Tax Analysts provides news, analysis, and commentary on tax-related topics, including the latest developments in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) common reporting standard (CRS) on the automatic exchange of financial information.

The CRS is an important issue for tax practitioners because it requires each participating country to implement new international bank reporting requirements based on OECD standards. The G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors endorsed the CRS standard for the automatic exchange of bank account information on a reciprocal basis in February 2014. In July 2014 Tax Analysts reported on the OECD's release of a global standards for CRS exchanges.

The CRS will be enforced by a series of audits that assess how closely OECD standards are being complied with and failure to comply will result in possible civil and criminal penalties. More than 100 jurisdictions have signed up for the CRS, but the United States has chosen to implement its own Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) system of intergovernmental agreements. A June 2016 report issued by the OECD recommends that the U.S. commit to implementing the CRS by 2017 or 2018.

The heads of 44 tax administrations announced in May 2016 that they had agreed to create a system that would allow them to effectively and efficiently share financial account information under the CRS. In July 2016, the G-20 finance ministers agreed that failing to commit to implementing the CRS would be one of the factors considered when determining whether a country failed to comply with tax transparency standards.

Tax Analysts consistently and promptly publishes all relevant developments regarding common reporting standard commentary and developments. To stay up to date on all tax-related topics, subscribe to Tax Notes Today Federal.