Once a jurisdiction agrees to implement automatic exchange of information for tax purposes with the signing of an intergovernmental agreement with the United States to implement FATCA and/or the functionally equivalent standard of the OECD / G20, the Common Reporting Standard (CRS); the competent authority of the jurisdiction faces a challenge of significant magnitude.

The competent authority must allocate and invest new resources to this task. Resources will be directed to the acquisition of new tools of information technology, the design of new internal processes and specially the training and retention of qualified personnel in the understanding and management of this new standard.

As important as the above, the competent authority must be able to articulate regulatory guidelines that serve as domestic rules to be followed by financial institutions in the jurisdiction and are also self-binding on the competent authority. These regulations must be exhaustive, in accordance with local legislation and avoid biases that can distort the purpose of the standard.

This is not a simple task. Our commitment is to provide key support to our clients of the government sector to effectively address this important global challenge.