Best practice guidance on how to conduct an internal CRS audit

It should come as no surprise that the tax authorities will, at some point, start to audit Financial Institutions to ensure they have effectively implemented the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) regulations. The authorities in the Crown Dependencies have committed to do this, although looking at the latest Jersey guidance notes, this is still vague: Paragraph 11.2. Audit procedures, states “As required by the CRS, the Comptroller of Taxes will be introducing procedures under which he, or his representatives, will carry out an audit of the effective implementation of the Regulations. Details of these procedures will be published in due course.”

This is certainly not the case in Hong Kong and Singapore where audits have already started. These are expected to increase as all CRS participating jurisdictions prepare for the Global Forum CRS peer review process, due to commence in 2020.

This sets the scene for what is likely to be a very interesting event in Guernsey on Thursday 21st November, on Preparing for a CRS Audit Assessment – Best practice guidance on how to conduct an internal CRS audit.   

Centenal CRS Expert

Zac Lucas, founder and CEO of Centenal will discuss the CRS Audit Assessment process and what Financial Institutions will need to do in preparation for their first CRS Audit. Zac is a lawyer who has lectured extensively on CRS. As a result he has considerable expertise and experience in advising private banks, trust companies, asset managers, advisers and government authorities on the practical implementation of CRS.

During the event Zac will discuss the following areas:

• CRS Audit Process in Context: Global Forum Terms of Reference (CRS Peer Review Process 2020); 
• Domestic CRS Audit Process: Overview of the Required Operational Framework;
• Essential Risk Management Framework;
• Essential Process Management Framework;
• Internal Audit Process: 
  • Report Outcome Assurance Testing; 
  • Staff Training, Knowledge and Competency Testing.

Mandatory Disclosure Rules

He will also touch on the forthcoming Mandatory Disclosure Rules (MDR) which all three Crown Dependencies have been very quick to commit to implement from 31 December 2019. Zac will explain how CRS Expert can help comply with MDR.

Partnership with Flyingboat

This event marks Centenal’s first visit to Guernsey and will also announce their partnership with Flyingboat to provide an end to end CRS compliance and reporting solution with full lifecycle management through integration of Centenal’s CRS Expert and Flyingboat Tax Data Exchange.

For more information and to book free tickets click the following the link to Eventbrite

BOOK TICKETS

If you are not able to attend the event but would like further information, please comment below or contact us directly. A further article will follow providing a review of the event with a downloadable information pack.

This event is being supported by Solitaire Consulting in their role as a business introducer for Centenal.