Tax & Legal

The finance ministry has issued a decree on the procedures to be followed by tax offices requesting information from other countries under a tax information exchange agreement.

On 14 April 2025 the Council adopted a directive (DAC9) that will extend cooperation and information exchange in the area of minimum effective corporate taxation.

France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA have prepared a model bilateral treaty for the mutual exchange of information on bank accounts held by residents of the other country. Compliance with the treaty would absolve financial institutions from their own specific US reporting requirements under FATCA.

The European Council has adopted amendments to the Savings Tax Directive for the automatic exchange of information between member states from January 1, 2017.

The two finance ministries have agreed on an automatic exchange of information on pensions paid to residents of their country under deduction of a withholding tax.

The OECD has published a new standard on the automatic exchange of information between tax authorities. This is complemented by a model competent authority agreement drafted as a bilateral treaty between two states.

The cabinet resolved an annual tax bill 2013 on May 23, 2012 with many editorial and similar changes of formality. Mostly, the changes are necessary to update the references to the latest EU provisions and to reflect recently decided ECJ and Supreme Tax Court cases. Changes of substance are:

The finance ministry has drafted legislation to tighten and streamline the rules under which tax evaders who come forward can avoid prosecution.

In this issue: Official Pronouncements, Supreme Tax Court Cases, From Europe and From PwC.

In this issue: Official Pronouncements, Supreme Tax Court Cases, From Europe and From PwC

The EU and Liechtenstein have signed a tax transparency agreement for the automatic exchange of information between the authorities of Liechtenstein and the EU member states on the bank accounts held locally for residents of the other state.

The Federal Cabinet today adopted the Common Action Plan against Organized Crime. It was jointly developed by the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, and the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection.

In this issue: PwC Reports, Official Pronouncments, Supreme Tax Court Cases, From Europe and From PwC.

The ECJ has outlawed a German refusal to cooperate with the European Court of Auditors by claiming that their audit would have had no valid basis in law.

In this issue: Official Pronouncments, Supreme Tax Court Cases, From Europe and From PwC.

In conclusions approved on 5 October 2021, the Council decided to remove Anguilla, Dominica and Seychelles from the EU list of non-cooperative countries and territories for tax purposes. All three had previously been placed on the “black list” because they did not meet the EU’s tax transparency criteria of being ranked as at least ‘largely compliant’ by the OECD Global Forum regarding the exchange of information on request.

The "Black Money Act" requiring rueful tax evaders to come forward at an earlier stage with a full admission of their misdeeds is now in force.

On 27 June 2025, the Federal Ministry of Finance (MoF) published a draft to implement Directive (EU) 2023/2226 (DAC8) and at the same time opened public consultation on the draft bill.

In this issue: PwC Reports, Official Pronouncments, Supreme Tax Court Cases, From Europe and From PwC.