AIAG — Swiss AIA Act (Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters)

The Federal Act on the International Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters (AIAG) entered into force on 1 January 2017 and implements the OECD's global Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in Switzerland. It obliges Swiss financial institutions to collect account data of clients tax-resident abroad and report it annually to ESTV, which forwards it to the tax authorities of the respective partner states.

• CRS implementation: Full implementation of the OECD Common Reporting Standard
• Reporting institutions: Banks, insurers, collective investment schemes, custodian banks
• Covered accounts: Accounts and custody accounts of persons and entities resident abroad
• Annual reporting: Transmission of account balance, income, and identification data to ESTV
• Partner states: Over 100 partner states (reciprocal or unilateral)

The AIA is the result of the global fight against tax evasion: Following the US FATCA legislation (2010), the OECD developed the multilateral CRS standard, published in 2014. Switzerland — as one of the primary targets of international criticism regarding banking secrecy and tax evasion — committed early to introducing CRS.

Switzerland signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on AIA (MCAA) in 2014 and adopted the AIAG on 18 December 2015. The first data exchange took place in September 2018 (for tax year 2017) with 36 partner states. Since then, the partner network has continuously expanded; Switzerland also exchanges data with developing countries. The introduction of CRS effectively ended Swiss banking secrecy vis-à-vis foreigners.

Reporting financial institutions under AIAG include:

• Banks and bank-like financial institutions
• Custodian banks (for third-party securities accounts)
• Investment entities and collective investment schemes
• Life insurers with cash surrender value or maturity benefit

Excluded are government entities, central banks, international organizations, certain pension schemes, and low-risk financial institutions.

Detailed rules are set out in the AIA Ordinance (AIAV, SR 653.11). The international law basis is the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA, SR 0.653.1).

Covered accounts: all financial and custody accounts of persons and entities tax-resident abroad.

• Due diligence procedures: Identification of tax residency of all account holders (self-certification, AEOI form)
• Account classification: Pre-existing and new accounts, natural persons and legal entities
• Annual reporting to ESTV: By 30 June for the preceding year (electronically via ESTV portal)
• Reporting content: Name, address, taxpayer identification number (TIN), account number, balance, income (interest, dividends, proceeds from sales)
• Controlling persons: For passive non-financial entities (NFEs): identification of controlling persons
• Documentation obligation: Retention of AEOI records for at least 10 years
• Correction of reports: Obligation to correct erroneous reports

"AIAG — Federal Act on International Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters" was classified under theme "Jurisdiktion". Correct is "Steuer". National laws and authorities are classified by subject matter, not as Jurisdiction. Country profiles are classified as Jurisdiction.

2 corrections:
- CRS publication date wrong: 21 July 2014, not 15 July
- First AIA data exchange was September 2018, not 2017
2 clarifications.
1 note.