As previously communicated, the Organisation of Economic Development and Co-operation's (OECD) Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the AEoI came into force from 1 January 2016.

The AEoI has had wide-spread international endorsement and to date almost one hundred countries have committed to adopting CRS.

Gibraltar is one of the jurisdictions committed to the early adoption of CRS and AEoI will commence in Gibraltar this year in respect of accounts held on or after 1 January 2016.

Fiduciary or the bankers to the company/ trust/ partnership/ foundation may have a reporting obligation under AEoI in respect of the balances held as well as any interest, dividends, other income and proceeds from the sale or redemptions of investments or property which was received in the calendar year to 31 December 2016.

Direct reporting will be made to the Gibraltar Government who will then pass the information to the country where you are resident for tax purposes. In this respect it is important your tax affairs are up to date.

Whilst we are unable to advise on tax matters or have knowledge of the tax regimes in different jurisdictions, a number of countries have provided for preferential tax disclosure facilities.

On 31 December 2015 UK HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) closed its offshore disclosure regimes.

In the UK HMRC have enacted legislation introducing a legal obligation for those with non-compliant offshore accounts to correct non-compliant matters. This requirement is known as a Requirement to Correct (RTC).

RTC requires any tax issues mainly or wholly related to offshore accounts for all periods up to 5 April 2017 to be corrected by 30 September 2018. The penalties for failure to comply will start at 200% of the unpaid tax liability but with proper disclosure and full documentation this can be mitigated to 100%.

On 5 September 2016 HMRC opened its last disclosure facility before information is collected and acted on from CRS. This is known as the Worldwide Disclosure Facility and it is the last chance to avoid RTC penalties. After 30 September 2018 the Worldwide Disclosure Facility will close.

Whilst Fiduciary expects clients to be tax compliant, we strongly recommend clients have their tax affairs reviewed by a professional tax adviser in their country of tax residence.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.