At the ‘Economic and Financial Affairs’ Council, EU Finance Ministers reached unanimous political agreement (‘general approach’) on the eighth revision of the directive on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (CAD 8) on Tuesday 16 May.
Presented by the Commission in December 2022 (see EUROPE 13078/5, 13080/19), this revision focuses on the reporting and automatic exchange of information on revenues from transactions in crypto-assets and information on advance tax rulings for the wealthiest (high-net-worth) individuals (see EUROPE 13180/24). The aim is to strengthen the existing legislative framework by extending the scope of registration and reporting obligations and general administrative cooperation between tax administrations.
As far as crypto-assets are concerned, the groundwork has already been laid with the ‘MiCA’ regulation, which aims to regulate the crypto-assets market, and it has just been formally adopted by the Council (see other news).
“This agreement gives us the opportunity to improve tax transparency and exchange of information within the EU”, said Swedish Minister for Finance Elisabeth Svantesson at a press conference. “At the same time, it brings us up to speed with technological advancement, and this is a very important milestone”, she continued, adding that the EU was one of the first jurisdictions to do so.
For the wealthiest individuals, whose wealth exceeds €1.5 million, tax authorities will also benefit from the additional exchange of information on cross-border advance tax rulings granted to them.
During the public debate, however, Paolo Gentiloni, EU Commissioner for Economy, regretted that the agreement did not include the mandatory use of the tax identification number (‘TIN’). “The TIN should be included in the context of the mandatory automatic exchange information on the country-by-country reports (CbCR), and also in the light of the good functioning of the safe harbours in the Pillar II directive”, he commented. “It is highly recommendable in our view to make use of the possibility to start implementing the tax identification reporting as from 1 January 2024”, he added.
The Belgian minister, Vincent van Peteghem, shared this regret. “The agreement could have been more ambitious”, he lamented. Thus, Belgium added a statement to the ‘Ecofin’ minutes.
Read the general approach: https://aeur.eu/f/6wq
Read Belgium’s statement: https://aeur.eu/f/6ws (Anne Damiani)