Singapore and the UK sign agreement to exchange financial account information
Singapore’s tax authority has signed another agreement to fight tax evasion.
The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) and the British tax authority, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have agreed to share financial account information.
In a statement from IRAS today (September 16), it said that the agreement is based on the common reporting standard, which has been endorsed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Global Forum for Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.
Under the agreement, IRAS will automatically share with the HMRC financial account information of accounts in Singapore held by United Kingdom tax residents, while the HMRC will do the same with IRAS for the financial account information of accounts in the United Kingdom held by Singapore tax residents.
The agreement will commence by September 2018, according to the statement.
More than 100 jurisdictions have endorsed the common reporting standard and will commence the automatic exchange of financial account information either next year, or in 2018.
Singapore has also signed a similar agreement with Australia, which IRAS announced last week.