The Mainland and Hong Kong have implemented an arrangement for conducting automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters.

The arrangement came into effect on September 6.

Hong Kong will conduct automatic exchange of financial account information with the Mainland for the first time later this month along with that for 49 jurisdictions.

Such information exchange is a global tax co-operation initiative which mandates financial institutions to identify financial accounts held by tax residents of reportable jurisdictions and collect relevant information for reporting to the tax authority.

The Inland Revenue Department will exchange the information with its counterparts in the reportable jurisdictions concerned on an annual basis.

Hong Kong had earlier activated exchange relationships with 49 other jurisdictions on the basis of bilateral competent authority agreements or a multilateral competent authority agreement under the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

The Government said Hong Kong will continue to deliver its obligations to implement the automatic exchange of tax information in accordance with the Common Reporting Standard promulgated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development.

As of the end of August, 149 jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, have undertaken to implement such an arrangement.