Australia-US automatic tax information sharing

The ATO says it has undertaken its first ever automatic sharing of bank information with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Details of over 30,000 financial accounts worth over $5 billion are being provided to the US under the new powers of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

According to the ATO, the information provided on US citizens and tax residents with Australian bank accounts is the first step in a wave of transparency measures being implemented globally by governments and tax administrations. Beginning in 2017, close to 100 countries will be sharing non-resident data under the OECD Common Reporting Standard.
In return, the ATO will receive data from the IRS about Australians with financial accounts in the US and will use that data to detect cases of undeclared offshore income and tax evasion.