ECOFIN Council reaches an agreement on DAC8

At yesterday’s ECOFIN meeting, the EU Council agreed on a general approach regarding foreseen amendments to the directive on administrative cooperation in the area of taxation. This general approach transpires in the Presidency compromise text of the draft Council Directive amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (“DAC”) dated 5 May 2023 (“Compromise Text”) which aims, amongst other things, to extend the scope of the reporting and automatic exchange of information on revenues from transactions in crypto-assets and on advance tax rulings granted to individuals when they relate to high value transactions or to individuals’ residence for tax purposes, the so-called “DAC8”. The Compromise Text slightly amends the DAC8 directive proposal adopted by the EU Commission on 8 December 2022 (the “DAC8 Proposal”) and described in our ATOZ Alert of December 2022.

Below we present the Compromise Text as well as its future implications.