ATAF Expands its Cooperation with Seychelles in Automatic Exchange of Information

PRETORIA – With full implementation of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI), residents in various tax jurisdictions with offshore bank accounts are required by the law to provide tax information to their banks to enable tax authorities to check on their tax compliance.

Seychelles has joined the list of African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) member countries on the African Continent that have embraced and implemented automatic exchange of Information since 2016. This migration to AEOI has helped Seychelles increase tax compliance, improve tax revenue collection and reduce the occurrence of illicit financial flows (IFFs).

Because the implementation process of AEOI requires constant technical support,

ATAF provided this technical assistance to the Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) by focusing on the following areas:

• Accurately identify Reporting Financial Institutions through data analysis and entity activity review.
• Review account holder information held at a financial institution against regulations to ensure reports to SRC contain all reportable accounts.
• Review account holder information to ensure accurate reportable jurisdiction information is identified and financial information is accurately reported.
• Review account opening procedures and pre-existing due diligence procedures to ensure due diligence requirements are adhered to.
• Review financial institution business models and revenue models to ensure accurate classification as financial institutions.

This support was provided via a three-day training, from 19 to 22 July.

About 17 officers from the exchange of information and auditors of SRC benefited from the training.

ATAF will provide more training between the end of year and early 2022, to continue building the capacity and capabilities of SRC officers in AEOI.