In July 2020, the European Commission published the Action Plan for fair and simple taxation supporting the recovery strategy, where it committed to develop, together with interested Member States, an EU Cooperative Compliance framework, commonly called ETACA (European Trust and Cooperation Approach). The aim of this non-legislative initiative is to facilitate and promote tax compliance by taxpayers based on greater cooperation, trust and transparency between taxpayers and tax administrations as well as amongst tax administrations.
Furthermore, the purpose is to provide a clear, EU-wide framework for a preventive dialogue between tax administrations and business taxpayers in order to stimulate a preventive dialogue leading to the performance by the tax administrations of a high-level risk assessment of the transfer pricing policy adopted by large multinational enterprises (MNEs). As a result, companies receive support in their internationalisation in order to avoid double taxation issues and reduce tax compliance costs.
Published in October 2021, the ETACA Guidelines are addressed to the interested taxpayers and the participating tax administrations in order to assist them during the ETACA Pilot phase, and ultimately to help run it on a more permanent basis.
The ETACA Pilot phase saw the launch of its First Pilot in November 2021 with the participation of fourteen Member States as members of the ETACA Steering Group and three volunteering MNEs in order to test the workability and efficiency of the Guidelines.
On 15 and 16 April 2024, the European Commission hosted a workshop with various stakeholders from the private sector, including the three volunteering MNEs, and eighteen tax administrations of the Member States. The main aim was to collect the takeaways and feedback from the participants of the First Pilot and to discuss the next steps for ETACA, specifically the launch of a Second Pilot towards the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025.
| Member State | Contact details |
| Austria | eu-ccp bmf [dot] gv [dot] at (eu-ccp[at]bmf[dot]gv[dot]at) |
| Belgium | international [dot] taxationminfin [dot] fed [dot] be (international[dot]taxation[at]minfin[dot]fed[dot]be ) |
| Denmark | Store-selskaber-sikker-postsktst [dot] dk (Store-selskaber-sikker-post[at]sktst[dot]dk) (For the Attention of: Director, Large Companies and ETACA SPOC, The Danish Tax Agency) |
| Finland | transferpricingvero [dot] fi (transferpricing[at]vero[dot]fi) |
| Germany | ETACAbzst [dot] bund [dot] de (ETACA[at]bzst[dot]bund[dot]de) / IVA8bmf [dot] bund [dot] de (IVA8[at]bmf[dot]bund[dot]de) / IVB6bmf [dot] bund [dot] de (IVB6[at]bmf[dot]bund[dot]de) |
| Hungary | |
| Italy | entrate [dot] eurocooperativeagenziaentrate [dot] it (entrate[dot]eurocooperative[at]agenziaentrate[dot]it) |
| Ireland | |
| Luxembourg | Yves [dot] Wagnerco [dot] etat [dot] lu (Yves[dot]Wagner[at]co[dot]etat[dot]lu) |
| Poland | ETACAmf [dot] gov [dot] pl (ETACA[at]mf[dot]gov[dot]pl) |
| Portugal | ugcat [dot] gov [dot] pt (ugc[at]at[dot]gov[dot]pt) |
| Slovak Republik | etacafinancnasprava [dot] sk (etaca[at]financnasprava[dot]sk) |
| Spain | elena [dot] manrique carlosalfonso [dot] herreraal |
| Netherlands | jham [dot] rijsbergenbelastingdienst [dot] nl (jham[dot]rijsbergen[at]belastingdienst[dot]nl) |
| jj [dot] engelmoerbelastingdienst [dot] nl (jj[dot]engelmoer[at]belastingdienst[dot]nl) |
Flyer promoting ETACA for large multinational enterprises