What is the AEOI?
The AEOI is a tax standard that governs how tax authorities of participating countries exchange information with one another related to taxpayers' foreign bank and safekeeping accounts. The AEOI standard has been developed and published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The AEOI standard will be implemented globally; approximately 100 countries have already committed to implementing this initiative.
Switzerland adheres to such international standards and enacted the Federal Law on the International Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters.
The provisions require financial institutions (e.g. banks) in participating countries to identify all clients (including the controlling persons of certain entity clients) that are residents of another participating jurisdiction. Once such a reportable person is identified, the financial institution will report the relevant information annually to its domestic tax authorities, which will forward the data to the tax authority of the jurisdiction in which the reportable person is resident for tax purposes.
