same vide S.R.O. 166 (I)/2017 dated March 15, 2017. With this Pakistan has adopted the global Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters commonly known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) as developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). FBR’s notification is available on its website http://www.fbr.gov.pk/. More details and guidance about CRS and its implementation requirements can be obtained from OECD’s website http://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/.
3. The CRS Rules interalia require financial institutions to start due diligence of customers from July 1, 2017. Banks/DFIs/MFBs are therefore advised to ensure the compliance of the Rules for reporting under the CRS in accordance with relevant laws and take all necessary steps to put in place requisite systems/ mechanism in timely manner.
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Encl: FBR’s S.R.O. 166(I)/2017