The city-state will be signing the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreements (MCAA) on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and the Exchange of Country-by-Country (CbC) Reports.
Deputy Commissioner for International, Investigation and Indirect Taxes Group of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore Chia-Tern Huey Min will be signing both agreements in Netherlands.
The two deals reaffirm Singapore's commitment to the international standards on tax cooperation. The two MCAAs have gained recognition as multilateral framework agreements for bilateral cooperation on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI). Under these deals, AEOI will stay bilateral.
The signing of the two MCAAs signifies Singapore's continuous upholding of the principles for establishing bilateral AEOI relationships for both CRS and CbC Reports.
The principle of the two deals includes that the AEOI partner has the safeguards needed to ensure the confidentiality of information exchanged and prevent the unauthorised use. Another principle stated that there is full reciprocity with the AEOI partner in terms of information exchanged.
In terms of CRS, the city-state will also want to ensure that there will be a level playing field amongst all major financial centres.
"Singapore will consider engaging in automatic exchange of financial account information with regional jurisdictions which have the safeguards to ensure the confidentiality of information exchanged, and have similar agreements in place with relevant financial centres, including Hong Kong and Switzerland," the Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat said in a statement.
When it comes to CbC Reports, the deal will enable Singapore to efficiently build a wider network of exchange relationships for the automatic exchange of CbC Reports.
"As a business and financial hub, Singapore has earned a high level of trust and confidence. We take our commitment to international standards on tax cooperation seriously. Signing both MCAAs will allow Singapore to implement the international standards with our bilateral AEOI partners in an effective and efficient way," the minister concluded.
