Evaluation of administrative cooperation in the field of direct taxation: open public consultation and call for evidence

The European Commission will evaluate Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of direct taxation (DAC). DAC lays down the rules and procedures for close cooperation between Member States’ tax authorities in direct taxation. It sets up a harmonised framework that allows Member States to assist each other through exchange of information as well as other forms of advanced cooperation.

The key objectives of the evaluation are to assess the administrative cooperation on direct taxation in line with the better regulation criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence. The evaluation includes a call for evidence and a public consultation open for feedback until 30 July 2024. 

Automatic exchange of information (AEOI) is one of the most important cooperation tools in the field. Since 1 January 2015, information is automatically exchanged on five categories of income and capital (income from employment, pensions, directors’ fees, life insurance products, and ownership of and income from immovable property).  In the following years, administrative cooperation on direct taxation has been amended to include:

• financial account information (DAC2); 
• cross-border tax rulings and advance pricing agreements (DAC3); 
• country-by-country reports (DAC4); 
• reportable cross-border arrangements presenting an indication of a potential risk of tax avoidance  (DAC6);  
• income received from online platforms (DAC7). 
• certain anti-money laundering data (DAC5) and simultaneous controls to cover joint audits (DAC7). 
• exchange of information on crypto assets (DAC8). 

An evaluation of these mechanisms is required in article 27(1) of the DAC and the Commission will submit a report on the application of the DAC to the European Parliament and to the Council. 

Background

A first evaluation of the directive was based on a study published in 2019. The present evaluation will be the second one and will cover the years 2018 to 2022. DAC7 and DAC8 are not covered by this evaluation.