While the EU Council has already reached agreement on the proposal (DAC 7) amending the Directive (2011/16/EU) on administrative cooperation (DAC) in the field of taxation to extend the automatic exchange of information to digital platforms (see EUROPE 12528/3), the European Parliament has not yet given its opinion.
The draft report prepared by MEP Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany) was published in early December, and the political groups now have to deal with the amendments.
Among the rapporteur’s main proposals is the insertion of a review clause for the Commission to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of the reporting obligations and to consider the possibility of establishing a European Supervisory Authority responsible for the implementation of the Directive, if it deems it necessary.
The MEP also proposes to include a definition of excluded relevant activities and excluded operators of reporting platforms in order to reduce the administrative burden on small platforms and to ensure that non-monetary and non-remunerated activities fall outside the scope of the text.
In general, he also considers that Member States should be free to use the information received for purposes other than tax purposes. He therefore suggests that the authorisation required from the sending State’s competent authority be abolished and that the Member State of the competent authority receiving the information be allowed to use the information, provided that the legislation of the Member State of the competent authority receiving the information so permits.
The rapporteur also advocates effective and harmonised sanctions against platforms that do not fulfil their obligations.
Sven Giegold, who also regretted in a press release that the EU Council once again failed to take account of Parliament’s opinion before drawing up its position, also believes that the agreement reached by the Member States at the technical level (see EUROPE 12613/1) considerably weakens the Commission’s initial proposal, particularly with regard to joint audits and the one-year postponement of the application of the new rules.
Even if Parliament is only consulted on tax issues, the rapporteur promised to do his utmost to “give weight” to the MEPs’ demands.
See the draft report: https://bit.ly/3rTAY7T (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)