Vivien Teu & Co - Tax in the transparent world: a review and update on automatic exchange of information

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) has in recent years doubled up efforts of (non-US) tax authorities globally towards chasing taxpayers who are flying under the radar of their home countries’ tax authorities and who do not declare their income or gains arising from assets or investments held overseas. As a responsible member of the international community and in keeping up its international reputation and competitiveness as an international financial centre, Hong Kong has also adopted automatic exchange of information between tax authorities, moving from its previous position of providing information only upon request. 

In this synopsis, we provide an outline of the global changes that have driven the enhancement of tax transparency – more specifically, the international standard on automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters, which has now been implemented by many jurisdictions globally including Hong Kong and China.