Ordinance
on the International Automatic Exchange
of Information in Tax Matters
(AEOI Ordinance)

¹The fol­low­ing col­lect­ive in­vest­ment vehicles are treated as non-re­port­ing fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions un­der Art­icle 3 para­graph 7 AEOIA, provided that all in­terests are held by or through in­di­vidu­als or en­tit­ies which are not re­port­able per­sons and that the re­quire­ments set out in Art­icle 3 para­graph 8 of the AEOIA are met:

a.

con­trac­tu­al funds un­der Art­icles 25 to 35 of the Col­lect­ive Cap­it­al In­vest­ment Schemes Act of 23 June 2006³ (CISA);

b.

in­vest­ment com­pan­ies with vari­able cap­it­al un­der Art­icles 36 to 52 of the CISA;

c.

lim­ited part­ner­ships for col­lect­ive in­vest­ments un­der Art­icles 98 to 109 of the CISA;

d.

in­vest­ment com­pan­ies with fixed cap­it­al un­der Art­icles 110 to 118 of the CISA;

e.

in­vest­ment com­pan­ies in the form of Swiss com­pan­ies lim­ited by shares lis­ted on a Swiss stock ex­change un­der Art­icle 2 para­graph 3 of the CISA.

²However, these vehicles are deemed to be re­port­ing fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions if in­terests are held by or through pass­ive non-fin­an­cial en­tit­ies (NFEs) pur­su­ant to the com­mon re­port­ing stand­ard (CRS) with con­trolling per­sons that are re­port­able per­sons.

En­tit­ies act­ive in as­set man­age­ment or in­vest­ment ad­vice which, based on a cus­tom­er's power of at­tor­ney or as the body of a com­pany or a found­a­tion, ex­clus­ively man­age as­sets held in the name of the cus­tom­er, com­pany or found­a­tion with a fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion in Switzer­land or abroad are treated as non-re­port­ing fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions un­der Art­icle 3 para­graph 11 AEOIA.

Cent­ral se­cur­it­ies de­pos­it­or­ies un­der in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 61 of the Fin­an­cial Mar­ket In­fra­struc­ture Act of 19 June 2015⁴ are deemed to be non-re­port­ing fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions un­der Art­icle 3 para­graph 11 AEOIA for activ­it­ies re­quir­ing au­thor­isa­tion un­der that Act, provided the ac­count hold­ers are the fol­low­ing per­sons or en­tit­ies:

a.

in­di­vidu­als or en­tit­ies that are not re­port­able per­sons; or

b.

pass­ive NFEs with con­trolling per­sons that are not re­port­able per­sons.

As­so­ci­ations or­gan­ised and es­tab­lished in Switzer­land that pur­sue a non-com­mer­cial pur­pose are deemed to be non-re­port­ing fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions un­der Art­icle 3 para­graph 11 AEOIA.

Found­a­tions or­gan­ised and es­tab­lished in Switzer­land are deemed to be non-re­port­ing fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions un­der Art­icle 3 para­graph 11 AEOIA if they:

a.

pur­sue pub­lic or char­it­able pur­poses and en­dow their profits ex­clus­ively and ir­re­voc­ably for those pur­poses; or

b.

pur­sue non-ma­ter­i­al pur­poses, gen­er­ate profits of no more than CHF 20,000 and en­dow those profits ex­clus­ively and ir­re­voc­ably for those pur­poses.

¹De­pos­it­ory or cus­todi­al ac­counts held by law­yers or not­ar­ies li­censed in Switzer­land or by a firm of law­yers or not­ar­ies li­censed in Switzer­land that are or­gan­ised in the form of a com­pany on be­half of cli­ents as the be­ne­fi­cial own­ers of the as­sets de­pos­ited are treated as ex­cluded ac­counts.

²The as­sets that may be held in such ac­counts and the con­di­tions un­der which such ac­counts may be held are gov­erned by the Agree­ment of 14 Feb­ru­ary 2013⁶ between Switzer­land and the United States of Amer­ica for co­oper­a­tion to fa­cil­it­ate the im­ple­ment­a­tion of FATCA.

