Common Reporting Standard (CRS)

1. Why is CRS being introduced?
   CRS is designed to mitigate offshore tax evasion. It provides participating countries transparency on the financial assets held offshore by their tax residents. CRS is a reporting regime and is not designed with the objective of imposing additional taxes.
   
   
2. How does CRS work?
   CRS requires financial institutions based in CRS participating countries to identify customer tax residencies and report financial accounts held directly or indirectly by foreign tax residents to the local tax authorities in the jurisdiction where the financial institutions are based. The local tax authorities (in participating countries) are expected to exchange this information with the relevant tax authority in a participating country.
   
   
3. How does CRS affect my policies with Great Eastern?
   Great Eastern will request that impacted customers to complete a self-certification form that includes a declaration of their tax residency.
   
   
4. What information will you be requested to provide?
   Under the CRS requirements, we will be asking for these information:
   • Name
   • Address
   • Place of birth* (for Individual and Controlling Persons)
   • Date of birth*(for Individual and Controlling Persons)
   • Country(ies) of tax residence
   • Taxpayer identification number(s)*
   • Place of registration/incorporation (for Entities)
   • Entity Type (for Entities)
   • Controlling Person Type for certain Entity Types (for Controlling Persons)
     * this does not apply in all participating countries and is subject to local law requirements
     
     
5. Where can I access the forms related to CRS?
   Please refer to Forms Download.
   
   
6. What is my tax residency?
   Tax residency refers to where you are resident for tax purposes and each country has its own criteria to determine it. Please consult your tax advisor or the OECD website for more information.
   
   
7. What happens if I don’t provide my tax residency information to Great Eastern?
   If you do not provide the requested information / certification, regardless of you being an existing customer of Great Eastern or not, Great Eastern may not be able to issue certain policies to you.
   
   
8. What happens if my tax residency changes?
   If there is any change in the information provided to Great Eastern, you are required to inform Great Eastern immediately so that we can advise you of further documentation required, if any.
   
   
9. I don’t know my tax residency. What should I do?
   Regretfully, Great Eastern is unable to provide professional tax advice. Please refer to http://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/crs-implementation-and-assistance/ or seek advice from a tax advisor.
   
   
10. What happens I don’t have a tax identification number (TIN)?
    By regulation, there are only 2 circumstances in which a TIN is not required to be collected or reported:
    • a TIN is not issued by the relevant Reportable Jurisdiction; or 
    • the domestic law of the relevant Reportable Jurisdiction does not require the collection of the TIN issued by such Reportable Jurisdiction.
      However, in certain circumstances, you might not have a TIN temporarily or due to personal circumstances. In such instances, you would need to justify the absence of TIN.
      
      
11. Is Great Eastern the only insurance companies asking me to certify my tax residency?
    No, all financial institutions in CRS participating countries are required to collect and report account holder information.
    
    
12. How is my data safe with Great Eastern?
    Your data and privacy is important to us. For more information please view our Privacy Statement to find out how we collect and handle your personal data.
    
    
13. Is FATCA and CRS related?
    Additional information for the CRS is still required to be provided even if you have already provided information under the United States government's Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) as these are different regulations with different requirements.

CRS Terms

Reportable information
The following will be reported to the local tax authority:

• Personal information on the reportable person, i.e. name, address, Tax Identification Number (TIN), date of birth.
• Financial account information, i.e. account number, balance, interest, dividends, other income and gross proceeds.

Legal enforcement of AEOI 
Each jurisdiction is able to decide whether it will implement AEOI or not. Consequently, AEOI is implemented on a country-by-country basis.

In addition, in order for two jurisdictions to be able to exchange information, they must have an intergovernmental agreement – a so-called Competent Authority Agreement (CAA) – in place.

Status of commitments
More than 100 jurisdictions have committed to the implementation of AEOI. However, the enforcement is subject to local law and needs to be enacted by every single jurisdiction.

The list with current status of commitments can be found under http://www.oecd.org/tax/transparency/AEOI-commitments.pdf.

Effective date

Jurisdictions committed to undertake first exchanges by 2017 (early adopter jurisdictions) are expected to implement the due diligence procedures as of 1 January 2016.

Jurisdictions committed to undertake first exchanges by 2018 (late adopter jurisdictions) are expected to implement the due diligence procedures as of 1 January 2017.

Forms Download

Individual

• Individual Self-Certification Form
  
  

Entity

• Entity Self Certification Form
• Controlling Person Self Certification Form