The G20 leaders, during their meeting in September 2013 fully endorsed the OECD's proposal for a global standard concerning the automatic exchange of information and called on the OECD, in cooperation with the G20 countries, to develop a similar new single standard for the automatic exchange of information. This standard, developed in response to a G20 request and approved by the OECD’s Council on July 15th, 2014, calls on states to receive information from their financial institutions and automatically exchange that information with other states on an annual basis.

The standard defines the account financial information that must be exchanged, financial institutions are required to report, the different types of accounts and taxpayers covered, and common due diligence procedures that must be followed by financial institutions. The exchange standard provides for two types of messages:

• The message that carries the information (CRS message)

• The message that conveys the response of the recipient or the intermediate system (CRS status message)

In the link http://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/common-reporting-standard/schema-and-user-guide/#d.en.345315 you will find gathered technical information concerning the exchange format (XML schema) for the information message, while in the link http://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/common-reporting-standard-status-message-xml-schema-user-guide-for-tax-administrations.htm there is information on the status message.

In the link http://www.oecd.org/ctp/exchange-of-tax-information/implementation-handbook-standard-for-automatic-exchange-of-financial-account-information-in-tax-matters.htm you will find the standard implementation guide with practical instructions related to the steps and procedures that need to be followed for its successful implementation. In the link http://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/common-reporting-standard/CRS-related-FAQs.pdf there are some frequently asked questions that mainly concern operational questions on the type and manner of the data collected.

15/5/2017. We would like to inform you that the 2nd edition of the OECD’s Global Standard on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information has been published and can be found here (http://www.oecd.org/ctp/exchange-of-tax-information/standard-for-automatic -exchange-of-financial-account-information-for-tax-matters-9789264216525-en.htm). The version is modified in relation to the previous version of 2014 in terms of the User Guide of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) xml format. The new version includes additional technical instructions on handling corrections and cancellations of the xml format, as well as revised and detailed examples of corrections. The other parts of the OECD Global Standard remain as they were in its original version (July 2014).

9/06/2017. We would like to inform you that due to the common format of CRS and DAC2 reports, as well as the common reporting standard, their submission to IAPR by the beholden X.I. it will be performed with uniform technical specifications and through the same submission application. You can find more information on the technical specifications of the submissions at –> (http://www.aade.gr/aeoi-aytomate-antallage-plerophorion-dac2)

In the link   http://www.aade.gr/en/international-issues/issues-international-tax-content, you will find information on the legislation on International Administrative Cooperation.