Further Extension of Filing Deadline for Returns under the Common Reporting Standard

The Revenue Commissioners have today announced a further  extension of the filing deadline for returns under the Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”) to 4 September 2017 and have confirmed that the CRS/DAC2 filing portal is now open.

In May 2017 the European Commission notified Member States of an issue within their validation module for CRS/DAC2 which required updating and as a result, the Revenue Commissioners closed the CRS/DAC2 filing portal temporarily and withdrew the CRS/DAC2 validator tool until the necessary updates had been made.

The Revenue Commissioners have confirmed that the updated validation module has been received from the European Commission and has been tested by the Revenue Commissioners. Accordingly, the CRS/DAC2 filing portal has now been reopened. The filing deadline for CRS/DAC2 returns has also been extended to 4 September 2017 to take account of the delay in opening the filing portal.

Under the CRS, governments of participating jurisdictions (currently more than 100 jurisdictions) are required to collect detailed information to be shared with other jurisdictions annually. A group of over 40 countries, including Ireland, have committed to the early adoption of the CRS from 1 January 2016 with the first data exchanges taking place in September 2017. Under the CRS, financial institutions are required to obtain and report to the Revenue Commissioners annually certain financial account and other information for all new and existing account holders (and, in certain circumstances, their controlling persons). This information may be shared with tax authorities in other EU Member States (and in certain third countries subject to the terms of Information Exchange Agreements entered into with those countries) and jurisdictions which implement the CRS.

To the extent that you are impacted by the content of this briefing, please contact a member of McCann FitzGerald’s Tax Group.

This document has been prepared by McCann FitzGerald LLP for general guidance only and should not be regarded as a substitute for professional advice. Such advice should always be taken before acting on any of the matters discussed.