Switzerland to Sign Multilateral Pact on Multinationals - Mossack Fonseca

Mossack Fonseca - On January 20, 2016, the Swiss Federal Council approved the signing of the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on the Exchange of Country-by-Country Reports.

Switzerland is to join several other states and territories who will sign the multilateral agreement in Paris on January 27, 2016, reports Taxnews.com.

The multilateral agreement sets out the conditions under which tax authorities will automatically exchange country-by-country (CbC) reports on multinationals in their respective territories. It is based on the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, which was approved by the Federal Assembly in December 2015.

The Ministry of Finance said: "The aim of country-by-country reports is to give an overview of multinationals' global allocation of income and taxes paid, together with other indicators on the location of economic activity within the group. Country-by-country reports will be exchanged automatically between the tax authorities of the countries where a group entity is present."

"The signing of the multilateral agreement leaves it to Switzerland to choose the countries with which it wishes to automatically exchange country-by-country reports. Switzerland will determine the countries in question at a later date."

The Federal Council is to launch a consultation on the multilateral agreement and the implementing act in the first half of 2016. They will go through the standard approval process before entering into force.