EU-Council adopts directive to boost cooperation between national taxation authorities

Today, the Council adopted a directive amending EU rules on administrative cooperation in the area of taxation. The amendments mainly concern the reporting and automatic exchange of information on revenues from transactions in crypto-assets and on advance tax rulings for the wealthiest (high-net-worth) individuals.

The aim of the Directive is to strengthen the existing legislative framework by enlarging the scope for registration and reporting obligations and overall administrative cooperation of tax administrations.

Additional categories of assets and income, such as crypto assets, will now be covered. There will be a mandatory automatic exchange between tax authorities of information which will have to be provided by reporting crypto-asset service providers. So far, the decentralized nature of crypto assets has made it difficult for member states’ tax administrations to ensure tax compliance. The inherent cross-border nature of crypto-assets requires strong international administrative cooperation to ensure effective tax collection.

The road to success (amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (DAC):

• On 7 December 2021, the Council indicated in its report to the European Council on tax issues that it expects the European Commission to table in 2022 a legislative proposal on further revision of the directive 2011/16/EU.

• On 8 December 2022 the Commission presented a proposal for a Council directive.

• On 16 May 2023, the Council reached an agreement on its position regarding amendments to the directive.

• The European Parliament adopted its opinion on the directive 13 September 2023 under the consultation procedure.

• The directive was adopted by member states in the Council, by unanimity. It will now be published in the Official Journal and enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication.

Source:

Council of the EU, press release of 17 October 2023. - More details to be found here.