16/12/2024 – The Global Forum Secretariat organised a working visit for a Tunisian delegation to Berne, Switzerland, from 10 to 12 December 2024. The purpose of the visit was to study the practices and experience of the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) in implementing the international standard on the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts.
Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes
Global Forum Secretariat and Switzerland assist Tunisia in its preparations for the automatic exchange of financial account information
Tunisia has undertaken to carry out its first automatic exchanges of information on financial accounts in September 2025, and as part of this commitment, a partnership was established between Tunisia's General Tax Directorate (DGI), the AFC and the Global Forum Secretariat. This technical assistance project, financed by the European Union, aims to support Tunisia in putting in place the necessary elements for the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts.
Participants explored in detail the technical solution used by Switzerland for the automatic exchange of information, in particular :
- methods for collecting data from financial institutions
- data reception and analysis processes, such as data cleansing and processing.
The Tunisian delegation also examined Swiss approaches to the use of the data received. This included:
- data matching techniques
- strategies for exploiting data for tax audits
- procedures for regularising tax situations
- identifying risk criteria.
The study visit also addressed the management of relationships with financial institutions, their preparedness to meet their due diligence and reporting obligations, as well as supervision and audit strategies, including compliance actions and selection criteria for audits. It provided an exceptional opportunity for the two tax administrations to share experiences and best practices, and to strengthen their collaboration in implementing the international standard for the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts.
The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the exchange of information on request standard and the standard of automatic exchange of information. These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.
The Global Forum's technical assistance programme to Tunisia is funded by the European Union.
For more information, please contact gftaxcooperation@oecd.org.