With the economic crisis, the need for national governments to ensure their tax revenues is more acute than ever. The need to promote international tax cooperation and to develop and implement common standards for combating fraud and tax evasion; has become a frequent feature in matters within the EU.
Recently, a new EU directive for cooperation was adopted in the field of application of the tax, which is addressed to all member states and must be adopted by January 1st, 2013. The new directive sets out rules and procedures under which the Member States should cooperate in exchanging information pertinent to the management and implementation of national laws of the Member States countries concerning taxes.
The exchange of information between Member States will be conducted in four different ways:
1) Exchange of information upon request.
Upon request of any Member State, the authority from which information is requested, shall give (within six months) any information in its possession or any information resulted from management arrangements which will be forced to do, by following the same procedures that would normally do, if acting on its own initiative.
2) Mandatory immediate exchange of information.
The competent authorities of the Member States, will immediately inform each other every year, with information related to tax periods from January 1st, 2014. Information which is available and concern residents in this other State for specific categories of income and capital (eg income from employment, consultancy fees, pensions, property and income from real estate property and certain life insurance contracts). It is probable that in the future, this list will be expanded to include dividends, capital gains and intellectual property.
3) Spontaneous exchange of information.
The competent authority of each Member State will provide information on their own initiative to any other Member State in the event of any of the following cases:
a) The competent authority of a Member State has reason to believe that there may be loss of tax in another Member State.
b) The taxpayer has a tax reduction or exemption in the Member State, which will cause an increase on taxation or liability to tax in another Member State.
c) Trade agreements between a taxpayer in a State and a taxpayer in another Member State carried out through one or more countries in a way that can cause tax benefit on one or on the other or both Member States.
d) The competent authority of a Member State has reason to suppose that the tax savings can result from artificial transfers of profits within groups of companies.
e) Information given to a Member State by the competent authority of another Member State allows obtaining information which may be relevant in calculating the tax liability in the latter Member State.
4) Presence of management offices and participation in management issues.
Following an agreement between the Member States, officials authorized by the requesting Authority may be present in the office where the tax authorities carry out their duties, or may be present when management issues are set in the territory of the requesting Member State and may, in certain circumstances, have a private interview with individuals and examine records.
