The following four building blocks need to be in place for a jurisdiction to implement AEOI:

• Domestic Legislation: To enforce the FATCA and CRS international standards through the enactment or amendment of primary or secondary legislation – in SA this was effected by the Tax Administration Act (primary enabling legislation), the FATCA IGA and the CRS Regulations as well as related public notices (secondary enabling legislation);
• Administrative and information technology (IT) capacity: To obtain, process, send and use the information – this is effected by the SARS combined FATCA and CRS Business Requirement Specification (BRS) (used by Financial Institutions to report the information to SARS) and the Common Transmission System (used to exchange data with other countries);
• Confidentiality legislative framework, information security and data safeguards: To protect the information – this is effected under the confidentiality provisions of the Tax Administration Act, international exchange of information agreements and SARS internal regulatory policies and data safeguarding (both the IRS and OECD assessed SARS and found it to be compliant with the international standards for the safeguarding of FATCA or CRS exchanged information);
• International Agreements: The legal basis for the exchange of information obtained under FATCA or the CRS. In SA, these information exchange agreements include:

For AEOI between SA and the US:

• USA FATCA Intergovernmental Agreement (FATCA IGA)

For AEOI between SA and other countries:

• Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA)
• Multilateral Mutual Administrative Assistance Agreements (MAA)
• Bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs)
• Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs).

For more information:

• AEOI homepage
• Differences between FATCA and CRS?
• How does FATCA reporting work?
• How does CRS reporting work?
• AEOI Administrative penalties  

Need more help?

Should you need more help, please send an email to 3rd Party Data Support: Bus_Sys_CDSupport@sars.gov.za.