List of participating jurisdictions for the CRS

List of participating jurisdictions for the Common Reporting Standard (CRS)

Following the enactment of the relevant rules by the Malaysian Government for the Automatic Exchange of Information under the CRS, Malaysian Financial Institutions (FIs) are required to collect financial account information from all non-Malaysian tax residents and report information in relation to account holders who are tax resident in “reportable jurisdictions” to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB). The IRB will exchange this information with the competent tax authorities from the “reportable jurisdictions”. Please see the latest list of “reportable jurisdictions” dated 13 January 2023 (see Tax Alert No. 3/2023).

Under the CRS, a professionally managed investment entity that is not an FI in the list of “participating jurisdictions” will be treated as a passive non-financial entity rather than a financial entity for due diligence and reporting purposes. Malaysian FIs will be required to “look through” the passive non-financial entity when undertaking the due diligence procedures to identify its controlling person(s) who are tax resident in reportable jurisdictions and report them accordingly. In this regard, the IRB has recently published on its website the updated list of participating jurisdictions dated 5 April 2023, which is available at the following link: CRS List of Participating Jurisdictions

On 17 April 2023, the IRB has also announced the availability of an alternative method for Malaysian FIs in filing FATCA nil returns (where there are no US reportable accounts) via e-mail, in lieu of the XML returns via the US IDES (International Data Exchange System) portal. The FATCA nil return template is available at https://www.hasil.gov.my/en/international/automatic-exchange-of-information-aeoi/foreign-account-tax-compliance-act-fatca/guidance-notes/ and the completed FATCA nil return(s) should be submitted to fatca@hasil.gov.my.