Over the last months, the OECD has undertaken a number of actions to ensure that all taxpayers maintaining financial assets abroad are effectively reported under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).

The work of the OECD includes:

• Issuing new model disclosure rules requiring lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, banks and other service providers to inform tax authorities of any schemes they put in place for their clients to avoid reporting under the CRS. EU Member States are to implement these rules as part of a wider directive on mandatory disclosures;
• Liaising with individual jurisdictions, including Malta, to make them aware of the risk of abuse of their CBI (citizenship by investment)/RBI (residence by investment) schemes and offer assistance in adopting mitigating measures; and
• Establishing a list of high risk schemes in order to further raise awareness amongst stakeholders of the potential of such schemes to undermine the CRS due diligence and reporting requirements.

In addition, on 19 February 2018, the OECD issued a consultation document, outlining potential situations where the misuse of CBI/RBI schemes poses a high risk to accurate CRS reporting and seeking public input both to obtain evidence on the misuse of CBI/RBI schemes and on effective ways for preventing such abuse. For further details on its anti-tax avoidance activities in this area, see the OECD’s website.