Agreement on real time information sharing with Switzerland
The agreement between Switzerland and the European Union (EU) on the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) in tax matters is helping to combat cross-border tax evasion. The agreement has been in force since 2017 and is applicable between Switzerland and all EU member states. It implements the global standard on AEOI of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In 2004, Switzerland and the EU concluded a taxation of savings income agreement as part of the Bilaterals II agreements aiming at combating cross-border tax evasion. This was replaced by the agreement between Switzerland and the EU on the automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters, which was signed on 27 May 2015. The new agreement implements the OECD global standard on AEOI, which Switzerland committed to in 2014. In this context, Switzerland and all of the EU member states have been collecting information on financial accounts since 2017, and have been exchanging this data since 2018. By implementing the global AEOI standard, Switzerland and the EU are making an important contribution to the prevention of cross-border tax evasion and increasing tax transparency.