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    Common Reporting Standard (CRS)

    Common Reporting Standard (CRS)

    CRS overview

    To help fight against tax evasion and protect the integrity of tax systems, governments around the world have introduced information-gathering and reporting requirement for financial institutions. This is known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). As your banking partner, we would like to help you understand what it means for you.

    Under the CRS, we are required to determine where you are a "tax resident" (this will usually be where you are liable to pay income or corporate taxes by reason of residence in a jurisdiction). We will base this on information we already have or we may ask you for additional details.

    If you are a tax resident outside the jurisdiction where you bank, we may be required to report this information, along with information relating to your accounts, to our local tax authority. This may then be shared between different countries’/ jurisdictions' tax authorities.

    The Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No. 3) Ordinance 2016 ("the Amendment Ordinance") came into effect on 30 Jun 2016 and has put in place a legislative framework for Hong Kong to implement the new international standard on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information ("AEOI"). You can find more information on the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department website.

    What do you need to do?

    In order to confirm your status under the CRS, you may be asked to complete the appropriate self-certification form and return it to P.O. Box 11280 General Post Office Hong Kong.

    If you have any questions regarding your tax residency, please refer to the rules governing tax residence published by each national tax authority or contact a professional tax adviser, as we can't provide tax advice. You may also find useful guidance on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ("OECD") website.

    FAQs

    Popular questions

    The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is an information-gathering and reporting requirement for financial institutions in participating countries / jurisdictions, to help fight against tax evasion and protect the integrity of tax systems.

    The CRS seeks to establish your tax residency. It requires us to identify customers who appear to be tax resident outside of the country / jurisdictions where they hold their accounts and products. We need to report related information to their local tax authority, which may then be shared with the tax authority where they are tax resident.

    All financial institutions (except those exempted) in Hong Kong are required by law to implement the CRS/AEOI framework.

    This will depend on where you live and your circumstances. Please contact a professional tax adviser or check the OECD website for more information on how to determine your tax residence, as we cannot give tax advice.

    Under the CRS, we are legally required to establish the tax residency status of all our customers, even if you are tax resident in the same country / territory as where you hold your account. However, typically in this general case your details will not be reportable to tax authorities for CRS purposes.

    Yes. We will only disclose your information to the relevant tax authorities if we are legally required to do so.

    For a list of countries / jurisdictions participating in the CRS, alongside the dates that they will start exchanging information, please see the OECD website.

    For further information on your tax residence, please refer to the rules governing tax residence published by each national tax authority. You can also find out more at the OECD website.

    Forms and other information

    Glossary of useful CRS terms

    The Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI) is a response by national governments to combat tax evasion more widely and effectively. It refers to the process of automatically exchanging data on tax residence among tax authorities in CRS-participating countries / jurisdictions.

    This is a natural person who ultimately has a controlling ownership interest in the Entity. Where no natural person(s) exercises control through ownership interests, the Controlling Person(s) of the Entity will be the natural person(s) who exercises control of the Entity through other means. For a trust the Controlling Persons are the settlor(s), the trustee(s), the protector(s) (if any), the beneficiary(-ies) or class(es) of beneficiaries, and any other natural person(s) exercising ultimate effective control over the trust.

    The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a worldwide information-gathering and reporting requirement for financial institutions, to help fight against tax evasion and protect the integrity of tax systems. 

    Under the CRS, we are required to determine where you are "tax resident" (this will usually be where you are liable to pay income or corporate taxes by reason of residence in a jurisdiction) and report to our local tax authorities your details, including your account information if you are tax resident / paying taxes outside the country / territory where they bank. This information may then be shared between different countries' / jurisdictions tax authorities.

    This is defined under the CRS as a legal person or a legal arrangement, such as a corporation, organisation, partnership, trust or foundation. An entity will therefore include any customer that holds a business account, product or service with Hang Seng except Sole Traders, who are treated as Individuals under the CRS.

    Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is the name of the legislation introduced by the United States government, to help counter US tax evasion by encouraging better reporting of information. More information on FATCA is available on the FATCA page of this site.

    A customer that holds a personal account or product with Hang Seng. Under the CRS, this also includes Sole Traders.

    The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a group of member countries / regions plus the European Commission and Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa as key partners. 

    Under the CRS, you may use a completed self-certification form to confirm your tax residence status. We provide three types of self-certification form: Individuals, Entities and Controlling Persons. For some types of Entity, as well as collecting the Entity self-certification, we may also need to collect a self-certification from the Controlling Persons. This is explained on the Entities and Controlling Persons self-certification forms.

    Your tax residency is the country / jurisdiction where you are resident/registered for tax purposes. Each country / territory has its own rules for defining tax residence. For more information on tax residence, please consult your tax adviser or the OECD website.

    A Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) is a unique combination of letters and/or numbers assigned to you/your entity. Some countries / jurisdictions do not issue a TIN, but may rely on other issued numbers such as social security/insurance numbers or company registration numbers for entities. You may need to provide these if requested. The OECD has published a list of the acceptable Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) formats and their alternatives. For details, please refer to the OECD website.

    Useful information