Re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions may treat cap­it­al con­tri­bu­tion ac­counts as ex­cluded ac­counts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 3 of the AEOIA, provided:

a.

the ac­counts are used ex­clus­ively to de­pos­it the cap­it­al on the found­a­tion of a com­pany or an in­crease in its cap­it­al;

b.

the ac­counts are closed or trans­formed in­to ac­counts in the name of the com­pany after its found­a­tion or a cap­it­al in­crease; and

c.

any re­pay­ments res­ult­ing from a failed found­a­tion or cap­it­al in­crease or from ex­cess cap­it­al be­ing paid in are made solely to the per­sons who con­trib­uted the cap­it­al.

Re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions may treat ac­counts of as­so­ci­ations or­gan­ised and es­tab­lished in Switzer­land that pur­sue a non-com­mer­cial pur­pose as ex­cluded ac­counts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 3 of the AEOIA.

Re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions may treat ac­counts of found­a­tions or­gan­ised and es­tab­lished in Switzer­land as ex­cluded ac­counts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 3 of the AEOIA provided the found­a­tions meet the re­quire­ments set out in Art­icle 6 let­ters a and b of this Or­din­ance.

Re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions may treat ac­counts of co-own­ers as­so­ci­ations as ex­cluded ac­counts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 3 of the AEOIA provided:

a.

the shares in co-own­er­ship un­der Art­icle 23 of the Land Re­gister Or­din­ance of 23 Septem­ber 2011⁸ are re­cor­ded in the land re­gister;

b.

the co-own­ers have agreed use and man­age­ment reg­u­la­tions un­der Art­icle 647 of the Civil Code⁹ (CC) in which it is stip­u­lated that the fin­an­cial as­sets man­aged by the co-own­ers’ as­so­ci­ation be used ex­clus­ively for ex­pendit­ures in con­nec­tion with the prop­erty in co-own­er­ship; and

c.

the use and man­age­ment reg­u­la­tions un­der Art­icle 649a para­graph 2 CC is noted in the land re­gister.

Re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions may treat ac­counts of con­domin­i­um own­ers as­so­ci­ations as ex­cluded ac­counts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 3 of the AEOIA provided the con­domin­i­um own­ers as­so­ci­ations meet the re­quire­ments set out in Art­icle 712lpara­graph 2 of the CC¹⁰.

Re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions may treat dormant ac­counts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 11 para­graph 6 let­ters a and b AEOIA that have a bal­ance or value of no more than USD 1,000 at the end of the cal­en­dar year or an­oth­er ap­pro­pri­ate re­port­ing peri­od or at the time of ac­count clos­ure as ex­cluded ac­counts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 3 of the AEOIA.

¹Re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions may treat e-money ac­counts as ex­cluded ac­counts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 3 of the AEOIA, provided:

a.

the ac­counts are used ex­clus­ively as a means of pay­ment in the form of e-money for cash­less pay­ments for goods and ser­vices, for cash with­draw­als or for cash­less pay­ment trans­ac­tions between in­di­vidu­als for which an elec­tron­ic­ally stored bal­ance is a re­quire­ment for the trans­ac­tion;

b.

a con­trac­tu­ally agreed bal­ance of no more than 10,000 Swiss francs, US dol­lars or euros ap­plies;

c.

each over­pay­ment of more than 10,000 Swiss francs, US dol­lars or euros is re­fun­ded to the ac­count hold­er with­in 60 days; and

d.

no in­terest is cred­ited to the ac­counts.

²E-money means any elec­tron­ic­ally stored mon­et­ary value in the form of a claim on the e-money is­suer that is is­sued on re­ceipt of an amount of money for the pur­pose of mak­ing pay­ment trans­ac­tions and that is ac­cep­ted by in­di­vidu­als or en­tit­ies oth­er than the e-money is­suer.

