Golden Copy: Is ‘Gatca’ Readiness Slipping?

At the start of this year, the first step towards implementation of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) took effect – automatic registration of newly opened accounts – for global tax reporting compliance, in what is being informally called "Gatca."

The key figure, as it stands right now, is that 53 countries are signed on to the OECD's CRS plan, starting with that first step, and will be ready to regularly report relevant information from all accounts to national tax authorities under the standard by March 2017.

A new update from the OECD issued on January 27 – and probably little seen or noticed – now lists 79 countries that have signed up to what is formally called the "Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information," or informally, a statement of intent and readiness to adhere to CRS or Gatca.

At first glance, this update makes it seem like the number of countries that are prepared has increased. A second look, however, shows that the dates listed for when each country will be ready to first report information under CRS are now either September 2017 or September 2018, pushing back slightly from next March, or more significantly in the latter case. Of the 79 countries listed, 25 are expecting to start in 2018, meaning 54 will now report in September 2017, so the bottom line is an under-the-radar delay of at least six months. It's unclear what that means in tax-year terms from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Is this delay significant? Inside Reference Data would like to hear your thoughts. Feel free to comment here or in our LinkedIn group, which will host a dedicated discussion on CRS shortly.

Castles in the Sky

Occasionally, we columnists in the WatersTechnology group like to indulge some of our outside interests – pop culture, media, sports, and so on – on our platforms. This week, I have one. I gave some thought to a TV drama series (though is it really "TV" anymore if it's from Amazon?). I managed to semi-binge watch The Man in The High Castle and would like to share some thoughts on that with you here.