To help fight tax evasion and to protect the integrity of tax systems, governments around the world introduced a system for automatic exchange of information on financial accounts between countries. This system is known as Common Reporting Standards (CRS) and is incorporated in Mauritius laws.
Regulations based on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Common Reporting Standard (CRS) require Financial Institutions (FIs) to collect and report certain information about an account holder’s tax residence.
Each country or jurisdiction has its own rules for defining tax residence, which are outlined on the OECD website.
Generally, you’ll find that your tax residency is the country in which you live. But there are circumstances where you may hold tax residency in another country, or in multiple countries at the same time.
As a financial institution licensed and regulated in Mauritius, we’re legally required to collect, verify and share customer details, such as country of tax residency and financial account information, with the Mauritius tax authority. They, in turn, under intergovernmental agreements, share this information with the tax authority of the country, or countries, in which the customer is, or potentially is, a tax resident.