Bill to Expand Bahrain Tax Data Exchange

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

A government-drafted bill before Parliament would bring Bahrain into updated global rules on the automatic exchange of financial account information, adding new reporting on digital assets and extra checks on reportable accounts.

The draft was sent to Parliament under Decree No. 15 of 2026, with a recommendation that it go to the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee for study.

In practice, the bill would let Bahrain join an annex to the multilateral agreement between competent authorities on the automatic exchange of financial account information, adding to the tax data shared with other jurisdictions.

The explanatory note says the move is linked to the rise of digital assets and to changes made in 2023 to the Common Reporting Standard, prepared by the OECD in line with G20 direction. Those changes widened the rules to cover digital assets and added further reporting and due diligence duties.

For banks and other reporting institutions, the annex adds more items to the information exchanged on reportable accounts. These include if a valid self-certification has been obtained from each account holder, the type of account, if it is an older account or a new one, if it is shared, and how many joint holders it has.

It also covers reportable persons linked to entities holding accounts. In some cases, it requires the role through which a person holds an ownership interest in an investment entity arranged as a legal arrangement to be recorded as well.

Bahrain had already joined the main multilateral agreement under Law No. 14 of 2018.This bill deals with the extra reporting items added through the 2023 changes, rather than the main agreement itself. The note says the annex becomes part of the main agreement for the competent authorities that sign it. For Bahrain, the competent authority is the Minister of Finance and National Economy, or a person authorised by him, under Law No. 13 of 2018.

The annex also requires updated notices to be sent to the Secretariat of the OECD co-ordinating body when it is signed, or soon after. Those notices must say either that Bahrain has passed the laws needed to apply the 2023 changes, with the relevant dates, or that it has not yet done so and is asking to keep sending information during a limited transition period without applying, or completing, the added reporting and due diligence steps.

If Bahrain asks for such a transition period, it would also have to name the other jurisdictions whose competent authorities agree to accept that arrangement and keep receiving the information during that time.