India has received the fourth tranche of information on financial accounts from Switzerland since the two countries entered into an Automatic Exchange Of Information (AEOI) agreement in 2018, in order to improve tax discipline and avert potential evasion.
The annual exchange of information allows countries to verify whether taxpayers have correctly declared their financial accounts abroad in their tax returns.
Switzerland has committed to adopting the global standard for the automatic international exchange of information in tax matters.
India received names, addresses, Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and account numbers and account balance of each reportable person, giving an insight into the exact nature of the transmitted data, a media report says.
The first such exchange with India took place in 2019.
The exercise by the Swiss authorities is strictly meant for “tax only” purposes. In India, the data is kept in the custody of and for action by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
There have been various instances of a crackdown on secret bank accounts globally on possible evasion of taxes.
On Monday, the Federal Tax Administration of Switzerland shared details of nearly 34 lakh financial accounts with 101 countries. This year, the annual sharing of information involved a total of 101 countries, and it was on a reciprocal basis.
Albania, Brunei Darussalam, Nigeria, Peru and Turkey were added to the existing list of 96 countries.
“With 74 countries, the exchange of information was reciprocal. In the case of 27 countries, Switzerland received information but did not provide any, either because those countries do not yet meet the international requirements on confidentiality and data security (14) or because they chose not to receive data (12),” the Federal Tax Administration said in a statement.
“Russia was one of the states this year to which no data was provided,” the statement added.
