Rauha Rasheed - 5 January 2024
Maldives became a party to the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAAC) on 11 August 2021 and signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreements to facilitate Automatic Exchange of Financial Accounting Information and Exchange of Country Reports. With an international legal framework in place, Maldives completed its first exchange in year 2022.
Getting Ready for Exchange
In MIRA’s continuous efforts to bolster the expertise of Reporting Financial Institutions (RFIs), the Exchange of Information Unit also organized and held comprehensive training sessions exclusively for RFIs. These sessions were designed to include the specificities of CRS reporting, due diligence requirements and use of domestic reporting solution. Experts from the Global Forum also participated and contributed to these training sessions enriching the presentations given and the discussions held. These sessions were very well appreciated by the participants and with the high demand, MIRA has planned to organize these training courses as refresher sessions in the upcoming years as well.
Automatic Exchange of Information
The Tax Administration Act requires all Reporting Financial Institutions (RFIs) are required to submit the CRS data to MIRA by 31st July of every calendar year. RFIs in the Maldives are required to collect and report Financial Account information of foreign residents to MIRA. The information reported is subsequently exchanged with the resident country of the Account Holder.
Maldives completed its first round of exchange in 2022 and received CRS data over 34 jurisdictions. This year, Maldives received CRS data from over 55 jurisdictions. This is a 61% increase compared to the first exchange. This data will be used by our risk teams to improve the overall quality of risk analysis conducted and improve the overall compliance level. This can greatly contribute to MIRA’s continuous efforts in combatting non-compliance through tax evasion and avoidance.
Next steps
As a young tax administration, MIRA is faced with the challenge of effective use and interpretation of data received through AEOI tools. Hence, MIRA is currently working to identify the best ways to use AEOI data to increase tax revenues, support compliance while also identifying areas where tax leakages are caused from tax avoidance/evasion and/or possible tax crimes. In this regard, MIRA is seeking assistance in these areas from development partners, international organizations, and experienced foreign counterparts.
By - Rauha Rasheed, Senior Tax Officer, International Relations & Cooperation