Common Reporting Standard

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a new information-gathering and reporting requirement for financial institutions in participating countries, to help fight against tax evasion and protect the integrity of tax systems.

The CRS aims to determine a customer's tax residency. Financial institutions are required by the CRS to identify customers who appear to be tax residents outside of the nation in which they maintain their accounts and products. They must also report specific information to our local tax authority, Kenya Revenue Authority, and the tax authority in your home country may share it with us.

For a full list of countries participating in the CRS, alongside the dates that they will start exchanging information, please see the  OECD CRS portal.

Under the CRS, tax authorities require financial institutions such as DTB to collect and report certain information relating to their customers’ tax statuses.

This will depend on where you live and your circumstances. Please contact a professional tax advisor or your local tax authority for more information on how to determine your  tax residency, as DTB cannot give tax advice.

The information provided in the self-certification form, and details about the accounts and products you have with us, including:

Under CRS, we must identify customers that are a tax resident in one country with Financial Accounts held in another, for inter-country reporting purposes.  If this applies to you, we will write asking you to complete a Tax Residency Self-Certification form, and document proof of tax residency. Other reasons we may send you a Tax Residency Self-Certification form could be:

Yes. All financial institutions in participating countries are required to be compliant with the CRS and in line with the  Tax Procedures Act (No. 29 of 2015) and Common Reporting Standards Regulation.

In line with the CRS requirements, we will ask you for your:

Under the CRS, we are legally required to establish the tax residency status of all our customers, even if you are tax resident in the same country as where you hold your account. However, typically your details will not be reportable to tax authorities for CRS purposes.

Once we have a valid self-certification on file, you will only be asked to complete another when you update certain information on your account or when your reportable status may have changed.

DTB is required to report your tax details under the legal requirements introduced by countries participating in the CRS and the tax procedures act and CRS regulations.

Yes. We will only disclose your information to the local tax authorities for the purposes of the CRS if we are legally required to do so.

Customer information is protected by a strict code of secrecy and security which all members of DTB, their staff and third parties are subject to.

We are required by law to verify the details you have provided as part of your self-certification. We might ask you for a copy of your passport to verify your identity or for some other evidence of your tax residency declared in your self-certification.

Even if you have already provided information under the United States government’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), you may still need to provide additional information for the CRS as these are different regulations with different requirements.

FATCA is US Law and requires financial institutions to identify US Persons and report in line with local FATCA regulations, based on citizenship. The CRS requires financial institutions to identify tax residency of customers and report information on customers who are tax resident outside of the country where they hold their accounts.

For further information on your tax residency, please refer to the rules governing tax residence that have been published by each national tax authority. You can also find out more at the OECD Automatic Exchange of Information portal

A financial institution or intermediary responsible for collecting and reporting financial information about account holders to the relevant tax authorities. This ensures compliance with international standards aimed at preventing tax evasion and promoting transparency in cross-border financial transactions.

It outlines the procedure by which tax authorities in countries or jurisdictions that participate in the Common Reporting System (CRS) automatically exchange information with other countries or jurisdictions regarding tax residency. National governments have responded by implementing the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) to broadly and successfully combat tax evasion.

The natural person or people who have a controlling interest in, or "control" over, an entity that is a legal person are referred to as the controlling person(s) of the entity.
Control will be determined by the Entity's legal framework. An entity can be controlled directly or indirectly through ownership, or, in the absence of such person or people, by any natural person or people who otherwise have authority over the Entity's management (e.g., the company's senior managing official.

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a recent mandate that compels financial institutions in participating nations to collect and report information. Its purpose is to combat tax evasion and safeguard the credibility of tax systems. CRS, an acronym for the Common Reporting Standard, is a widely adopted term referring to the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOFAI) in Tax Matters.

CRS defines an entity as a legal person or a legal arrangement, such as a corporation, organization, partnership, trust, or foundation. Therefore, any client that has a business account, service, or product with DTB will be considered an entity, except for sole traders, who are handled as individuals under the CRS.

Stands for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. It is a United States federal law that was enacted in 2010 to target tax evasion by U.S. persons holding accounts and other financial assets outside the United States.

A customer who has a personal account or product with DTB is referred to as an individual. This also applies to Sole Traders under the CRS.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a group of 34 member countries plus the European Commission and Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa as permanent guests.

A financial institution or investment vehicle that receives and reports financial information on behalf of an account holder or investor. These entities play a crucial role in ensuring compliance with international standards by transparently sharing relevant financial data with tax authorities.

Passive income, such as dividends and interest, may be subject to Common Reporting Standards (CRS), which require financial institutions to automatically exchange information about the financial accounts of non-resident individuals and entities to enhance global tax transparency. Compliance with CRS ensures that tax authorities have access to relevant data, reducing the potential for tax evasion related to passive income.

An Entity is considered a "Related Entity" to another Entity if either one controls the other, or if both Entities are under common control. Control, in this context, encompasses direct or indirect ownership of more than 50 percent of the vote and value in an Entity.

This document, completed by an account holder, is a self-certification form submitted to the Bank. Its purpose is to facilitate the automatic exchange of financial account information.

A high-ranking executive or manager within a financial responsible for overseeing the implementation and compliance with CRS requirements.

A sole trader, also referred to as a sole proprietorship or proprietorship, is a business structure in which a single individual owns and manages the enterprise, with no legal separation between the owner and the business itself.

A country or jurisdiction in which you live or are registered for taxes is known as your tax residence. The criteria for determining tax residency are specific to each country or jurisdiction. Please visit the OECD AEOI portal or contact with your tax professional for more information on tax residency.

A special combination of letters and/or numbers that is assigned to you or your company is known as a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). Certain nations or regions may not provide TINs; instead, they may rely on other numbers that have been issued, such as social security or insurance numbers, or business registration numbers for organizations. If asked, you might have to give these. A list of valid Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) formats, along with substitutes, has been released by the OECD.

Any person (either an individual or an entity) identified as resident for tax purposes in a participating jurisdiction. These then become reportable persons, holding reportable accounts.

Under the CRS the settlor(s), the trustee(s), the protector(s) (if any), and the beneficiary(ies) or class(es) of beneficiaries, are always treated as Controlling Persons of a trust, regardless of whether or not any of them exercises control over the activities of the trust.

This is a country that has an agreement in place to exchange information in line with the OECD CRS.

This country has pledged to exchange information according to the OECD CRS. However, without an effective agreement in place, there's no need for us to report anything at the moment.

A Custodial Institution, a Depository Institution, an Investment Entity, or a Specified Insurance Company

A financial institution that is exempted to report financial account information to tax authorities.

A financial account held by a financial institution where assets are deposited for safekeeping.

An account held by a financial institution for the benefit of another person, often a minor.in CRS, financial institutions are required to report information about these accounts.