Despite the hindrances caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, work during the Croatian Presidency term continued on a number of key tax matters. This is the conclusion of the traditional Ecofin report to the European Council on tax issues, published on Friday 5 June, which has yet to be formally adopted.
The Council recently adopted conclusions on the revision of the Directive on administrative cooperation (see EUROPE 12498/34) and conclusions on the tax treatment of new tobacco products (see EUROPE 12498/35).
Agreement was also reached on the proposal for a Council Directive amending the 2011 Directive on administrative cooperation in order to extend certain deadlines for the submission and exchange of tax information, which have become more difficult due to the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12498/33).
It should be noted that the report also takes stock of international developments in digital taxation. "It is as of yet not clear what the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will be on the timetable of the OECD negotiations", the report states.
The Croatian Presidency put the issue of digital taxation back on the agenda of the January Ecofin Council (see EUROPE 12406/14) and has since followed the work of the OECD preparatory bodies.
Among other issues that have been followed up, the report also mentions the US 'FATCA' Act (see EUROPE 12458/25) and country-by-country public reporting (see EUROPE 12384/3).
A second report, published on 5 June, shows that the work of the Council's Code of Conduct Group has also been affected by the pandemic.
Short-term priorities were limited to examining the impact of the pandemic on future work and preparing this progress report. All other work items have been postponed until July 2020, states the report.
The update of the European 'black' list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, scheduled for October 2020, should nevertheless be maintained, in particular to remove from the list those jurisdictions that have fulfilled their commitments and to extend the deadlines in Annex II which expire at the end of August. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)
See the report of the Code of Conduct Group: https://bit.ly/2UlNs9c
See the Ecofin Council report: https://bit.ly/2ATuYG3