Common Reporting Standard (CRS)

The CRS is to establish the tax residency of customers. Financial institutions are required to identify customers who appear to be tax residents outside the country where they hold their accounts and products, and we have to report certain information to our local tax authority, which may then be shared with the tax authority where you're a tax resident.

Under the CRS, tax authorities require financial institutions like us to collect and report certain information relating to their customers' tax statuses.

If you open a new bank account, invest in new financial products or change your circumstances in any way, we'll ask you to declare a number of details about yourself. This process is called 'self-certification'.

Yes. All financial institutions in participating countries are required to be CRS compliant.

In line with the CRS requirements, we'll ask you for your:

• name
• address
• place of birth* (for individual and controlling persons)
• date of birth* (for individual and controlling persons)
• country/countries of tax residence
• taxpayer identification number(s)*.

*this doesn't apply in all participating countries and is subject to local law.

This will depend on where you live and your circumstances. Please contact a professional tax advisor or your local tax authority for more information on how to determine your tax residency, as we can't give tax advice.

Even if you've already provided information under the United States government's Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), you may still need to provide additional information for the CRS as these are different regulations with different requirements.

FATCA is US Law and requires financial institutions to identify US Persons and report in line with FATCA regulations, based on citizenship. The CRS requires financial institutions to identify tax residency of customers and report information on customers who are tax resident outside of the country where they hold their accounts.

Yes, we're legally required to establish the tax residency status of all our customers, even if you're tax resident in the same country as where you hold your account. However, we won't usually need to pass on your details to the tax authorities.

Once we have a valid self-certification on file, you'll only be asked to complete another when you update certain information on your account or we believe your reportable status may have changed.

Of course. We'll only disclose your information to the relevant tax authorities for the purposes of CRS if we are legally required to do so.

Customer information is protected by a strict code of secrecy and security, which all members of the HSBC Group, their staff and third parties are subject to.

We're required by law to verify the details you've provided as part of your self-certification. We might ask you for a copy of your passport to verify your identity or for some other evidence of your tax residency declared in your self-certification.

The information provided in the self-certification form, and details about the accounts and products you have with us, including:

• the balance or value
• the total amounts of interest or payments credited.

For a full list of participating countries, along with the dates they will start exchanging information, please visit the OECD CRS portal Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first].

For further information on your tax residency, please refer to the rules governing tax residence Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first] that have been published by each national tax authority. You can also find out more at the OECD Automatic Exchange of Information portal Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first].

The Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) is a response by national governments to combat tax evasion more widely and effectively. It refers to the process of tax authorities in CRS-participating countries automatically exchanging data on tax residents with other participating countries.

This is a natural person - ie, a real human being, not a business or organisation - who ultimately has a controlling ownership interest in an entity. Where no natural person(s) exercises control through ownership interests, the controlling person(s) of the entity will be the natural person(s) who exercises control of the entity through other means. For a trust the controlling persons are the settlor(s), the trustee(s), the protector(s) (if any), the beneficiary(-ies) or class(es) of beneficiaries, and any other natural person(s) exercising ultimate effective control over the trust

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a worldwide information-gathering and reporting requirement for financial institutions, to help fight against tax evasion and protect the integrity of tax systems.

Under the CRS, we're required to determine where you are 'tax resident' (this will usually be where you are liable to pay income or corporate taxes) and give national tax authorities information on those customers that are tax resident/paying taxes outside the country where they bank. This information may then be shared between different countries' tax authorities.

This is defined under the CRS as a legal person or a legal arrangement, such as a corporation, organisation, partnership, trust or foundation. An entity will therefore include any customer that holds a business account, product or service with HSBC except Sole Traders, who are treated as Individuals under the CRS.

Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is the name of the legislation introduced by the United States government, to help counter US tax evasion by encouraging better reporting of information. More information on FATCA is available on our FATCA page.

A customer that holds a personal account or product with first direct. Under the CRS, this also includes sole traders.

In legalese, a natural person is a real human being - as opposed to a legal person, which can be a business or organisation.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a group of 34 member countries plus the European Commission and Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa as permanent guests.

A completed self-certification form may be used to confirm your tax residency status under the CRS. There are three types of HSBC self-certification form: Individuals, Entities and Controlling Persons. For some types of Entity, as well as collecting the Entity self-certification, we may also need to collect a self-certification from the Controlling Persons. This is explained on the Entities and Controlling Persons self-certification forms.

In the absence of a natural person(s) that exercises control of the entity through ownership interests, the senior managing official can be identified as the controlling person(s) of the entity. The senior managing official of a company is the person who exercises control over the management of the entity.

A sole trader - also known as a sole proprietorship or simply proprietorship - is a type of business entity which is owned and run by one individual and where there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business.

Your tax residency is the country where you are resident/registered for tax purposes. Each country has its own rules for defining tax residence. For more information on tax residence, please speak to your tax advisor or visit the OECD AEOI portal Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first].

A Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) is a unique combination of letters and/or numbers assigned to you/your entity. Some countries don't issue a TIN, but rely on another issued number such as social security/national insurance numbers or company registration numbers for businesses.