According to information provided by official source of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts with Russia in accordance with CRS will be put to an end. Russia has been excluded from the list of jurisdictions with which the United Kingdom exchanges the information automatically.
Both Russia and the United Kingdom are parties to CRS Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA). As it is known, automatic exchange according to MCAA covers not all MCAA signatures, but only those which have activated bilateral exchange relationships, that is in case if each one of two particular participating jurisdictions has included another one in its list for automatic exchange.
The United Kingdom started automatic exchange in practice since 2017, and later Russia was added to its list of jurisdictions for automatic exchange. The first period the information of which had to be reported to Russian tax authorities was calendar year 2017.
In March 2019 HMRC has excluded Russia from the list of jurisdictions with which the United Kingdom exchanges the information automatically. It means that information about the accounts of residents of Russia (as of natural, so of legal persons) opened in banks and other financial institutions of the United Kingdom for 2018 and next reporting periods will not be transferred to Russia. The information of the year 2017 was provided to Russian authorities due to active bilateral exchange relationships of Russia and Great Britain during the period in which the reports had to be sent.
The parties to MCAA are entitled to amend their lists of automatic exchange as by including new jurisdictions in it, so by excluding previously added ones. Generally, the purposes of such actions are not commented in official sources. The necessity of automatic exchange between the one specific jurisdiction and another one may cease, and then arise again due to certain factors.
