Directive 2014/107 - Amendment of Directive 2011/16/EU as regards mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 359/1

In recent years, the challenge posed by cross-border tax fraud and tax evasion has increased considerably and has become a major focus of concern within the Union and at global level. Unreported and untaxed income is considerably reducing national tax revenues. An increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of tax collection is therefore urgently needed. The automatic exchange of information constitutes an important tool in this regard and the Commission in its communication of 6 December 2012 containing an Action Plan to strengthen the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion highlighted the need to promote vigorously the automatic exchange of information as the future European and international standard for transparency and exchange of information in tax matters.

The importance of automatic exchange of information as a means to combat cross-border tax fraud and tax evasion has recently been recognised also at the international level (G20 and G8). Following the negotiations between the United States of America and several other countries, including all Member States, on bilateral automatic exchange agreements to implement the United States' Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (commonly known as ‘FATCA’), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was mandated by the G20 to build on these agreements to develop a single global standard for automatic exchange of tax information.

The European Council on 22 May 2013 requested the extension of automatic information exchange at Union and global levels with a view to combating tax fraud, tax evasion and aggressive tax planning. The European Council also welcomed ongoing efforts made in the G20, G8, and OECD to develop a global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters.

In February 2014, the OECD released the main elements of a global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters, namely a Model Competent Authority Agreement and a Common Reporting Standard, which were subsequently endorsed by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. In July 2014, the OECD Council released the full global standard, including its remaining elements, namely the Commentaries on the Model Competent Authority Agreement and Common Reporting Standard and the Information Technology Modalities for implementing the global standard. The entire global standard package was endorsed by G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in September 2014.

Council Directive 2011/16/EU (2) already provides for the mandatory automatic exchange of information between Member States on certain categories of income and capital, mainly of a non-financial nature, that taxpayers hold in Member States other than their State of residence. It also establishes a step-by-step approach to reinforcing automatic exchange of information by its progressive extension to new categories of income and capital and the removal of the condition that the information only has to be exchanged if available. Currently, given the increased opportunities to invest abroad...