Re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions may treat de­ceased per­sons' ac­counts as ac­counts held ex­clus­ively by an es­tate with its own leg­al per­son­al­ity, and thus as ex­cluded ac­counts, un­til the com­munity of heirs is dis­solved, provided the de­ceased’s death was no­ti­fied to them by an opened will, a death cer­ti­fic­ate or in an­oth­er ap­pro­pri­ate form.

The fol­low­ing are treated as res­id­ent in Switzer­land in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 para­graph 1 AEOIA:

a.

fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions that are sub­ject to un­lim­ited tax­a­tion in Switzer­land or that have an eco­nom­ic af­fil­i­ation in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 1 let­ter b or Art­icle 51 para­graph 1 let­ter b of the Fed­er­al Act of 14 Decem­ber 1990¹³ on Dir­ect Fed­er­al Tax­a­tion;

b.

tax-ex­empt fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions es­tab­lished un­der Swiss law.

Trusts that are reg­u­lated abroad as col­lect­ive in­vest­ments vehicles are not treated as res­id­ent in Switzer­land ir­re­spect­ive of the trust­ees' dom­i­cile.

The place of man­age­ment in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 para­graph 2 let­ter b of the AEOIA is the place of ef­fect­ive ad­min­is­tra­tion in Switzer­land.

The al­tern­at­ive pro­vi­sions of the OECD com­ment­ary on the CRS are con­tained in the an­nex. They ap­ply in­so­far as that is not pre­cluded by the agree­ment ap­plic­able in the par­tic­u­lar case.

¹Re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions re­port pay­ments in fa­vour of a re­port­able ac­count as:

a.

in­terest;

b.

di­vidends;

c.

pro­ceeds from sales or re­demp­tions;

d.

oth­er in­come.

²In­terest is in par­tic­u­lar in­terest on bonds, mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ates and land charge cer­ti­fic­ates is­sued in series, debt re­gister as­sets and cli­ent as­sets.

³Di­vidends are in par­tic­u­lar dis­tri­bu­tions of profit, li­quid­a­tion sur­pluses and pe­cu­ni­ary be­ne­fits from fin­an­cial in­terests of all kinds, in­clud­ing bo­nus shares, bo­nus nom­in­al value in­creases and the like.

⁴Pro­ceeds from sales or re­demp­tions are in par­tic­u­lar pro­ceeds from the sale or re­demp­tion of the fol­low­ing:

a.

bonds, in­so­far as the pro­ceeds are not in­terest;

b.

equity se­cur­it­ies of any kind;

c.

de­riv­at­ive products of any kind, in­so­far as the pro­ceeds are not in­terest or di­vidends;

d.

units in col­lect­ive in­vest­ment schemes.

⁵Oth­er in­come is in­come that is not treated as in­terest, di­vidends or pro­ceeds from sales or re­demp­tions, in­clud­ing be­ne­fits re­ceived from re­port­able in­sur­ance con­tracts and for­war­ded pay­ments of a col­lect­ive in­vest­ment scheme in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1.

¹The fol­low­ing are also treated as de­pos­it­ory ac­counts:

a.

cap­it­al­isa­tion trans­ac­tions by life in­surers in ac­cord­ance with in An­nex 1, in­sur­ance sec­tor A6, of the In­sur­ance Over­sight Or­din­ance of 9 Novem­ber 2005¹⁴ (IOO);

b.

tontines by life in­surers in ac­cord­ance with in­sur­ance sec­tor A7 in An­nex 1 in­sur­ance sec­tor A7, of the IOO;

c.

ad­vance premi­ums and premi­um de­pos­its that are based on a sep­ar­ate con­trac­tu­al re­la­tion­ship.

²In­sur­ance con­tracts where the oc­cur­rence of the in­sured event is def­in­ite but which the in­surer does not yet have to re­deem in full or in part are treated as cash value in­sur­ance con­tracts.

³In or­der for a con­tract to qual­i­fy as an an­nu­ity con­tract, it is ir­rel­ev­ant wheth­er it provides tem­por­ary or in­def­in­ite life cov­er. En­dow­ment in­sur­ance con­tracts are not treated as an­nu­ity con­tracts.

