India has signed an agreement with Switzerland that would allow the two countries to automatically share tax-related information from January 1, 2018, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has said. The agreement was signed between CBDT chairperson Sushil Chandra and Andreas Baum, the Ambassador of Switzerland.

The two countries had signed a joint declaration on the implementation of Automatic Exchange of Information in November that mandates Switzerland to conform to the global standards on automatic exchange of information. India had promised to safeguard the confidentiality of the data.

“It will now be possible for India to receive from September, 2019 onward, the financial information of accounts held by Indian residents in Switzerland for 2018 and subsequent years, on an automatic basis,” the government had earlier said.