Compliance
Common Reporting Standard
Also known as CRS, automatic exchange of information, AEOI
The Common Reporting Standard is an OECD framework under which financial institutions in roughly 120 jurisdictions identify account holders' countries of tax residence and report their balances and income annually to their own tax authority, which then exchanges that information with each country of residence.
In plain terms: Your bank tells its government where you say you live for tax, and that government tells the country you named.
Why it matters
The Common Reporting Standard is why offshore banking stopped being private. It reports balances and gross income, not individual transactions, and it reports to every country of tax residence you declared — which is why the declaration you signed at account opening is the document your position is later measured against.
Example
A founder living in Spain with an account in Singapore declares Spanish tax residence. The Singaporean bank reports the year-end balance and gross income to Singapore's authority, which exchanges it with Spain by the end of the following September.
Common misunderstanding
Believing that holding the account through a company avoids it. Where the entity is a passive holding vehicle, the controlling persons behind it are looked through to and reported individually to their own countries of residence.
Read the full guideWhat your bank reports about youRelated terms
Source: OECD — Automatic Exchange of Information. This is a definition, not tax or legal advice — verify against the primary source before acting.