CBK honors MoF regulations in bid to combat tax evasion

‘Send financial statements’

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 14: The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) had set a deadline of Thursday for local banks to send information about Kuwaitis and expatriates to comply with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) regulations to combat tax evasion, reports Al-Qabas daily

In a circular, a copy of which has been obtained by the daily, the CBK had stressed on the need to send financial statements and data related to citizens and residents to provide the Ministry of Finance with the required information and data on time.

The Central Bank said the circular was issued upon orders of the Ministry of Finance, which called for issuing instructions to all banks and financial institutions which fall under the supervision of the Central Bank to send their financial statements and accounts in preparation for sending them to the countries concerned in accordance with OECD procedures.

The circular referred to the opinion of the Fatwa and Legislation Department in this regard, which stressed that the agreement on the automatic exchange of financial information and its annex to the common reporting standard (CRS) does not need to be ratified or approved by the National Assembly.

The CRS standard relates to the global automatic exchange of tax and financial information, developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2014, the purpose of which is to combat tax evasion. More than 100 States have signed the Convention for its implementation and more States intend to sign it later.