This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website
Document 32021L0514
Administrative cooperation in the field of taxation
Directive 2011/16/EU on cooperation between EU Member States’ tax administrations
Amending Directive (EU) 2021/514
The DAC applies to all taxes, apart from the following:
This was amended in DAC7, to clarify that the information exchanged under the DAC7 directive can be used for the administration, assessment and enforcement of VAT and other indirect taxes.
The relevant national authority must establish a central liaison office whose role is to:
Requests for information must be dealt with in the following ways.
Mandatory automatic exchange of information
As of 2015, national authorities must, at least once a year and where available, automatically provide relevant Member States with information on the following categories of income and capital for residents in another Member State:
Amending Directive (EU) 2021/514 adds a new category of income derived from royalties to the above list. Before 1 January 2024, the Member States must inform the Commission of at least four categories for which their competent authorities will communicate, by automatic exchange, to the competent authority of any other Member State, information about residents of that other Member State. That information shall relate to taxable periods starting on or after 1 January 2025. As of 2017, national authorities must automatically provide relevant Member States with information on financial accounts held by residents in another Member State and on advance cross-border rulings and advance pricing arrangements.
Also as of 2017, under Directive 2016/881/EU, national authorities must automatically provide relevant Member States with information on country-by-country reports — reports filed by multinational groups with operations in the EU. These include information for every tax jurisdiction in which the group does business on the amount of revenue, the profit before income tax, the income tax paid and accrued, the number of employees, the stated capital, the retained earnings and the tangible assets.
As of 2018, authorities must also be given access to beneficial ownership information collected pursuant to Directive (EU) 2015/849, the EU’s anti-money laundering legislation (see summary).
As of 2020, national authorities must automatically provide Member States with information on reportable cross-border arrangements. Directive (EU) 2020/876 provided for an optional maximum extension of 6 months for the reporting deadlines for mandatory disclosure requirements for intermediaries and relevant taxpayers under the DAC6 — amending Directive (EU) 2018/822.
New reporting obligations for digital platforms
Amending Directive (EU) 2021/514 also introduces new reporting obligations on operators of EU and non-EU digital platforms that allow certain sellers to be connected to other users in order to perform the following cross-border or domestic activities:
EU digital platforms that fulfil certain conditions in more than one Member State may elect to fulfil their reporting obligations in one such Member State. Non-EU digital platform operators that have a reporting obligation under DAC7 need to register in a Member State.
Non-EU digital platform operators may be exempted from their DAC7 reporting obligations if they have to fulfil equivalent reporting obligations in a qualified non-Union jurisdiction — and that jurisdiction exchanges this equivalent information with all relevant EU Member States, in line with a specific agreement.
A new Annex V contains due diligence procedures, reporting requirements and other rules for platform operators.
Spontaneous information
National authorities must spontaneously provide information to their counterparts elsewhere in the EU as soon as possible, and no later than 1 month after it becomes available, if:
National authorities:
All information shared between national authorities is subject to official secrecy.
Every year, national authorities must provide the Commission with data on the volume of automatic exchanges of information and, where possible, must assess the related costs and benefits.
Joint audits
Amending Directive (EU) 2021/514 includes a new section devoted to clarifying the legal framework and principles that apply to the conduct of joint audits between two or more Member States. Member States are required to adopt and publish these rules, by 31 December 2023, and to apply them from 1 January 2024 at the latest.
Council Directive 2011/16/EU of 15 February 2011 on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation and repealing Directive 77/799/EEC (OJ L 64, 11.3.2011, pp. 1–12).
Successive amendments to Directive 2011/16/EU have been incorporated into the original document. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.
Council Directive (EU) 2021/514 of 22 March 2021 amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (OJ L 104, 25.3.2021, pp. 1–26).
last update 06.12.2021