The Council Of The European Union came to a political agreement to the mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation in relation to reportable cross-border arrangements. All delegations in the Commission “agree on the principle that disclosure of potentially aggressive tax planning arrangements of a cross-border dimension can contribute effectively to an environment of fair taxation in the internal market and that tax authorities share the disclosed information with their peers in other Member States.”

“The Commission presented the legislative proposal with the main purpose of this initiative is to strengthen tax transparency and fight against aggressive tax planning by including into the existing Council Directive on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (DAC) new provisions, which would require Member States to:

– lay down rules for mandatory disclosure to national competent authorities of potentially aggressive tax planning schemes with a cross-border element (“arrangements”) by the “intermediaries”    (e. g. tax advisers or other actors that are usually involved in designing, marketing, organizing or managing the implementation of such “arrangements”); and ensure that national tax authorities automatically exchange this information with the tax authorities of other Member States by using the mechanism provided for in DAC.

The issues covered by this legislative proposal are high on the EU and wider international agenda. In its conclusions, on an external taxation strategy and measures against tax treaty abuse, the Council of the EU invited the European Commission “to consider legislative initiatives on Mandatory Disclosure Rules inspired by Action 12 of the OECD BEPS project with a view to introducing more effective disincentives for intermediaries who assist in tax evasion or avoidance schemes.”

Read Document In Full: http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-6804-2018-INIT/en/pdf