A re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion may treat the re­fund of un­used premi­ums from a non-in­vest­ment-linked cash value in­sur­ance con­tract or an­nu­ity con­tract as part of the cash value.

¹For the pur­poses of the ap­plic­able agree­ment, the sur­render value of the in­sur­ance con­tract is treated as the sur­render value of the an­nu­ity con­tract. Cap­it­al-form­ing an­nu­ity con­tracts have a sur­render value of zero provided:

a.

they may not yet or may no longer be sur­rendered;

b.

they may not be sur­rendered.

²A re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion may use the ac­tu­ar­ial re­serve as the sur­render value of an an­nu­ity con­tract for the pur­poses of the ap­plic­able agree­ment in­stead of the sur­render value.

¹Re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tions must spe­cify in the re­ports the cur­rency in which the amounts are de­nom­in­ated.

²They may in­dic­ate the amounts in the fol­low­ing cur­ren­cies:

a.

in the cur­rency in which the fin­an­cial ac­count is main­tained;

b.

in the ref­er­ence cur­rency spe­cified by the ac­count hold­er;

c.

in Swiss francs; or

d.

in US dol­lars.

¹ Cases in which new ac­counts are opened without the re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion con­trib­ut­ing to or be­ing able to pre­vent their open­ing are deemed to be ex­cep­tions un­der Art­icle 11 para­graph 8 let­ter b AEOIA.

² Such ex­cep­tions in­clude in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

change of poli­cy­hold­er in the case of in­sur­ance on the life of an­oth­er per­son through leg­al suc­ces­sion;

b.

change of ac­count hold­er as a con­sequence of a court or of­fi­cial; or­der

c.

cre­ation of a be­ne­fi­ciary claim against a trust or sim­il­ar leg­al en­tity on the basis of its deed of cre­ation or the found­a­tion deed.

¹If a preex­ist­ing in­di­vidu­al or en­tity ac­count is closed be­fore the end of the time frame in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 11 para­graph 2 or 3 AEOIA and the re­view of the ac­count by the re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion has not been com­pleted by the time of clos­ure, the fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion may treat it as a non-re­port­able ac­count.

²If a new in­di­vidu­al or en­tity ac­count is closed and the tax res­id­ence of the ac­count hold­er or con­trolling per­son of the en­tity could not be de­term­ined by the re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion up to the time of clos­ure, the fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion may treat it as a non-re­port­able ac­count.

³If a preex­ist­ing or new in­di­vidu­al or en­tity ac­count is closed fol­low­ing a change in cir­cum­stances and the re-ex­am­in­a­tion of the ac­count re­quired by the change in cir­cum­stances has not been com­pleted by the time of clos­ure, the re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion need not take the change in cir­cum­stances in­to ac­count for the re­port.

¹If a claim arising from a cash value in­sur­ance con­tract or an an­nu­ity con­tract be­comes due and the in­di­vidu­al or en­tity en­titled to the claim is not the pre­vi­ous ac­count hold­er, this third party en­titled to the claim shall be treated as the hold­er of a new ac­count.

²Be­fore ful­filling the claim, the re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion must have a self-cer­ti­fic­a­tion from the third party en­titled to the claim. This is without pre­ju­dice to cases where the fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion:

a.

can es­tab­lish on the basis of in­form­a­tion in its pos­ses­sion or pub­lic in­form­a­tion that the en­tity en­titled to the claim is not a re­port­able per­son;

b.

can ap­ply the al­tern­at­ive pro­ced­ure for fin­an­cial ac­counts held by in­di­vidu­al be­ne­fi­ciar­ies of a cash value in­sur­ance con­tract or an an­nu­ity con­tract in ac­cord­ance with the ap­plic­able due di­li­gence ob­lig­a­tions in the CRS.

³If the re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion is un­able to ful­fil the claim arising from the con­tract due to the ab­sence of a self-cer­ti­fic­a­tion, the third party en­titled to the claim is in de­fault. The con­sequences of de­fault will be sus­pen­ded for the fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion un­til the self-cer­ti­fic­a­tion is re­ceived.

