Vizor AEOI Adopted by Ministry of Finance, Government of The Bahamas

Today, Vizor Software announced its partnership with the Ministry of Finance, Government of The Bahamas to use the Vizor AEOI solution to effectively implement the country’s OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS) commitments for the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI).

On December 15, 2017, The Hon. Kevin Peter Turnquest, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of The Bahamas, signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters making The Bahamas the 116th jurisdiction to join. On the same date, The Bahamas also signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) and joined the inclusive framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS).

The Bahamas intends to use the Vizor software platform to meet its commitment under the CRS as well as continuing to honour its exchange commitment under FATCA with the IRS. The first CRS exchanges of information by The Bahamas to partner jurisdictions will occur in September 2018 and continue each year thereafter.

A notable feature of the Vizor AEOI solution is an easy to use online portal, accessible by Bahamian Financial Institutions (FIs) to register and report the required account data, either via a manual entry option or via XML, to the Department of Inland Revenue. This will help ensure maximum compliance from FIs in the first year of reporting.

“Vizor is proud to work with The Bahamas, a leading international financial centre, to help meet their goals to maintain a well-regulated and transparent environment”, remarked Conor Crowley, CEO of Vizor Software.

The Vizor AEOI solution has already been selected by Competent Authorities in over ten jurisdictions to meet their FATCA, CRS and CbC Reporting requirements.

Feature Highlights Include:

• Financial Institution self-registration and account creation.
• Extensive validation of CRS data, including validation against XML schema, validation against account information, GIIN validation, and many additional business rules.
• Configuration options for running in “fully automated” mode, so little or no manual interaction with the system is required by the Tax Authority.
• Management reports for monitoring, tracking, and reviewing information within the system.
• Support for future changes to the CRS data schemas.
• Automated exchange of information with other jurisdictions.

For more information on the Ministry of Finance, Government of The Bahamas visit: http://www.taxreporting.finance.gov.bs/