The governments of Indonesia and Switzerland have signed an agreement about an automatic exchange of information, the latest in a series of such contracts to be sealed.

The declaration was signed by Ken Dwijugiasteadi, Indonesia's highest tax official, and Yvonne Baumann, Switzerland's ambassador in Jakarta.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia's finance minister, said it was important for Indonesia to be able to implement an automatic exchange of information agreement with Switzerland as it was one of the largest financial centers in the world, according to reports in local media.

Ongoing Tax Hunt

Indonesia has been trawling financial centers for offshore funds and recently signed an agreement with Hong Kong following the closure of its domestic tax amnesty.

The alliance will see the pair share financial information giving the Indonesian tax office access to data on taxpayers who have accounts in north Asia's wealth management hub. 

Offshore Assets

«Financial information obtained from Switzerland and nearly 100 other countries will be used as a tax database to test the compliance rate of taxpayers. It is expected to encourage their awareness to fulfill tax obligations voluntary, especially in reporting their earnings and financial assets abroad which have not been reported,» said Mulyani.

Through the joint declaration, Indonesia and Switzerland agreed to exchange financial account information automatically in accordance with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) starting from 2018, with the first exchange in 2019, protected by data security assurance according to international standards.