⁴Art­icle 11 para­graphs 8 and 9 of the AEOIA do not ap­ply.

¹A Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion must re­gister with the Fed­er­al Tax Ad­min­is­tra­tion (FTA) at the latest by the end of the cal­en­dar year in which it be­comes a re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion.

²A re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion must de-re­gister with the FTA at the latest by the end of the cal­en­dar year in which its ca­pa­city as a re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion ceases to ap­ply or in which it ceases its com­mer­cial activ­ity.

³If the re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion no­ti­fies the FTA that it does not main­tain any re­port­able fin­an­cial ac­counts, this is not treated as de-re­gis­tra­tion.

⁴ In the case of a trust that must re­por­ted un­der Art­icle 13 para­graph 4 AEOIA, the trust­ee must add «TDT=» be­fore the name of the trust. Art­icle 13 para­graphs 2 and 3 AEOIA ap­plies by ana­logy.¹⁷

¹The can­tons shall re­port the fol­low­ing to the FTA with­in two months after the end of each cal­en­dar year:

a.

the OASI num­ber¹⁸ of the in­di­vidu­als with un­lim­ited tax li­ab­il­ity in the can­ton;

b.

the busi­ness iden­ti­fic­a­tion num­ber of the en­tit­ies with un­lim­ited tax li­ab­il­ity in the can­ton.

²The FTA shall as­sign the in­form­a­tion trans­mit­ted auto­mat­ic­ally from abroad on the basis of these re­ports and if need be on the basis of fur­ther de­tails re­quired for iden­ti­fic­a­tion pur­su­ant to the ap­plic­able agree­ment to the can­tons.

³It shall make the in­form­a­tion trans­mit­ted auto­mat­ic­ally from abroad ac­cess­ible in the re­triev­al pro­ced­ure to the au­thor­ity con­cerned with the as­sess­ment and col­lec­tion of dir­ect taxes in the can­ton where the re­port­able per­son has un­lim­ited tax li­ab­il­ity.

⁴Em­ploy­ees of this au­thor­ity have ac­cess to this in­form­a­tion in the re­triev­al pro­ced­ure only if they identi­fy them­selves with two-factor au­then­tic­a­tion, whereby one of the factors has to be a unique and for­gery-proof phys­ic­al iden­ti­fi­er.

¹The FTA's in­form­a­tion sys­tem is op­er­ated as an in­de­pend­ent in­form­a­tion sys­tem on the plat­form of the Fed­er­al Of­fice of In­form­a­tion Tech­no­logy, Sys­tems and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tion on be­half of the FTA.

²If the same data of vari­ous FTA or­gan­isa­tion­al units is pro­cessed, the cor­res­pond­ing in­form­a­tion sys­tems can be net­worked to ex­change mas­ter data, in­so­far as this is ne­ces­sary for ef­fi­cient data pro­cessing.

³The FDF may spe­cify de­tailed rules for the or­gan­isa­tion and op­er­a­tion of the FTA's in­form­a­tion sys­tem.

The FTA may pro­cess the per­son­al data trans­mit­ted to it pur­su­ant to the ap­plic­able agree­ment.

The FTA shall des­troy the data no later than 20 years after the end of the cal­en­dar year in which it re­ceived it.

In re­la­tion to ac­counts that are be­ing op­er­ated on the day be­fore the Amend­ment of 11 Novem­ber 2020 comes in­to force and in re­spect of which the re­port­ing Swiss fin­an­cial in­sti­tu­tion has a self-cer­ti­fic­a­tion that does not carry a tax iden­ti­fic­a­tion num­ber, the rules set out in Sec­tion I, Sub­sec­tion C of the An­nex to the Mul­ti­lat­er­al Com­pet­ent Au­thor­ity Agree­ment of 29 Oc­to­ber 2014²¹ on the Auto­mat­ic Ex­change of Fin­an­cial Ac­count In­form­a­tion ap­ply.

This Or­din­ance comes in­to force on 1 Janu­ary 2017.