CRS means Common Reporting Standard. Countries part of the CRS system automatically share banking and tax information with each other’s tax authorities to avoid tax evasion.
Table of Contents
Which Countries Are Not a Part of the CRS?
More countries are not part of the CRS than you are being told.
- Afghanistan
- Algeria
- Angola
- Armenia (will join in 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)
- Morocco (will join in 2025)
- 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 2025)
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Senegal (will join in 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 98 Countries While Other Websites Show Only 53 or Less?
Because the datasets are incomplete.
All other websites copied their data from Wikipedia and from this list. But if you look at them, you realize that they’re missing countries.
So I went through the list of all countries in the world and looked at which ones were missing from both CRS and non-CRS lists, and added them.
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 System 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.
This information 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?
First, because a lot of foreigners are depositing money in US accounts that wouldn’t be there if the CRS was implemented.
Second, the US has its own framework called FACTA.
Third, because the US is a federal country. Banking laws are different in states like Delaware, Nevada, Florida, or Wyoming, known for their confidentiality. They would likely oppose the US joining the CRS if it considered it.
This makes the USA one of the biggest tax havens in the world.
What Is FACTA?
FACTA stands for Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. It’s a convention signed between other countries and the US where other countries commit to reporting financial information of Americans abroad.
But the US does not necessarily report financial information of foreigners in the US.
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.
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.
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