Inland Revenue has provided information on recent updates by New Zealand to its lists of reportable jurisdictions and participating jurisdictions for the OECD/G20 Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters (commonly referred to as AEOI);

As part of the OECD/G20 implementation requirements for the CRS, New Zealand is required to periodically update and publish lists of reportable jurisdictions and participating jurisdictions. This email is to advise you of New Zealand’s recent updates to both lists.

Reportable jurisdictions

These are those territories which Inland Revenue can provide information to in accordance with the CRS rules, in respect of financial accounts held in New Zealand by non‐residents.  New Zealand’s list of Reportable Jurisdictions was amended by Order in Council on 24 February 2020, increasing the existing list of 90 jurisdictions to 96. The changes to the list will apply for the purposes of CRS reporting from 1 April 2020 (in respect of data relating to the 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020 reporting period).

The six jurisdictions added to Reportable Jurisdictions list are Albania, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Oman and Peru.

Participating jurisdictions

These are territories which can provide information to New Zealand in accordance with the CRS rules, in respect of financial accounts held offshore by New Zealand residents.  New Zealand’s list of Participating Jurisdictions was amended by Commissioner’s determination on 30 March 2020, increasing the existing list of 90 jurisdictions to 96. The changes to the list will apply for the purposes of CRS due diligence conducts from 1 April 2020.

The six jurisdictions added to Participating Jurisdictions list are Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Dominica, Ghana, Monaco and Saint Lucia.

Effect of the changes

Inland Revenue says the changes to the Reportable Jurisdictions list will only have implications for financial institutions that choose to report to Inland Revenue each year solely in respect of non‐residents of Reportable Jurisdictions. For such financial institutions, the addition of six jurisdictions to the list potentially means that additional reporting will be required.

However, it says the additions to the list will not have any implications for financial institutions that already report to Inland Revenue each year in respect of all non‐residents.