Bahamas Lower House Passes CRS Bill

The Bahamas' lower house of parliament has adopted legislation to automatically exchange tax-related information with other territories.

The legislation enables the Bahamas to adopt the Common Reporting Standard, the new international tax transparency standard from the OECD. The Standard requires all participating countries and jurisdictions to obtain information from their financial institutions and to exchange that information automatically with other jurisdictions on an annual basis.

The Bill has now moved to the Senate – the upper house of parliament – for debate and is expected to be passed before Parliament breaks for the Christmas holidays.