Help & support
The Australian Government has committed to a new global standard on the automatic exchange of financial account information. Their aim is to cut down on tax evasion by sharing information about foreign tax residents with other tax authorities. This requires financial institutions from around the world, including the Commonwealth Bank group, to collect tax residency information from their customers. This is known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and it follows on from the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
CRS requires us to capture tax residency information for customers before they open an account. We also need to review existing accounts and monitor changes to customer information for indicators that the customer might be a tax resident in another country. If we think we need further information from you, we will contact you asking you to complete our Tax Residency Self-Certification Form.
Information reported by financial institutions to the ATO will be exchanged with other tax authorities to assist in making sure everyone pays the right amount of tax. The collection and sharing of foreign tax information will be done in accordance with our Privacy Policy and we will only share information required to meet our statutory obligations.
If you have recently been contacted by the bank requesting that you update your tax residency details, you can do this by the following methods:
Visit the Australian Taxation Office web site or the OECD web site.
Visit the Australian Taxation Office web site or the OECD web site and search for CRS.
Visit the Australian Taxation Office web site or the IRS web site and search for FATCA. You can also visit our page on US citizenship special rules.
Visit the OECD web page on TINs.
If you would like to speak with us, you can call the Customer Tax Status (Reasonableness) (CTS) Team on 1300 590 330 (option 4), Monday to Friday, between 8:15am and 6:00pm (Sydney/Melbourne time), where we will be happy to assist you.
