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Taxation and Customs Union
Press release8 December 2022Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union

New transparency rules require service providers to report crypto-asset transactions

On 8 December, the European Commission proposed new tax transparency rules for all service providers facilitating transactions in crypto-assets for customers resident in the European Union. These complement the Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) Regulation and anti-money laundering rules.

Fair and effective taxation is key to securing revenues for public investment and services, while creating a business environment in which innovation can flourish. However, tax authorities currently lack the necessary information to monitor proceeds obtained by using crypto-assets, which are easily traded across borders. This severely limits their ability to ensure that taxes are effectively paid, which means European citizens lose important tax revenues.

The proposal, which takes the form of an amendment to the Directive for Administration Cooperation (DAC, will contain provisions on reporting and exchange of information on crypto-assets for direct tax purposes. The proposal also aims at improving existing provisions to close loopholes and ensure the correct functioning of the rules.

In practice, the proposal will improve the ability of Member States to detect and counter tax fraud, tax evasion and tax avoidance by:

  • requiring all reporting crypto-asset service providers, irrespective of their size or location, to report transactions of clients residing in the EU. The proposal covers both domestic and cross-border transactions. In some cases, reporting obligations will also cover non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
  • requiring financial institutions to report on e-money and central bank digital currencies.
  • extending the scope of the automatic exchange of advance cross-border rulings for high net-worth individuals. The persons concerned are those who hold a minimum of €1.000.000 in financial or investable wealth, or in assets under management. These exclude the individual’s main private residence. Member States will exchange information on the advance cross-border rulings issued, amended or renewed between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2025.
  • establishing a common minimum level of penalties for the most serious non-compliant behaviour, such as complete absence of reporting despite administrative reminders.

The DAC 8 proposal is consistent with the OECD initiative on the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) and the amendments to the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS).

The draft text will be submitted to the European Parliament for consultation and to the Council for adoption. It is foreseen that the new reporting requirements with regard to crypto-assets, e-money and digital currencies would enter into force on 1 January 2026.

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Publication date
8 December 2022
Author
Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union