Adoption of the DAC6 intermediary reporting directive

Bruno Hollenstein Partner and Leader Connected Compliance, PwC Switzerland 25 May 2018

On 25 May, the Council of the European Union adopted the DAC6 directive relating to reporting of so-called aggressive tax planning schemes by intermediaries and taxpayers.

What is DAC6 all about?

The directive aims to ensure that certain intermediaries such as tax advisors, accountants, banks and lawyers, who design, market, organise, make available for implementation or manage the implementation of potentially aggressive tax-planning schemes with an EU cross-border element for their clients as well as those who provide assistance and advice, would need to report such schemes to their local government. In certain circumstances, the reporting would need to be done by the taxpayer themselves (e.g. for solutions developed in-house or where the intermediary is outside the EU). Although this is an EU directive, its impact will be felt in Switzerland (e.g. for Swiss groups with EU subsidiaries, Swiss intermediaries advising EU clients etc.).

The information received will be automatically exchanged between EU Member States through a centralised database. This announcement confirms that Member States of the EU will have until 31 December 2019 to implement the provisions of the directive into local law and regulations (with the actual directive taking effect from 1 July 2020).

What is the timeline?

The announcement also means that the directive is a step closer to being published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This is important as taxpayers and intermediaries will need to monitor schemes subject to implementation between the date that is 20 days after the date of publication in the Office Journal and 1 July 2020 as there are provisions in the directive of reporting of such legacy schemes which are deemed to be reportable arrangements.

Further information

We will keep you up to date with further DAC6 announcements via our blog and also our dedicated DAC6 website.

Summary
  • On 25 May 2018 the EU Council adopted the new reporting regime DAC6.
  • Potentially aggressive tax arrangements with an EU cross-border element to be reported. 
  • Arrangements expected to be monitored as of mid-June 2018.

 

Contacts

Monica Cohen-Dumani

International Tax Services, EMEA ITS Leader, Geneva, PwC Switzerland

+41 58 792 97 18

Email

Bruno Hollenstein

Partner and Leader Connected Compliance, PwC Switzerland

+41 58 792 43 72

Email