The Jersey tax authorities have published amended regulations and guidance notes relating to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).
The amendments to the regulations include:
• Aligning the definitions to those published in the Common Reporting Standard for Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters as approved by the Council of the OECD on 15 July 2014 (the CRS)
• Changing the document retention time limit from six years, beginning with the end of the year in which the requirement applied to the reportable account to ‘at least five years after the end of the period within which the reporting financial institution must report the information required to be reported’
• Adding a regulation which states that in determining whether a person is liable to a penalty under the regulations, the Comptroller shall take into account the CRS and any related commentaries on the CRS published on the OECD’s website.
These amendments came into force on 17 October. To access more information on the regulations click here
In addition, on 30 October the Jersey Taxes Office published its updated guidance notes in respect of the CRS. The notes can be accessed here
Clarification is provided in several areas:
• Only CRS definitions may be used for the purposes of CRS, meaning the IGA definitions may no longer be used. The CRS definition of Investment Entity must now be used in all cases
• The scope of what constitutes an undocumented account has been aligned with the CRS and is now much narrower
• The reporting of a Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) and dates of birth has been clarified
• Additional guidance on the self-certification procedures in respect of new accounts are included
• Mandatory filing of nil returns for the 2017 reporting period in 2018 and thereafter
These amendments apply for reporting in 2018 in respect of 2017 financial accounts. The previous guidance may be applied for prior periods, provided they do not hinder the purposes of the CRS.