Switzerland ratifies the OECD Multilateral Convention

26 September 2016, Switzerland ratified the multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. The Convention, which provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters, will enter into force for Switzerland on 1 January 2017.  

The OECD said ratification reaffirmed Switzerland’s commitment to greater tax transparency and marked an important step in implementing the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters developed by the OECD and G20 countries as well as the automatic exchange of Country-by-Country Reports under the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project.

Switzerland is committed to implement automatic exchange of financial account information in time to commence exchanges in 2018 and is a signatory of the CRS Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (CRS MCAA) and the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on the Exchange of Country-by-Country Reports (CbC MCAA), which are both based on Article 6 of the Convention.

Pakistan became the 10th jurisdiction to sign the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters on 14 September. Pakistan is a Member of the BEPS inclusive framework and as such will exchange automatically country-by-country reporting as required by Action 13 of the BEPS package.