Legal

Information on EU tax transparency & disclosure rules

Manage cookie preferences

Last revised: 15 March 2019

  • The new Directive 2018/822/EU (“DAC 6”) amending the Directive 2011/16/EU of 15 February 2011 on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (“DAC 1”) requires implementation of local laws that would allow disclosure to tax authorities in respect of certain cross border tax advice. Although this is stated as being aimed at “aggressive tax practices” the directive is widely drafted and seems likely to require disclosure of common tax structures. However, the directive still needs to be enacted into law in each of the EU countries and the member states have until the end of 2019 to do this. Therefore, we do not yet know how the local countries will interpret and apply the proposal.
  • DAC 6 will only apply from 1 July 2020 with the first reporting deadline being 31 August 2020. However, at that time, depending on the implementation of DAC 6 and the actual form of interpretation in the local law, it may be the case that it will be necessary to report any arrangements (meeting the disclosure conditions) that were implemented between 25 June 2018 and 1 July 2020, and not only those implemented after 1 July 2020. Therefore, it is necessary for advisers to track potentially disclosable transactions now to determine what needs to be disclosed, in due course, once local legislation is published. If there is a reporting requirement then the information that needs to be reported might include the name of all relevant taxpayers and intermediaries as well as an outline of the transaction, the value of the cross-border arrangement and identification of any member states likely to be concerned by the reportable transaction.
  • It is unlikely that we will know how the DAC 6 rules will be enacted in each member state but please note that there is a possibility that the transactions contemplated in this Report may need to be disclosed to the tax authorities in 2020.
  • Should you need more information please contact our partner Marek Romancov at: mromancov@deloittece.com.