Barbados: Guidance on collection of TIN under CRS
Updated instructions for reporting financial institutions on their obligations to collect and report TINs for both new and pre-existing accounts
The Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) in October 2025 issued Guidance Note OGC No. 12/2025, providing updated instructions for reporting Barbados financial institutions on their obligations to collect and report tax identification numbers (TINs) for both new and pre-existing accounts under the common reporting standard (CRS).
Requirements for new accounts
The section on new accounts has been updated to clarify that, for accounts opened on or after January 1, 2016, reporting Barbados financial institutions are required to:
- Obtain a self-certification from each account holder (including controlling persons) as part of the account opening process to determine their tax residency
- Conduct a reasonableness check on such self-certification using documentation collected during the onboarding, including those obtained under anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) procedures
If an account holder is identified as a tax resident of a reportable jurisdiction based on their self-certification, the account must be classified as a reportable account. Accordingly, the self-certification must include the account holder’s TIN for each applicable reportable jurisdiction.
Collection of Barbados TINs
A new section has been added to clarify that when an account holder self-certifies as a tax resident of Barbados, the TIN field may be left blank. This is because, under Barbados’s domestic framework, it is not considered a reportable jurisdiction. In simple terms, a TIN is not required for account holders who are not tax residents of a reportable jurisdiction.
However, reporting Barbados financial institutions are required to obtain the TINs of passive non-financial entities (NFEs), even if the entities are tax residents of Barbados, as well as the TINs of any controlling persons who are tax residents of reportable jurisdictions.
Furthermore, the guidance notes that a valid self-certification must include all fields specified in paragraph 7 of the “Commentary on Section IV concerning Due Diligence for New Individual Accounts” and paragraph 11 of the “Commentary on Section VI concerning Due Diligence for New Entity Accounts” of the OECD’s CRS.
Read an October 2025 report prepared by the KPMG member firm in Barbados