Representatives of the State Tax Service joined a workshop on the application of the CRS reporting standards

Representatives of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, State Tax Service, experts of the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Information Exchange for Tax Purposes and the EU4PFM project spoke today about application of the Common CRS Reporting Standard during a workshop for financial agents and professional business associations.

As noted by acting Deputy Head of the State Tax Service Yevhenii Sokur, holding such training event is useful both for financial institutions and for the State Tax Service, since today it is important for all participants in process of implementing automatic information exchange according to the CRS standards to be on the same page. This will help to better report and fulfill obligations under the multilateral agreement.

“I thank experts of the Global Forum of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for bringing together stakeholders of the process to understand and implement the best CRS practices. From our side, relevant legislation has already been adopted today, by-laws are at the stage of final coordination and technical points are being regulated to ensure truly automatic information exchange with partner countries. Moreover, we are making every effort to pass assessment of readiness of the information security system for introduction of such exchange by the end of year.” – stated Yevhenii Sokur.

Participants of the event noted importance of applying the CRS as one of the most effective standards in the world used to combat tax evasion. Information exchange between tax authorities strengthens cooperation between countries to prevent withdrawal of funds abroad, contributes to development of the analytical capacity of tax authorities and expanded access to information.

Speakers, during the event, informed about the basic CRS application rules, explained how the automatic information exchange about financial accounts is carried out, its main elements, what accountable financial institutions are and what their responsibilities are.

Attention was also focused on financial accounts, in particular, it was explained in detail what accountable and excluded accounts are, peculiarities of their presentation, etc.

Workshop will last two days. Tomorrow, participants will consider rules for conducting due diligence, discuss what information should be reported and shared, and also consider issue of confirming application of the due diligence measures.