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Glossary of CRS terms

Retail Banking and Wealth Management – Hong Kong SAR

Automatic Exchange of Information

The Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) is a response by national governments to combat tax evasion more widely and effectively. It refers to the process of tax authorities in CRS-participating countries automatically exchanging data on tax residency with other participating countries.

CRS

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a worldwide information-gathering and reporting requirement for financial institutions, to help fight against tax evasion and protect the integrity of tax systems.

Under the CRS, we are required to determine where you are “tax resident” (this will usually be where you are liable to pay income taxes) and give local tax authorities information on certain customers that are tax resident outside the country where they bank. This information may then be shared between different countries’ tax authorities.

FATCA

Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is the name of the legislation introduced by the United States government, to help counter US tax evasion by encouraging better reporting of information. More information on FATCA is available on the FATCA page of this site.

Individual

A customer that holds a personal account or product with HSBC.

Individual Tax Residency Self-certification forms

The completed information on this form helps determine your tax residency to fulfil our CRS requirements.

OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a group of 34 member countries plus the European Commission and Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa as key partners.

Tax residency

Your tax residency is the country where you are a resident for tax purposes. Each country has its own rules for defining tax residence. For more information on tax residence, please consult your tax adviser or the tax residency pages of the OECD CRS portal.

TIN

A Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) is a unique combination of letters and/or numbers assigned to you. Some countries do not issue a TIN, but may rely on other issued numbers such as social security/insurance numbers. You may need to provide these if requested. The OECD has published a list of the acceptable Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) formats and their alternatives.

Page last updated November 2023