CRS means Common Reporting Standard. It’s a data-sharing system established by the OECD in 2014 to combat tax evasion. Countries part of the CRS automatically share banking and tax information of non-tax residents with their jurisdiction of tax residency.
While the members list of the CRS grows each year, a large share of countries are not a part of it. These countries are ideal candidates for financial privacy.
Table of Contents
Which Countries Are Not a Part of the CRS?
The following countries are not part of the CRS.
- Afghanistan
- Algeria
- Angola
- Armenia (will join in September 2025)
- Bangladesh
- Belarus
- Benin
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cabo Verde
- Cambodia
- Cameroon (will join in 2026)
- Chad
- Central African Republic
- Comoros
- Congo (Republic of the)
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Cuba
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti
- Dominican Republic
- Egypt
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Fiji
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Guatemala
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Iran
- Iraq
- Kiribati
- Kosovo
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Maldives
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Micronesia
- Mongolia (will join in 2026)
- Mozambique
- Myanmar (Burma)
- Namibia
- Nepal
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- North Korea
- North Macedonia
- Palau
- Papua New Guinea (will join in 2027)
- Paraguay
- Philippines
- Rwanda (will join in September 2025)
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Senegal (will join in September 2025)
- Serbia
- Sierra Leone
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Syria
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Timor Leste
- Togo
- Tonga
- Tunisia (will join in 2025)
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvalu
- Uganda (will join in 2025)
- United States (FACTA)
- Uzbekistan
- Vatican City
- Venezuela
- Viet Nam
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Why Does This Non-CRS List Have 97 Countries While Other Websites Show Only 53 or Fewer?
Because the datasets are incomplete.
All other websites copied their data from Wikipedia and from this list, but they’re missing countries.
So I compared the list of CRS members with the list of all countries on earth and found that 97 countries were not yet part of the CRS.
What Is the CRS?
The Common Reporting Standard is a voluntary and automatic exchange of information between tax authorities of countries participating in the program.
The CRS was established by the OECD in 2014. Countries began to report information in 2017.
More and more countries have joined the CRS since its establishment.
How Does the CRS Work?
Financial institutions (banks) must report financial information once a year to their respective tax authorities.
Those tax authorities exchange this information with other countries where foreign individuals either live or pay taxes.
The information exchanged is:
- Name, address, social security number, place, and date of birth.
- Account number
- Account balance at the end of the annual reporting period (or when the account closed, if it closed).
Note that the CRS only concerns private individual bank accounts. It does not concern bank accounts of companies or trusts.
Which Countries Are a Part of the CRS?
Here are the 126 countries/territories part of the CRS.
- Albania
- Andorra
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Aruba
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Barbados
- Belgium
- Belize
- Bermuda
- Brazil
- British Virgin Islands
- Brunei Darussalam
- Bulgaria
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Chile
- China (People’s Republic of)
- Colombia
- Cook Islands
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Curaçao
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Denmark
- Dominica
- Ecuador
- Estonia
- Faroe Islands
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Ghana
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Greenland
- Grenada
- Guernsey
- Hong Kong (China)
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Jersey
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Korea
- Kuwait
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macau (China)
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Malta
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritius
- Mexico
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Montserrat
- Morocco
- Nauru
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Niue
- Norway
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Panama
- Peru
- Poland
- Portugal
- Qatar
- Romania
- Russian Federation
- Rwanda
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Singapore
- Sint Maarten
- Slovak Republic
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Türkiye
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- Uruguay
- Vanuatu
Why Is the USA Not a Part of the CRS?
- A large part of deposits in US banks are owned by foreigners looking for financial privacy. Joining the CRS would result in capital loss for the country.
- The US established its own framework called FACTA, which compels its signatories to disclose banking information of US citizens, but does not compel the US to do the same with those countries.
- The US is a federal country where banking laws depend on the states, not the federal government. States like Delaware, Nevada, Florida, or Wyoming would likely oppose the US joining the CRS if it considered it.
What Is FACTA?
FACTA stands for Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. It’s a convention signed between the US and partner countries where the latter commit to sharing financial information about Americans living under their jurisdiction but which does not legally compel the US to share financial information about non-tax residents.
To quote the OECD:
The Model 1A IGAs entered into by the United States acknowledge the need for the United States to achieve equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic information exchange with partner jurisdictions. They also include a political commitment to pursue the adoption of regulations and to advocate and support relevant legislation to achieve such equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic exchange.
OECD, Source.
Political commitment = not legal commitment (it essentially means “no commitment”).
About 113 countries have signed the FACTA so far. The list is available here.
How to Minimize Your Taxes?
The best way to minimize your taxes is to live in a country where the personal income tax is 0%.
There are lots of ways to do this.
Click below to find out.
